Olmpics receive blessing from Pope

Pope John Paul II urged today that the upcoming Olympics in Greece be a show of fraternity and peace, and offered his blessings to the organisers.

The pontiff made the comments during a meeting with Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyianni during her European and US tour ahead of the August 13-29 Games.

“I express the wish that the next celebration of the Olympic Games in your city be a show of brotherhood for all the participants and a message of peace and union for all those who will be spectators across the world,” John Paul said.

“In this spirit, I invoke divine blessings for you and all the organisers of this celebration.”

Earlier this week, Bakoyianni urged countries not to consider skipping the Games out of security fears.

“If we don’t give up, and we are a very small country, and if we stick to these (Olympic) values because we gave birth to them, well it would be a very bad surprise if somebody else thought in a different way,” she said in an interview.

Bakoyianni’s tour takes her next to Washington and New York.