Anger in Cyprus Orthodox church at Pope

NICOSIA, Cyprus - An invitation for Pope John Paul II to tour Cyprus in the footsteps of Saint Paul met with angry opposition on Monday from parts of the island's Greek Orthodox Church.

One of Cyprus's five bishops, Paul of Kyrenia, has launched a tirade against the Roman Catholic Church, from which the Orthodox Church split almost 1,000 years ago.

"The history of Papalism with all its obvious Roman teachings shows they transformed a church of the living God into an earthly political organisation," Bishop Paul said in a letter to Cyprus's Archbishop Chrysostomos.

He is furious that Chrysostomos approved the planned invitation without first consulting the five bishops.

"This consent, without the knowledge of the Holy Synod is wounding the unity of the Church and is a source of bother among the souls of the faithful. It creates new dangers of division," he wrote in the letter.

The government of Cyprus was on Monday expected to issue the invitation to the pope, who will also visit Damascus, Greece and Malta as part of the trip.

Government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou, speaking to Reuters, dismissed the bishop's tirade as "fundamentalist nonsense."

The archbishop was also keen to play down the dissent.

"He should calm down," the archbishop told reporters.

Although the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church split at the Great Schism of 1054 which divided Christianity into Eastern and Western branches, the church of Cyprus is not known for bearing ill will towards Catholics.

But in his letter, Bishop Paul cited the execution of 13 Orthodox monks by the Catholic Church in 1231 as reason enough for the church not to have anything to do with the visit.

The 13 monks were burnt at a stake on charges of speaking "disrespectfully about Roman rites," according to historians of the era.

The pope's trip is intended to follow the path of Saint Paul who is said to have passed through the island on his missionary journeys which finally took him to Rome, where he was later executed by Emperor Nero.

He is said to have begun his Cypriot journeys at Salamis on the eastern coast, which is now in the Turkish-controlled north of the island. Cyprus has been divided since a Turkish invasion in 1974 after a brief coup engineered by the military then ruling Greece.

Should the pope accept the invitation, it is understood that he would miss Salamis.

"Certainly the Pope would witness that some people put up barbed wire and they obstruct the free movement of those wanting to follow the footsteps of Saint Paul," the government spokesman said, referring to the division.