Athens, Dec. 3, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Greek Orthodox Archbishop Christodoulos has been hospitalized, his condition rapidly deteriorating in a battle with cancer.
The Greek prelate had spent 10 weeks in a Miami hospital, where he was expected to receive a liver transplant. But in October doctors discovered that his cancer was too far advanced to allow surgery, and Christodoulos returned home.
Archbishop Christodoulos, who is 68, played a key role in ecumenical history when he welcomed Pope John Paul II to Greece in 2001. The papal visit came after years of resistance from some members of the Greek Orthodox hierarchy, who retained bitter historical memories of conflicts with Catholics dating back to the era of the Crusades. Later, after welcoming the Pope to Athens, Archbishop Christodoulos made his own visit to the Vatican.