Religion IN BRIEF : Greek Church Seeks Apology From Pope

Leaders of the Greek Orthodox Church have ruled out a spiritual pilgrimage by Pope John Paul II to Athens until the Roman Catholic pontiff apologizes and does penance for centuries of enmity between Orthodox and Catholics.

“The pope can come to Greece as a head of state but not as a religious leader,” Metropolitan Kallinikos, spokesman for the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church, said Monday after a meeting of a council of church leaders.

In a letter published in June, John Paul said he hoped to make a spiritual pilgrimage to biblical sites in Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, the Palestine Authority territory, Syria and Greece to mark the start of the third millennium of Christianity.

Greek Orthodox sources said they want the pope to apologize for the schism of 1054 that divided the Greek and Roman churches; the Crusades, which saw the conquest and sacking of Constantinople in 1204; and the Council of Lyons II in 1274, which attempted unsuccessfully to unite the Greek and Roman churches.