President Karolos Papoulias…
Greek President Karolos Papoulias greeted Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios with the honors due to a head of state on Thursday. They had a private conversation and then went to a meal given in the patriarch’s honor attended also by Christodoulous, Archbishop of Athens and All Greece. Clerics and laymen sat together in a cordial atmosphere of respect for the patriarch, who described himself in his address as a ‘modest’ bishop, first among equals. Pictured left to right are Bishop Chrysostomos of Ephesus, Maria Papoulia, President Papoulias, Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios, Archbishop Christodoulos, Deputy Foreign Minister Panayiotis Skandalakis and Bishop Ioannis of Pergamum.
