provided assistance to poor families and families with many children. He also established "Solidarity", an NGO of the Church of Greece, which allowed a humanitarian intervention of the Church on an international level in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe. "Solidarity" caused several controversies, such as the case where it received 5.6 million Euros from the Greek State in order to send humanitarian relief to Iraq. Instead, "Solidarity" only spent 740 thousand Euros to buy food, which it kept in storage houses without ever sending it to Iraq, and kept the rest in a bank account. After the death of Archbishop Christodoulos, the Greek Church started an investigation of the financial activities of "Solidarity" and found gross irregularities. In 2003, he fell out with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew over who should have the final say in the appointment of bishops in northern Greece. As a result, Christodoulos' name was stricken off the Diptych of the Church as a punishment. He was reinstated three months later, as the conflict seemed to be coming to a resolution. The rift was mended a month later. The visit of Pope John Paul II in Athens and Archbishop Christodoulos' visit to Pope Benedict XVI in Rome were significant steps towards the cause of Church unity. On May 20, 2001, Konstantinos Poulios (Κωνσταντίνος Πούλιος in Greek), an Old Calendarist, attacked Christodoulos and slapped him in the face, while the Archbishop was giving an interview to a TV crew outside the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens. The attack was broadcast on live television; Poulios was arrested by Christodoulos' police bodyguards, but in the end he faced no charges. Views Support for Serbia The Archbishop played a leading role in supporting Serbia (a mainly Orthodox country), and stoking public opposition to NATO and the Kosovo War of 1999 in which Greece, as a NATO member, played a significant, though largely non-interventionist, role. He also spoke out strongly against the intention of the Greek government under Costas Simitis to follow EU directives, especially where they clashed with what he regarded as traditional Greek policies. Shortly after his swearing in, Christodoulos stated that it was "a disgrace for the modern Greeks to decide on the basis of what directives from Brussels might ask, at one time or another. Identity cards controversy In 2000, a major clash between church and state erupted when the then Greek socialist government sought to follow