| Pope woos the East
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
NCR Staff
Rome
Looking ahead to scheduled trips to Eastern Orthodox strongholds
of Greece and Ukraine, John Paul II continued to press for better relations by
including several elements of Orthodox worship in his Easter Mass.
The pope took advantage of the fact that Easter Sunday fell on the
same day in both East and West this year to give the April 15 Mass in St.
Peter’s Square a distinctively Byzantine feel.
Signs from the Orthodox side, however, suggest the papal gestures
have yet to bear fruit.
John Paul opened the ceremony with veneration of an antique icon
called the Achiropoetos (which translates as “not painted by human
hands”). The six-foot-tall image, which is probably Eastern in origin, is
usually positioned by the Holy Steps in front of Rome’s cathedral of St.
John Lateran.
After the reading of the gospel, St. Peter’s was filled with
the sound of the hymn “Stichi,” sung in Russian by a 12-member
Byzantine choir. It commemorates the finding of the empty tomb by Jesus’
female followers.
Finally, during the prayers of the faithful, an intention was
offered “for the expectations and the hopes of all those who call
themselves Christian” and “for full communion between the churches of
the East and the West.”
John Paul travels to Greece May 4 and 5, and will be in Ukraine
June 23-27.
Yet even as the tokens of papal goodwill were being offered, new
indications of reluctance among the Orthodox arose.
The April 15 edition of the popular Italian magazine Famiglia
Cristiana carried an interview with Alexei II, patriarch of the Russian
Orthodox church, who claims the loyalty of the largest of Orthodoxy’s
three branches in Ukraine.
Alexei complained that the Russian Orthodox leader in Ukraine,
Metropolitan Vladimir, was not consulted before the Vatican made its plans.
“From the beginning, the leaders of the Catholic church have
said this visit is one of the stages of the process of reconciliation and
improvement of relations with the Russian Orthodox Church. If this is truly the
aim of the Vatican, then it appears to me that the better way to reach it would
be to listen to the request of Vladimir.”
Vladimir wrote a Jan. 22 open letter to the pope asking him not to
meet with other branches of Orthodoxy in Ukraine not recognized by Moscow. He
suggested the trip be postponed.
It’s widely believed that John Paul’s eventual goal is a
trip to Russia. Alexei said that before a papal visit could be considered,
Catholic and Orthodox leaders would have to come to terms about property
disputes in Ukraine centering on the Greek Catholics, believers who follow
Orthodox traditions but profess loyalty to Rome.
The Vatican would also have to take steps against proselytism by
Catholics in Orthodox territories, Alexei said.
John Paul has written a personal letter to Vladimir, delivered on
April 7 by papal trip planner Cardinal Roberto Tucci. The content has not been
released, and to date there is no sign of a response.
The e-mail address for John L. Allen Jr. is
jallen@natcath.org.
National Catholic Reporter, April 27,
2001
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