Vatican City, Jun 29, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Pope John Paul II and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I delivered a shared homily expressing their respective commitments to Christian unity during Mass yesterday in St. Peter’s Square on the occasion of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, in which the Pope also bestowed the Pallium on 44 archbishops from around the world.
The Pope and the Patriarch pronounced their homilies following the reading of the Gospel in both Latin and Greek. The Nicene-Constantinople Creed was then recited in Greek according to the liturgical use of the Byzantine Churches.
Pope John Paul intorduced the homily of Bartholomew, who spoke of the progress that had been made since the embrace 40 years ago between Paul VI and Patriarch Athengoras.
However, the Patriarch added that “it has not been possible to eliminate in these 40 years the opposition that has accumulated during over 900 years. ... We hope that what has not been possible up to now will be obtained in the future, a near future.”