WHEN Pope John Paul II sets out this week on a pilgrimage to Greece and Syria, he will be following in the footsteps of St Paul the Apostle, the missionary converted on the road to Damascus. But his plans have stirred such passions that Vatican officials are comparing them to the persecution that plagued the saint's own journey.
Hardliners from the Greek Orthodox church, who regard the Pope as a heretic, are to stage demonstrations when he arrives on Friday on the first papal visit in 1,000 years. More than 4,000 police will bolster his security amid fears of further disruption by left-wing groups.
Instead of remaining visible to the crowds in his "popemobile" of bullet-proof glass, the 80-year-old pontiff is expected to be confined to an armoured-plated limousine before conducting a service at the Olympic complex in Athens.
After years of hostility to the Vatican, the Orthodox church bowed to government pressure to allow the visit - the first since the great schism of 1054, when Christianity was divided into its eastern and western branches.
Archbishop Christodoulos, leader of the Greek church, has refused to greet John Paul at Athens airport, insisting the pontiff call on him at his palace. The visit has sparked such anger among conservative rank-and-file clergy that the Pope has been branded "the beast of the apocalypse" in posters put up across the capital.
The Pope will follow St Paul's route to Syria, but hopes of praying with Islamic leaders at the historic Omayyad mosque in Damascus have been frustrated.