Below is the transcript of the statements made by Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos and His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, following their meeting today at the Foreign Ministry:
E. VENIZELOS: Your All Holiness, I welcome you with great joy to the Foreign Ministry. This is the second time you have honored us with your presence in the space of a few months. In recent days we have been watching your impressive journey to Jerusalem and Rome, your meetings with the Pope, the ecumenical message of peace that you have sent, and the upgrading of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s international standing. This is extremely important for Orthodoxy and for the Nation, and we thank you very much for this historic contribution. And on the occasion of your very recent name-day, I once again wish you many happy returns.
ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW: Thank you very much. Your Excellency, I too express my great pleasure and joy, because in the space of five months I have managed to find myself, once again, in Athens, meeting with, among others, Your Excellency, an old and valued friend.
In your person I greet the Greek government, and, following the recent reshuffle, I wish you all success in your task, under the leadership of the Prime Minister and in the context of your invaluable collaboration, and I bring the Mother Church’s blessing, affection, love and interest to the Greek people.
I thank you very much for your wishes and for you kind words. In fact, these visits – to the Holy Land, with the Pope, and, afterwards, at his brotherly invitation, to the Vatican, in an historic effort for peace in the Middle East – were great events in the life of the Church and our Ecumenical Patriarchate in particular. And I consider it the special blessing of God that he made me worthy to participate in these events – if you will allow me to put it this way – to play the leading role for the Orthodox side.
I hope that these efforts we, as religious and political leaders, have made bring deeply coveted peace to the whole world, and particularly to the strife-torn Middle East.
Once again, I thank Your Excellency for the warm welcome I receive whenever I come to Athens, and I thank the representatives of the news media for the invaluable interest they always show in ecclesiastical issues, and particularly in the life of the Mother Church.
A good summer to everyone.
June 17, 2014