US backs Halki Seminary reopening

(Kathimerini Newspaper) - US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns yesterday expressed Washington’s support for the Ecumenical Patriarchate after meeting with Patriarch Vartholomaios in Istanbul. Burns said that the USA would also continue to support the Patriarchate’s efforts to reopen the theological seminary on the island of Halki but said that the issue needed to be resolved with the Turkish government. “We should leave the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Turkish authorities to discuss the relevant details of the matter. We are sure that with the necessary goodwill there will be progress.”