Why did Pope Innocent III accept the conquest of Constantinople at first?

Pope Innocent III initially opposed the diversion of the Fourth Crusade toward Constantinople, repeatedly refusing requests to authorize such an action. However, after the city fell to the Crusaders in 1204, he accepted the outcome based on the mistaken belief that the conquest would lead to the reunification of the Latin and Greek churches.12

While Innocent had previously excommunicated the Crusaders for their earlier attack on the Christian city of Zadar, he eventually reconciled with the situation in Constantinople, hoping it would resolve the long-standing schism between the Catholic West and the Orthodox East. This hope proved to be a mirage; instead of fostering unity, the conquest and the subsequent establishment of the Latin Empire irrevocably weakened the Byzantine Empire and deepened the division between the two churches.132