Anti-Catholicism - Orthodox Christianity

Orthodox Christianity

Less widely known has been the anti-Catholicism found in countries where the Orthodox Christian Churches have prevailed historically. This form of anti-Catholicism has its roots in the Great Schism between the Western and Eastern Church in 1054, and the Sack of Constantinople by Catholic forces from Western Europe, though unsupported by the pope, during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. About the sack Pope John Paul II gave a public apology during his visit in Greece in 2001, an historically Orthodox country, (Greeks are considered the cultural heirs of the Byzantine Empire). He was the first pope to visit Greece in 1291 years.