"It is extremely necessary to increase the ties that bond us, for the good of the Church". It was written by Pope Benedict XVI to His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, in a message entrusted to card. Walter Kasper on the occasion of the enthronement ceremony that took place in Bucharest yesterday. The Pope recalled the meeting between John Paul II and His Beatitude Teoctist in 1999. "This first visit by a Pope in a country in which the Orthodox Church is the majority writes Benedict XVI opens a process of hope, which we must pursue in the attempt to achieve full unity". Benedict XVI repeats the words spoken by John Paul II in that circumstance: "the Catholics are on the side of their Orthodox brothers, in prayer and in their openness to any fruitful cooperation". "The spirit that those words gave life to and the commitment they proclaimed adds Benedict XVI remain perfectly relevant to me and to the Catholic Church". (continued)
