This report appeared in The Kathimerini English Edition, Friday, April 15, 2005. Reprinted with permission.
A delegation of monks from Mount Athos was received yesterday by Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios in Istanbul to discuss an order for the eviction of 93 ultra-Orthodox monks in the monastic community's 1,000-year-old Esphigmenou Monastery. The eviction order was issued in December 2002 following the monks' refusal to recognize the patriarch's authority, as they oppose his efforts to improve relations with the Catholic Church. In March, the Council of State rejected an appeal against the order by a Mount Athos abbot.