THE MINISTER OF CLIMATE CRISIS AND POLITICAL PROTECTION OF GREECE VISITS THE PATRIARCHATE

On the evening of Monday of the Holy Spirit, 31st of May / 13th of June 2022, the Minister of Climate Crisis and Political Protection of Greece, Mr Christos Stylianidis, after his collaborators, the Ambassador of Greece in Tel Aviv Mr Loukakis and the Consul of Greece in Jerusalem, Mr Vlioras, visited the Patriarchate.

The Minister and his companions were warmly received by His Beatitude and Hagiotaphite Fathers. In this meeting, there was an interesting discussion about the role of the Patriarchate as a guardian of the Holy Places, its long-term good relationship with the Church of Cyprus, the welcoming of the Cypriot pilgrims, the role of the Patriarchate in maintaining the ecclesiastical unity from the Holy Sepulchre, especially under the conditions of its ecclesiastical jurisdiction among the three political states of the present, about the restoration of the Sacred Edicule and the current ongoing project at the Rotunda, about the recent challenges by the extremists who use violence against the Christians and about the prospective renovation of the Catholicon of the Church of the Resurrection.

Mr Stylianidis thanked His Beatitude for the reception and briefing, while the latter thanked him for his vivid interest in the Patriarchate.

For this visit, Mr Stylianidis offered His Beatitude a plaque with stamps collection of the Political Protection, while His Beatitude offered him a silver painting of Jerusalem with the Holy Sepulchre, an icon of the Edicule and the Mother of God and the book of the History of Jerusalem by Chrysostomos Papadopoulos. Thanking His Beatitude, Mr Stylianidis asked for His blessing to venerate the Holy Sepulchre.

From Secretariat-General