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    VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- The ambition of Pope John Paul II to visit Athens, following in the footsteps of St. Paul, is only "a dream," according to the city's archbishop.

    Archbishop Nikolaos Foscolos, who is in Rome for the European Synod, said in an interview with the news agency I Media that the idea of a papal trip is "for the moment, at least, impossible" because of the adamant opposition of the Greek Orthodox Church.

    The Greek Orthodox synod has announced publicly that the Pontiff is unwelcome, charging that he represents the "imperial tendencies" of the Holy See, and complaining that the Vatican has a policy of "infiltrating" other Christian churches in order to set up Eastern-rite Catholic congregations.

    Archbishop Foscolos said, with regret, that the Pope could not overcome the Orthodox hostility unless he "renounced his primacy and his infallibility, did penance, and asked pardon for the Fourth Crusade."

    "We really do not have relations with the Greek Orthodox Church," the archbishop confessed. He explained that Orthodox leaders choose not to recognize the existence of the Roman Church because, "according to their current thinking, a Greek person cannot be anything but Orthodox."

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