VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is to return to Greece three fragments of Athens’ Parthenon temple, in what the Vatican referred to as Friday a gesture of friendship.
The fragments from the Parthenon on the Acropolis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, have been held for hundreds of years within the papal assortment and Vatican Museums.
Francis has determined “to donate” them to the Orthodox Archbishop of Athens, “as a concrete signal” of his need to nurture interreligious relations, the Vatican mentioned.
No date was given for the return of the fragments.
Greece’s cultural ministry welcomed the restitution, saying in an announcement that it appreciated the pope’s “religious and fraternal gesture towa…
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