Monday, October 07, 2002 5:05 PM
Patriarch Teoctist and the Pope
Copied here are two news items concerning the visit of the Romanian Orthodox Patriarch Teoctist to Rome this week.
Vassula witnessed the meeting of Pope John Paul II and the Patriarch in Bucharest in 1999. A report and photographs of that meeting can be found at: /buchar.html
VATICAN CITY, OCT 7, 2002 (VIS) – At the end of the audience in St. Peter’s Square this morning for the pilgrims who came for the canonization of Blessed Jose Maria Escriva de Balaguer, Pope John Paul II welcomed His Beatitude Teoctist, the Orthodox patriarch of Romania, who is in Rome for a visit.
“Beatitude and dear brother,” said the Pope in Romanian, “You are making this visit animated by the sentiments and the hopes that I myself feel.” He added that he wanted the patriarch’s visit “to begin in the framework of this general audience, in the presence of so many faithful from throughout the world.”
“Your current visit,” the Holy Father continued, speaking in Italian, “is a purifying act of our memories of division, of often strong confrontation, of acts and words that have led to painful separations. The future, in any case, is not a dark and unknown tunnel. It is lit by God’s grace: on it the invigorating light of the Spirit shines in a consoling way. This certainty prevails not only over every human discouragement or fatigue that at times hinders our steps; it convinces us above all that noting is impossible for God, and that, therefore, if we will be worthy of it, He will grant us the gift of full unity.”
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 4, 2002 (Zenit.org).- Romanian Orthodox Patriarch Teoctist’s upcoming visit to the Pope is expected to give a boost to Catholic-Orthodox dialogue.
The patriarch is reciprocating for the trip John Paul II made to Romania in May 1999, the first papal visit to Orthodox land.
According to a Vatican statement today, three metropolitans, an archbishop and various representatives of the Romanian Orthodox Church will accompany the patriarch. The three metropolitans are Daniel, archbishop of Iasi and metropolitan of Moldavia and Bucovina; Teophan, archbishop of Craiova and metropolitan of Oltenia; and Iosif, metropolitan of the See of Western and Southern Europe of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
Patriarch Teoctist and his entourage will participate in the audience with the Pope for the pilgrims who have come for the canonization of Opus Dei founder Josemaría Escrivá.
On Oct. 11, the patriarch will be received by the vicar of Rome, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, where he will attend a short liturgy during which a relic of St. Sylvester will be returned to him to be restored to an Orthodox church in Bucharest.
On the morning of Saturday, Oct. 12, a meeting between the Pope and the patriarch is scheduled. There will be an exchange of speeches and gifts and a common declaration will be signed.
In the afternoon, at the church of St. Bartholomew on Tiberina Island, an ecumenical celebration will take place which will be presided by the patriarch, Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Ruini and Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago, titular of the same church.
The concluding solemn event of the visit will take place Sunday, Oct. 13, with a eucharistic liturgy, presided over by John Paul II in the presence of Patriarch Teoctist and his entourage in St. Peter’s Basilica.
During his stay in Rome, Patriarch Teoctist will meet with Cardinal Kasper and other officials of the latter’s council. The patriarch also will visit the basilicas of St. Mary Major and St. Paul Outside the Walls.
He will also meet with the Romanian Orthodox community of Rome in the Cistercian Abbey of the Three Fountains and in the Church of the Scala Coeli. The patriarch, invited by the Community of Sant’Egidio, will meet one afternoon with young people and will participate in a prayer ceremony in the Basilica of St. Mary in Trastevere and in a dinner in his honor.
