Ecumenical Patriarchate could be Europe's bridge with Islam
London (ANA/ L. Tsirigotakis) -- Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos stressed that the Ecumenical Patriarchate could play an important role in a constantly developing Europe and become Europe's bridge with Islam, during a lecture Thursday night at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. Speaking on the theme "The role of Religion in a Europe that is constantly changing", he said that the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which was headquartered in an almost exclusively Moslem city, had all the credentials to undertake the role of a bridge between Europe and Islam. In the same way, the Patriarchate's huge support for Turkey's European course was linked to the conviction that the accession of a purely Moslem country in its folds would benefit Europe, on the condition that Turkey would desire to adopt the European principles such as respect of religious freedoms and the rights of the minorities, Vartholomeos said.
