Rep. Bilirakis Welcomes Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

WASHINGTON (27 October) U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), Co-Chair of the Congressional Hellenic Caucus, today delivered the following remarks welcoming Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on his visit to the United States. Remarks as prepared for delivery:

Madame Speaker, I rise today with great pride to offer House resolution 838, as amended, which welcomes His All Holiness Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, Ecumenical Patriarch, as he visits the United States.

Id like to recognize Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Berman and Ranking Member Ros-Lehtinen for working with me to move this important measure to the House floor in an expeditious manner. Consideration of this resolution underscores the importance of and demonstrates Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomews relevance in the world as a spiritual leader the leader of nearly 300,000,000 Orthodox Christians around the world and millions of Orthodox Christians right here in the United States.

I was blessed to have been raised in the Greek Orthodox Church. As a child, I served as an altar boy in St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Tarpon Springs, Florida— as do 3 of my sons.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is the 273rd successor of the founder of the Eastern Orthodox Church, St. Andrew the Apostle. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew must ensure that the faith and the Holy See endures. The Ecumenical Patriarchate is the spiritual home of the world's oldest and second largest Christian church located in Istanbul, Turkey.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has a record of reaching out and working for peace and reconciliation among all faiths and has fostered dialogue among Christians, Jews, and Muslims. In fact, His All Holiness convened an ecumenical meeting which produced the first condemnation by Muslim leaders of the 9/11 attack on the United States as an anti-religious act an accomplishment that has yet to be repeated by any other world or religious leader.

Indeed, His All Holiness was the second living person in U. S. history allowed to be honored in the United States Capitol Rotunda as a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest Congressional honor previously bestowed on such historic figures as George Washington, Pope John Paul II, and Winston Churchill.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was honored by Time Magazine in its selection of His All Holiness as number 11 among 2008's 100 most influential people in the world. He has been recognized in the United States and abroad as a leader in the quest for world peace, greater religious understanding, and respect for the Earth's environment.

This resolution also recognizes the need for religious freedom and property rights to be granted to the Ecumenical Patriarchate as well as the need for the theological school at Halki to be reopened, both of which deserve our full support.

I urge my colleagues to support this resolution recognizing the importance of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomews visit to the United States and his work on behalf of world peace, the environment and religious freedom.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I yield back my time.

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