Vatican City, Jun 29, 2005 / 22:00 pm
In a meeting with a delegation sent by His Holiness Bartholomew I, ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, who are in Rome for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Pope Benedict expressed his commitment to the continuing dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, begun in earnest by his prediscessor, Pope John Paul II in 1980.
The group, who met with the Pope this morning, is part of an ecumenical delegation which annually visits Rome for the June 29th feast. Likewise, a delegation from Rome traditionally travels to Istanbul for the November 30th feast of St. Andrew, patron of the ecumenical patriarchate.
The Holy Father stressed the "dialogue of charity" between Catholics and Orthodox "begun on the Mount of Olives by Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras, an experience which was not in vain. Many significant gestures have been made since then: I am thinking of the abrogation of the reciprocal condemnations of 1054, of the speeches, documents and encounters promoted by the Sees of Rome and Constantinople. These have marked the path of recent decades."
He recalled his predicessor John Paul's "fraternal embrace" in St. Peter's Basilica, months before his death, with Bartholomew I and noted that "our path is long, and not easy" but it has "seen hope grow for a solid 'dialogue of truth' and a process of theological and historical clarification, which has given appreciable fruits."