Catholic World News
Feb 22 2005
No Insurmountable Obstacles to Catholic, Orthodox Unity
(CWR) — Throughout his pontificate, John Paul II has made dramatic
gestures in an effort to break down the barriers of Orthodox
hostility toward the Catholic Church. He has made pilgrimages to
traditionally Orthodox lands, apologized for the misdeeds of
Catholics, and asked Orthodox theologians to join in a discussion of
how the papacy can serve as the focus of Christian unity in the 21st
century.
In November 2003 the Pope confirmed the accuracy of a rumor that had
circulated around Rome for months: that he planned to make a new sort
of gesture toward the Eastern churches, by returning the prized icon
of Our Lady of Kazan to the Russian Orthodox Church. After several
false starts, that plan was carried out late in August 2004. By
restoring a beloved icon that had been missing for most of a century,
the Holy Father obviously sought also to restore some of the goodwill
that has been conspicuously lacking from the Moscow patriarchate’s
attitude toward Rome in recent years.
Whether the Pope’s effort will prove successful in reviving
productive ecumenical talks with the Russian Orthodox Church is not
yet clear. But the papal gesture drew one prompt reaction from
another important corner of the Orthodox world. Late in June, when he
visited Rome to join in celebrating the patronal feast of Ss. Peter
and Paul, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople asked Pope John
Paul to consider returning another set of objects prized by the
Orthodox: the relics of Ss. John Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzen.
Although both St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory Nazianzen were
bishops of Constantinople, their relics have been in Rome for
centuries. The relics of St. Gregory Nazianzen were brought to the
Vatican during the 8th-century iconoclastic controversy, when the
emperors outlawed the veneration of relics. Those of St. John
Chrysostom were taken by Crusaders in the 13th century. The Orthodox
Church had complained, over the centuries, that the relics being held
by the Vatican were actually the property of the Constantinople See.
When the Pope acceded to that request, Patriarch Bartholomew I
underlined the importance of the gesture by saying that he would fly
back to Rome–making his second visit to the Vatican of the year–to
accept the relics in person. After a few weeks of preparation, plans
were set for an ecumenical ceremony in St. Peter’s basilica on
November 27, at which Pope John Paul II would turn over the relics to
the Patriarch.
HIGH EXPECTATIONS
Ss. John Chrysostom (349-407) and Gregory Nazianzen (330-390) are
both doctors of the Church, who gained fame for their defense of
Christian doctrine in the face of the Arian heresy. Each saint also
is claimed by Patriarch Bartholomew as a predecessor as Patriarch of
Constantinople.
As he announced plans for the November ceremony, Bishop Brian
Farrell, the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity,
observed that the Pope’s decision to return the relics was a “sign of
the deep communion that exists between the Catholic Church and the
Orthodox Church.” He pointed out that similar gestures had been made
by local churches. In 2001, the Diocese of Bari, Italy, presented
relics of St. Nicholas to the Russian Orthodox Church. And in 2000,
relics of St. Gregory the Illuminator, which had been kept in a
monastery near Naples, were presented to Catholicos Karekin II, the
leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
The second visit of 2004 by Patriarch Bartholomew, the acknowledged
“first among equals” among Orthodox patriarchs, would in itself be a
sign of “growing rapprochement” between the Catholic and Orthodox
churches, Bishop Farrell said. While there are important
disagreements on matters of doctrine and ecclesiology that remain
unresolved, he observed, there are increasingly strong personal bonds
between the members of the Catholic and Orthodox hierarchies–the
bodies that were estranged by the Great Schism of 1054.
Patriarch Bartholomew, who was elected as the 273rd Patriarch of
Constantinople in October 1991, visited the Vatican for the first
time in June 1995, when he joined in the historic inter-religious day
of prayer for peace at Assisi. In 1994, Pope John Paul had reached
out to the Orthodox leader by asking Bartholomew to write the
meditations to be read during the Stations of the Cross on Good
Friday in the Roman Coliseum. Thus began a series of visits and
exchanges between Rome and Constantinople. Each year the Vatican
sends a delegation of prelates to join in the Orthodox Patriarch’s
celebration of the feast of St. Andrew, the patron of Constantinople,
on November 30; the Orthodox respond by sending a delegation to
Rome–headed his year by the Patriarch himself–for the feast of Ss.
