Pope Benedict XVI today met with the leader of the World Council of Churches in another indication of his attempts to improve relations with other Christians and heal the 1,000-year-old rift with the Orthodox Church.

Pope Benedict XVI pledged today to work to end the 1,000-year-old rift with the Orthodox church, sending a message of healing from a city with close ties to the Orthodox.

Pope Benedict XVI began his first papal trip today with a visit to the eastern seaport of Bari, a brief but symbolic outing that follows in the much-travelled footsteps of his predecessor.

THE next pope will have a hard act to follow in Asia and the Middle East, where Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists alike mourned the loss of a man they saw as a messenger of peace and tolerance.

Small groups of Orthodox believers prayed today for protection against what they consider an insidious Catholic influence as Pope John Paul II headed to predominantly Orthodox Ukraine, and Orthodox leaders again ruled out a meeting with the pontiff.

The pope arrived in Greece today for a personal pilgrimage with much wider implications: trying to heal nearly 1,000 years of discord between the Vatican and Orthodox churches.