ecumenism " "
“Western and Eastern Europe must stop considering each other as aliens”. The Union that is preparing to welcome ten new member states has a need for the “common witness of Christianity”. So said Patriarch Bartholomew I, on receiving a delegation of French bishops in Istanbul. The bishops had come to Turkey to participate in the commemoration of the 8th centenary of the taking of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204. In welcoming Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon, and Msgr. Gerard Daucourt, bishop of Nanterre, the patriarch traced the years of division and the “climate of mistrust and suspicion” that have kept the Oriental Churches distant from the Church of Rome. In particular Bartholomew recalled the path “of Uniatism” that was indicated in the past as a possible way of uniting the Orthodox Churches with Rome but that the Orthodox have always “judged harshly”. The Church of Rome, “after Vatican Council II underlined the Patriarch has herself recognized that the way to union does not pass through Uniatism”. But the eyes of Constantinople are now fixed on the future and on “forgiveness”, in the consciousness that “the unity of our Churches must not be achieved precipitously, but through the reinforcement of the work of theological dialogue and the circumstances that divine Providence will indicate to us”. In his testimony to Patriarch Bartholomew in the name of the Catholic Church, Cardinal Bararin did not mince words. The cardinal spoke of the “humiliations and offences” inflicted by the Latins and the “difficulties” that still remain between the two Churches. “Many efforts he added have been made in the dialogue between Orthodox and Catholics. They are “humble” but “prophetic” gestures such as the embrace of Athenagoras I and Paul VI and the reciprocal visits between the Holy See and the Patriarchate of Constantinople for the feasts of the apostles Peter and Andrew. “We must continue to work in this direction”, concluded Barbarin.
