John Paul II says the recent progress in relations between
the Catholic and Bulgarian Orthodox Churches is a hopeful sign that indicates
the path to be followed toward full unity.
The Pope expressed this conviction today when he met with a delegation of the
Bulgarian Orthodox Patriarchate, headed by Metropolitan Kalinik and accompanied
by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity.
The delegation participated Saturday in the liturgical and pastoral use of the
church of Sts. Vincent and Anastasius, which the Pope ceded to the Bulgarian
Orthodox community residing in Rome.
The visit also commemorates the first pilgrimage of a Pope to Bulgaria, and his
meeting on May 24, 2002, with Bulgarian Orthodox Patriarch Maxim in Sofia.
That papal trip helped to identify ways to surmount the millennium-old schism
that has separated the Orthodox Churches from Rome.
Some observers consider Bulgaria a "bridge" because its close
historical relations with the Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow.
"It would seem that distances have been shortened; our brother is better
known," the Pope said, when emphasizing the importance of fraternal
relations to overcome divisions among Christians. "The right context is
created in which reciprocal trust grows, the prior condition for understanding,
peaceful coexistence and communion."
"Our meeting today truly calls us to hope," John Paul II said.
"We feel a growing desire for a more profound communion among us, and we
perceive with greater clarity the path we must follow."
"An experience of fraternal participation and reciprocal respect of our
legitimate differences might serve as encouragement to get to know one another
better and also to collaborate in other contexts and circumstances, every time
an occasion presents itself," the Pope clarified.
Thus, there can be progress toward "the goal to which we must tend so that
Eastern and Western Christians might meet fully and make the fullness of the
catholicity of the Church shine," he added.