Benedict XVI’s jouney to Turkey gives continuity
to the efforts of his predecessors towards unity

Benedicto XVI’s journey to Turkey is a step forward in the path walked by the former Pontiffs toward a clear approach between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches.  The Holy Father is carrying out what he indicated shortly after his election before the delegation of different Churches and of other non Christian religions

“Our meeting today is particularly important. First of all, it enables the new Bishop of Rome, Pastor of the Catholic Church, to repeat to you all with simplicity: Duc in altum! Let us go forward with hope. In the footsteps of my Predecessors, especially Paul VI and John Paul II, I feel strongly the need to reassert the irreversible commitment taken by the Second Vatican Council and pursued in recent years, also thanks to the activity of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The path to the full communion desired by Jesus for his disciples entails, with true docility to what the Spirit says to the Churches, courage, gentleness, firmness and hope, in order to reach our goal. Above all, it requires persistent prayer and with one heart, in order to obtain from the Good Shepherd the gift of unity for his flock”. (25-4-2005)

In this sense we can neither stop bringing to the memory the moment in which John Paul II opened the holy Door of the Basilica of Saint Paul Out of the Walls, accompanied by the Orthodox Metropolita Atanasio and eleven other delegates from orthodox churches, this image, that went all around the world and was just inconceivable decades ago, provided immense happiness to the nowadays Servant of God, who saw there the fruits of ecumenical dialogue, one of His main pastoral pledges.
 
It was Pope John XXIII who promoted this approaching movement  after centuries of mutual distance.  Blessed John XXIII spent almost twenty years in the heart of orthodoxy, as the Apostolic Delegate in Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece.
 
He established the “Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity”; and was also responsible for calling for the Second Vatican Council, that signified a tremendous surge of ecumenical dialogue.  Then years later John Paul II recognized that Pope Roncalli, for Christian unity, offered his life to God.

The Second Vatican Council, that was attended for the very first time by several observers coming from the orthodox patriarchies, approved the Decree Unitatis Redintegratio, that set the foundations for true ecumenism. 

Shortly before the closing, Pope Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras, decided to lift the mutual excommunications that both Churches declared one to another back in 1054, 911 years ago. 

East and West were separated by the Great Schism of 1054, with the excommunications of Pope Leo IX and of the patriarch Cerularius.  Almost a thousand years have passed since then, full of fears and misunderstandings.

Besides blaming Rome of being guilty of the fall of Constantinople into the hands of the Ottoman, putting an end to the Byzantine Empire, the two churches also split for theological reasons, like the refusal of the orthodox  Church to recognize the primacy of the Church of Rome and disputing the infallibility of the Pope. 

The Orthodox Church does not recognize the validity of Catholic sacraments, which is not the case of the Catholic Church, that since Second Vatican Council recognizes the validity those of the Orthodox Church. 

The Orthodox Church also blames Rome of proselitism and for attempting to expand in territories under their control. 

But the true titan of ecumenical dialogue was Pope John Paul II.  As an outstanding member of the Polish Church, he understood the drama of separation, having experienced it in his own country, where an orthodox Patriarchate exists. He was also aware of the suffering of Oriental rite Catholics who settled in the neighboring nations of Ukraine and Belarus.  That is why it took no one by surprise when at the beginning of His pontificate He affirmed:  "It is the service to unity that in a special way commits the Bishop of  this ancient Church of Rome and is the fundamental duty of His ministry" ( Jan 17, 1979). 

Months later (March 4, 1979) John Paul II published His first and programmatic encyclical Redemptor Hominis, in which He dedicates an extensive number to treat the theme of the union of Christians, assuring that " We must therefore seek unity without being discouraged at the difficulties that can appear or accumulate along that road; otherwise we would be unfaithful to the word of Christ, we would fail to accomplish his testament.”  (RH 6)

“So that these do not remain merely good words I have decided to travel to Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, with the idea to meet Patriarch Demetrios I in his See in El Fanar and for the feast of Saint Andrew this year.  It want to show him the importance the Catholic Church gives to the relations with the venerable Orthodox Church" (Nov 28, 1979).

The purpose of the trip was very clear:  "To walk together toward full unity that sad historic circumstances have wounded above all during the second millennium," as he would tell the Patriarch on November 29, in His greeting to him at El Fanar.  Since that trip to Turkey, John Paul II always reserved time to receive members of the present Orthodox Hierarchy in each country He visited.  His generosity and His sincere affection knocked down many barriers. 

Important documents

The highlight was the clarification asked by John Paul II on June 29, 1995, in the presence of Bartolomew I, about the traditional doctrine on "Filioque," carried out by the Pontifical Council Promoting Christian Unity. 

The Apostolic Letter Orientale Lumen was published in 1995, commemorating the writings of Pope Leo XIII a hundred years before.  The letter invited us to get to know the Christian East, because only with that knowledge  will we be able to meet. 

But the document that can be considered the "magna carta" on ecumenism during the pontificate of John Paul II is the Encyclical Ut Unum Sint,  published in May of 1995.  The encyclical affirmed that "the division clearly and openly contradicts the will of Christ, it is a scandal for the world and damages the most holy cause to preach the Gospel to every creature."

The Pope insists in the supremacy of the prayer, "when Christians pray together the goal of unity seems closer," in the need of dialogue to solve the differences, and in the contribution of both Churches in the witnessing, social, cultural, and pastoral fields. 

He manifests his will to seek and " find a form to live the primacy that, without renouncing to the essentials of his mission, opens to a new action."

“For a whole millennium- he states quoting the Second Vatican Council (UR14)- Christians were united in "a brotherly fraternal communion of faith and sacramental life ... If disagreements in belief and discipline arose among them, the Roman See acted by common consent as moderator".