PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW SPONSORS SYMPOSIUM ON ADRIATIC SEA

VATICAN CITY, JUN 4, 2002 (VIS) - Religion, Science and the Environment is sponsoring a six-day symposium on the Adriatic Sea, that starts tomorrow and ends June 10. The meeting is being sponsored by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople on the theme "The Adriatic, A Sea at Risk. Unity of Intentions." This is the fourth such symposium he has sponsored, following those dedicated to the Danube, the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea.

The meeting will be held aboard the ship Festos Palace during six days of navigation along the coasts of the countries that border the Adriatic. Participants will include scientists, representatives of various religious, people involved in ecology and the environment, politicians and journalists. Among those present will be Cardinals Walter Kasper and Roger Etchegaray and Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi.

In Ravenna on June 9, Patriarch Bartholomew will celebrate, for the first time in 12 centuries, an Orthodox liturgy in the basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe. In Venice, on the afternoon of the final day, Patriarch Bartholomew I and Pope John Paul II will sign the "Declaration of Venice" in a ceremony that will take place contemporaneously thanks to a special televised linkup between Venice and the Vatican. Vespers in St. Mark's Basilica will conclude the symposium.

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