May 29, 2005
ONE IS PLENTY:
Pope Wants to Heal Catholic-Orthodox Rift During his Papacy (Sabina Castelfranco, 29 May 2005, VOA news)
Pope Benedict says he wants to heal the rift with the Orthodox Church during his papacy. He spoke to hundreds-of-thousands of people attending a mass in the southern Italian city of Bari during his first pilgrimage away from the Vatican since he was elected less than two months ago. [...]Posted by Orrin Judd at May 29, 2005 2:23 PMBari is often referred to as a bridge between East and West. Pope Benedict has said from the start of his papacy that he wants to further dialogue among different Christian faiths. He said it again in this city, which has close ties to the Orthodox Church.
Amid the applause, the pope said: "Right here in Bari, happy Barri, city that is home to the bones of Saint Nicholas and land of meeting and dialogue with our Christian brothers from the East, I want to repeat my willingness to assume, as a fundamental commitment, working to reconstitute the full and visible unity of all the followers of Christ, with all my energy."
The pope added that words are not enough, and concrete gestures are needed to reach out to the Orthodox.
I think the Church is more ready for communion than the Orthodox are. But it's coming.
Posted by: pj at May 29, 2005 7:53 PMpj's right, at least with his 1st sentence. The scale of the Orthodox distrust of Rome is hard for most of us to comprehend. "Better the turban of the Turk than the mitre of Rome." Wow.
Posted by: b at May 29, 2005 8:31 PM