Vatican City:
Pope John Paul yesterday welcomed with "joy" the visit of the spiritual leader
of Orthodox Christians, expressing hope it will help mend the historic rupture
between the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity.
"We are praying that the Lord of history purifies our memories of every prejudice
and resentment and allows us to freely proceed on the road of unity," John Paul
said.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople met privately with John
Paul hours before joining him for a late afternoon Mass in St. Peter's Square
marking the feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul.
The pope has often appealed for rapprochement, but new strains have developed
in recent years over what some Orthodox see as attempts by the Vatican to expand
in traditional Orthodox lands in the former Soviet Union.
John Paul spoke of the visit in remarks at noon from his apartment window, as
thousands of tourists and pilgrims gathered in the vast square below.
The pope noted the visit came 40 years after two of their predecessors �
Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagorus � met for a historic embrace in
Jerusalem. Eastern Orthodoxy had long been isolated from the Western Church.
"That embrace has become a symbol of the hoped-for reconciliation between the
Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches, as well as a symbol of hope in the
path toward full communion among all Christians," John Paul said.
The Churches split in the 11th century in disputes over the growing power of
the papacy.
John Paul recalled "important moments of contact" over the last 40 years, Bartholomew
joined the pope at the Vatican in 1995, as well as the "painful episodes of
history" that have darkened their relations.