Tuesday, October 15, 2002 11:44 AM
Patriarch and Pope in Rome
Three reports are copied below of the meetings in Rome between Romanian Orthodox Patriarch Teoctist and Pope John Paul II which have been taking place over the past week.
(See also earlier mailing )
A collection of photographs of the meetings can be viewed HERE
REPORT 1 (Zenit news agency www.zenit.org ) John Paul II urged all Christians, including Catholics, to make an examination of conscience to see where they have delayed or are delaying progress toward full ecclesial unity.
The Pope made his appeal today in the presence of Romanian Orthodox Patriarch Teoctist, who ended his weeklong visit to Rome by participating in a eucharistic celebration presided over by the Holy Father.
Orthodox and Catholics have been divided since the schism of 1054, in which Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople exchanged excommunications. The excommunications were lifted in 1965, but both Churches have yet to attain full communion.
“Through baptism we form part of the one Body of Christ, but, unfortunately, have we not, at times, rejected this invitation?” the Pontiff asked in his homily.
“Have we not, perhaps, torn the Lord’s seamless robe, by separating ourselves from one another?” the Pope continued. “Yes, our reciprocal division is contrary to his will.”
“To attain full communion, we must overcome our slowness and smallness of heart,” John Paul II added. “We must cultivate the spirituality of communion, which is capable of regarding a brother in the faith as someone who belongs to me.”
“We must nourish incessantly the passion for unity,” he said.
Patriarch Teoctist, who earlier had delivered a homily under the Archangel Michael’s cupola, stressed similar words: “The division, separation, isolation of Christians among themselves are not ways of witness of Christ, who prayed that all might be one.”
“The spiritual crisis of our time requires that we rediscover the connection between penance and conversion, or the return to Christ, meek and compassionate, on the one hand,” the patriarch said, “and the reconstruction of communion between the Churches, on the other.”
“Contemporary secularization is accompanied by a fragmentation and an impoverishment of the interior spiritual life of man,” the Orthodox leader said. “Thus, secularization impoverishes spiritual communion among Christians even more. Hence, together we must unite the quest for holiness of Christian life with the realization of Christian unity.”
The Romanian Orthodox Church is a historical bridge between Catholics and Orthodox. It is the only Latin country that became part of the Orthodox realm after the schism of 1054. The very etymology of its name denotes nostalgia for its past, linked to Rome.
Romania was the first Orthodox country visited by the Pope, in May 1999. Patriarch Teoctist’s visit to Rome was in gratitude for that papal visit.
In responding to the patriarch’s address, John Paul II said: “In celebrating the authentic Eucharist according to their respective traditions, the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches already live a profound communion, although it is still not full.”
“May the blessed day arrive soonest when we will really be able to live our perfect communion in fullness,” the Pope exclaimed.
Patriarch Teoctist and John Paul II were able to share the Liturgy of the Word. They also professed together the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, in Romanian, in keeping with the liturgical formula of the Byzantine Churches, demonstrating that the fundamental theological problem of the schism between the two Churches has been surmounted.
But the two leaders separated for the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
In the peace greeting, established by the liturgy, the Bishop of Rome and the bishop of Bucharest embraced, and, at the end of the Mass, they blessed the congregation together.
REPORT 2. John Paul II and Romanian Patriarch Teoctist united in a symbolic embrace and signed a Joint Declaration in which the Orthodox and Catholics Churches commit themselves to seek unity.
The meeting between the two religious leaders, which took place Saturday in the Pope’s private study, was one of the most important moments of the weeklong visit of the Romanian religious leader to Rome. His visit was in gratitude for John Paul II’s trip to Bucharest in May 1999, the first time a Pope set foot on Orthodox soil.
“Our meeting must be considered as an example: Brothers must meet again to make peace, to reflect together, to discover the way to reach agreements, to expose and explain one another’s reasons,” the Joint Declaration reads.
The document touches upon issues such as Catholics’ proclamation of the Gospel in Orthodox lands — a practice the Moscow Orthodox Patriarchate opposes as “proselytism.”
“We are in agreement in recognizing the religious and cultural tradition of all peoples, as well as religious freedom,” the document continues. “Evangelization cannot be based in a spirit of competition, but on reciprocal respect and cooperation, which recognizes the freedom of each one to live according to his/her own convictions, in respect of his/her own religious affiliation.”
The Pope and the patriarch affirmed that Christian witness will be much more credible, especially in Europe, if it is offered in unity.
In his address to the patriarch before signing the declaration, John Paul II responded to the accusations of “proselytism.”
The Pope acknowledged the mission that the Orthodox Churches “are called to undertake in the countries in which they have been rooted for centuries” and, at the same time, he clarified that the Catholic Church “wishes only to help and collaborate in this mission,” carrying out “its pastoral task with its faithful and with those who freely come to her.”
Eventual misunderstandings can be addressed through a “fraternal and frank dialogue,” John Paul II said.
In this connection, the Holy Father proposed the establishment of a “solid institutional structure” that will serve “for communication and regular and reciprocal exchange of information” between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches.
The Mixed International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches ended its last meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2000 without final agreements.
In his address, the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church recalled the difficulties his Church experienced until the end of “atheist totalitarianism” and criticized the “competition” that is evident at times “in relations between Christians,” which has caused “disappointment” and “mistrust.”
However, Patriarch Teoctist confirmed his Church’s determination to work assiduously for “the unity of the Church,” as demonstrated by promising plans for dialogue, which have developed in his country.
REPORT 3. John Paul II referred to the Second Vatican Council, the start of the new evangelization, as a “compass” for Christians in the 21st century.
The Pope made that observation today at the end of the Mass celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica, which marked the culmination of Romanian Orthodox Patriarch Teoctist’s visit to Rome.
Before reciting the midday Angelus, the Pontiff recalled the pleas for unity between Orthodox and Catholics which he heard in Romania during his 1999 visit. (see the report of Vassula’s witnessing of this meeting at: /buchar.html )
“This thirst for full communion among Christians has received remarkable impetus” since Vatican II, he said. One of the council’s most significant documents, the Pope said, was the decree on ecumenism, “Unitatis Redintegratio” (The Restoration of Unity).
The Romanian’s visit coincided with the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the opening of the council, on Oct. 11, 1962, by Pope John XXIII.
John Paul II recalled that Pope John exhorted the council Fathers to “remain, on the one hand, faithful to the Catholic tradition and, on the other, to present it again in a manner adapted to our times.”
“In a certain sense,” John Paul II said, “the 11th of October forty years ago marked the solemn and universal beginning of what is called the new evangelization. The council was, so to speak, the ‘holy door’ of that new spring of the Church that was manifested in the Great Jubilee of the year 2000.”
The Holy Father concluded by inviting Christians to take up again the council documents, “which do not lose their value or brilliance” and which “must be known and assimilated as important and normative texts of the magisterium, within the Church’s Tradition.”
In the documents, Christians will find “a compass to guide us in the path of the century that is beginning,” the Pope concluded.
