Ecumenical Patriarch Goes to Vatican

[Khephra]

ROME -- The spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians arrived in the Italian capital Friday night, ahead of a Vatican ceremony for the return of two saints' relics that were taken to Rome centuries ago.

Pope John Paul II will give the relics of Patriarchs John Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzen to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I at a ceremony Saturday in St. Peter's Basilica, in a gesture aimed at reconciliation between the two churches.

"This is a very important event for us. The Orthodox Church gives great importance to these relics and we appreciate this gesture by the pope," Turkey's Anatolia news agency quoted Bartholomew as saying at Istanbul's airport. "This is a symbol of the Orthodox and Catholic churches developing good relations. Therefore, we're happy and thankful to the pope."

A religious service attended by Orthodox and Catholic clerics will also be held in Istanbul later Saturday to mark the relics' return to the city that was formerly the Greek Orthodox Byzantine capital, Constantinople.

Bartholomew and John Paul have both emphasized reconciliation between their churches, which split in 1054 over the growing power of the papacy.

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