Elected as head of the 10-million Greek Orthodox adherents, Archbishop Christodoulos was a controversial figure at home and abroad. He was credited with boosting the number of attendances and proved popular among the youth where he welcomed them into the Church dressed in torn jeans, earrings and all. This was part of his 'come as you are' initiative.
In a statement, the Prime Minister of Greece, Kostas Karamanlis, acknowledged the archbishop had aligned the Church more closely to both society and the youth. "The archbishop brought the Church closer to society, closer to modern problems and to the youth," the PM said. The government declared four days of official mourning.
Spurning the conservative's wrath within the Church, Archbishop Christodoulos welcomed the pontiff into Greece in 2001 and reciprocated with a visit to the Vatican in 2007. The visit by the pontiff in 2001 was historical because it was the first time in nearly 1,300 years.
Despite proving more popular than Greek's politicians, the archbishop did have a number of critics. He caught the world headline in 2001, when after September 11th he said the terrorists who bombed the World Trade Centre were "despondent men who acted out of despair caused by the injustices of the Great Powers." He retracted the statement five years later.
In 2004, he called homosexuality a 'defect.' He labelled Turkey as the 'Eastern barbarian' and led opposition to the N.A.T.O bombing in Kosovo in 1999 where he gave humanitarian support to Orthodox Serbia. He was also active in intervening in state affair where he called for a 'crusade' against the Socialist-government agenda of removing religion from Greek's citizen ID card.
The Holy Synod has 20 days in which to elect a new archbishop by a vote among the 80 participating bishops, the archbishop's office said.