Patriarch raises Halki school issue with US Congress

Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios met Tuesday with US Congress leaders, pressing the need for the immediate opening of the Halki Theological School, shut down by Turkey in 1971.

Vartholomaios had a private meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and then a dinner in his honor attended by several Senators and Representatives. During the dinner, he also had a talk with the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Bob Menendez.

The Patriarch and the two senior clerics who accompanied him, Archbishop Elpidophoros of America and Metropolitan Elder of Chalcedon Emmanuel, emphatically raised the need for the Halki Theological School to reopen immediately. They tried to make this an international issue and decouple it from the agenda of Greek-Turkish disputes. For this reason, Vartholomaios called on the United States to upgrade the issue politically and take a step beyond rhetorical support.

The importance of promoting religious freedom as well as the need to support developing nations in securing vaccines against Covid-19 were also underlined. The Patriarch has repeatedly stressed the need for a socially just management of the pandemic.