Peter and Paul on June 29. During his private conversations with the
Pontiff in June, Bartholomew I had invited John Paul to return the
personal visit by making a trip to Constantinople, but the Pontiff’s
health made such a trip impossible.
In a private letter sent to Patriarch Bartholomew on September 8, the
Pontiff referred to the relics as “the common patrimony of the faith
which unites us, however imperfectly.” Bartholomew responded by
confirming that he would come to Rome to receive the relics, saying
that the gesture would have “an immense significance” for his
Orthodox see.
The Orthodox delegation arrived in Rome on November 26, and was
greeted by a welcoming committee led by Cardinal Walter Kasper, the
president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. During their
stay in Rome the Orthodox clerics were lodged in the Vatican’s St.
Martha residence, and the Patriarch was the guest of honor at a
dinner hosted by Cardinal Kasper’s dicastery, with many officials of
the Roman Curia in attendance. And before his departure, the
Patriarch would again speak privately with the Roman Pontiff.
As the organizers finished the last-minute details of preparation,
television crews set up their equipment in the Vatican basilica for
live broadcasts that would bring the ecumenical ceremony to network
audiences in Italy and in Greece.
NO INSURMOUNTABLE PROBLEMS
During the Saturday-morning ceremony, Pope John Paul II underlined
his desire for full Christian unity, while the leader of the Orthodox
world promised “to continue the dialogue of truth in love” with the
Catholic Church. As he handed over the precious relics, the Pope said
the gesture was “a blessed opportunity to purify our wounded
memories.”
The Holy Father offered a prayer that “God will hasten the hour in
which we will be able to live together, in the celebration of the
holy Eucharist, full communion.” As he received the relics–which had
been enclosed in magnificent alabaster reliquaries–Patriarch
Bartholomew I said that the Pope’s gesture “confirms that there are
not insurmountable problems in the Church of Christ.”
The ceremony included a Liturgy of the Word, in which the readings
included both Scriptural passages and selections from the two saints
whose relics were being transferred. The Pope and the Patriarch then
prayed together, and each made a short statement. (Because of the
difficulty that John Paul II now encounters in speaking aloud, the
Pope’s statement was read by Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, the deputy
Secretary of State.)
During his address, Patriarch Bartholomew gently alluded to the
historic complaints of the Orthodox Church, saying that by returning
the relics the Pope was correcting “an ecclesiastical anomaly and
injustice.” He added that the Pope’s gesture should be imitated by
others who “arbitrarily hold and still retain treasures of the
faith.” He did not identify the objects of that statement, which
could apply to governments in Eastern Europe, as well as to Catholic
dioceses.
Two days after the ceremony, Patriarch Bartholomew stunned reporters
by saying that taking possession of the relics was the “most
important event” of his 13-year tenure as the Ecumenical Patriarch.
He stressed that the Pope’s willingness to return the relics to
Constantinople was “a very important step toward full unity between
our two churches,” and that the gesture would be “very much
appreciated by the ecumenical Patriarchate and by all of the Orthodox
world.” Patriarch Bartholomew told a Vatican Radio audience that he
was “very moved and very happy” because of the “historic event,
thanks to the goodwill of the Pope.”
Cardinal Walter Kasper more modestly observed that the transfer of
the relics was “a sign of our relations, which are much improved.” He
observed that it was also a sign of the “common heritage of faith
from the first centuries of Christianity,” since the two saints are
equally venerated by the Orthodox and Catholic Church.
Just one small shadow of controversy marred the warmth of the
transfer. Provoked by the repeated charges that the relics had been
stolen from the Orthodox Church, papal spokesman Joaquin
Navarro-Valls informed reporters that the Pope was not making an “act
of reparation” or a request for “forgiveness” by turning them over to
Patriarch Bartholomew. The claims that Catholics had looted the
relics were misleading, he insisted; in particular, the notion that
the relics of St. Gregory Nazianzen had been “stolen” from the
Patriarchate of Constantinople were, he argued, “historically
inaccurate.” Navarro-Valls pointed out that the remains of St.
Gregory had been moved to Rome during the 8th century so that they
could be saved from the iconoclastic persecution of that day.
Navarro-Valls did not recount the story of how the relics of St. John
Chrysostom reached Rome, after the sack of Constantinople during the
Fourth Crusade in 1204. While acknowledging the “tragic events” that
were involved in the movement of the relics, he explained that the
Pope’s decision to return the icons was an effort to go “beyond the
controversies and difficulties of the past.” (Pope John Paul had
asked for pardon for the sacking of Constantinople on an earlier
occasion: during his trip to Greece in May 2001. In his address to
the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Christodoulos, the Pontiff said that it
was “tragic” that Crusaders who set out to liberate the Holy Land
engaged in the plunder of Constantinople.)
UNITING THE CHRISTIAN MINORITY
When the Patriarch returned home, an ecumenical assembly, including
Turkish civil authorities and many Catholic bishops, gathered in St.
George’s Orthodox cathedral in Istanbul to welcome the relics. Buoyed
by the enthusiasm generated by the Pope’s gesture, large crowds
attended the Divine Liturgy on November 30, marking the feast of St.
Andrew.
“This was an act of reconciliation among the churches which is bound
to have positive effects on ecumenical relations in the future,”
Father George Marovich, spokesman for the Catholic bishops’
conference of Turkey, told the Fides news service. National media
outlets gave ample coverage to the return of the relics, prompting a
heartily emotional reaction from the small Christian minority
community in Turkey.
The return of the relics came at a time when Turkey’s Christians were
already feeling a new sense of power and purpose, for different
reasons. Turkey’s bid for entry into the European Union has been met
by probing questions about the state of religious freedom in the
overwhelmingly Muslim country, and the government has responded by
reaching out to Christian leaders–clearly hoping to elicit their
support for the cause of entry into the European Union. During a
meeting with Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July, the Catholic
bishops of Turkey (representing the Latin, Armenian, Chaldean, and
Syrian Catholic communities, all of which boast a small but steadfast
following) had a rare chance to speak about the problems encountered
by Catholics in Turkey, and also to make a request for official
juridical status for the Catholic Church in Turkey–something the
government has never previously considered.
The celebration of the relics’ return, then, offered another occasion
for solidarity among the Christians who make up just 0.6 percent of
Turkey’s population.
RENEWED DIALOGUE?
The Vatican officials who visited Istanbul for that November 30
celebration reported, on their return to Rome, that the Orthodox
Patriarchate of Constantinople shared a desire that Pope John Paul
had expressed to Patriarch Bartholomew in June and again in November.
The Catholic and Orthodox officials agreed–at least in principle–to
revive a joint Catholic-Orthodox theological commission that has been
dormant since a meeting in Baltimore in July 2000.
The joint commission, established as the result of talks in November
1979 between Pope John Paul and the then-Patriarch Dimitrios I, had
produced the “Balamund declaration” of 1993, in which the Orthodox
churches accepted the existence of the Eastern Catholic communities,
while the Holy See acknowledged that ecumenical progress should come
through corporate reunion with the Orthodox churches rather than the
recognition of new Eastern-rite Catholic communities. But the
commission then reached an impasse over Orthodox complaints about
“proselytism” by Catholics in traditionally Orthodox lands, and about
Vatican support for the Eastern-rite Catholic churches.
But the Pope’s latest gesture might have been enough to break that
impasse, Vatican officials reported. The delegation from Rome, led by
Cardinal Kasper, found that Orthodox officials were particularly
cordial in their greetings this year. The Pope’s gesture has been
recognized as “a sign of friendship by the Catholic Church, and of
our bond through the communion of saints,” one prelate remarked.
During their meetings in Istanbul, representatives of the Orthodox
synod assured the Vatican delegates that they plan to respond
promptly to the Pope’s plea for a resumption of formal talks by the
joint commission.
During the November 30 ceremony in the cathedral of St. George, when
Cardinal Kasper had a chance to convey greetings from the Holy See,
he emphasized the bonds between Rome and Constantinople. The German
cardinal reminded Patriarch Bartholomew “how profound and significant
were the events that we celebrated in St. Peter’s basilica, just a
few days ago, and which we continue to celebrate today.” Cardinal
Kasper added: “What unites us is much more than a human bond; it is a
communion in the faith that John Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzen
confessed and courageously proclaimed.” While thanking God for that
bond, the cardinal continued, “we must still reinforce our commitment
to progress on the path to full communion.” The deep spiritual bond
between the two churches, he said, calls attention to the fact that
the communion “is not complete.”
Orthodox officials responded positively to that challenge, the
Vatican envoys confirmed. The Orthodox synod confirmed a desire to
resume formal theological talks, and the only remaining problems will
be working out the details of a time, place, and agenda for the
discussions.