- Pope John Paul II's relations with the Eastern Orthodox Church
In May 1999,
Pope John Paul II visitedRomania on the invitation from PatriarchTeoctist of theRomanian Orthodox Church . This was the first time a Pope had visited a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country since theEast-West Schism in1054 , the event that separatedEastern Orthodoxy and Western Catholicism. On his arrival, the Patriarch and the President of Romania,Emil Constantinescu , greeted the Pope. The Patriarch stated, "The second millennium of Christian history began with a painful wounding of the unity of the Church; the end of this millennium has seen a real commitment to restoring Christian unity."On
9 May , the Pope and the Patriarch each attended a worship service conducted by the other (an Orthodox Liturgy and a Catholic Mass, respectively). A crowd of hundreds of thousands of people turned up to attend the worship services, which were held in the open air. The Pope told the crowd, "I am here among you pushed only by the desire of authentic unity. Not long ago it was unthinkable that the bishop of Rome could visit his brothers and sisters in the faith who live in Romania. Today, after a long winter of suffering and persecution, we can finally exchange the kiss of peace and together praise the Lord." A large part of Romania's Orthodox population has shown itself warm to the idea of Christian reunification.John Paul II visited other heavily Orthodox areas such as
Ukraine andBulgaria , despite an occasional lukewarm welcome,Fact|date=February 2007 and he said that an end to the Schism was one of his fondest wishes.With regard to relations with the
Serb Orthodox Church , Pope John Paul II could not escape the controversy of theinvolvement of Croatian Catholic clergy with the Ustasa regime ofWorld War II . In1998 , he beatifiedAloysius Stepinac , theCroatia n war-time Archbishop ofZagreb , a move seen negatively by those who believe that he was an active collaborator with theUstaše fascist regime, which committedgenocide against Serbs as well as Jews. OnJune 22 ,2003 , he visitedBanja Luka inBosnia and Herzegovina , a city inhabited by many Catholics before the 1992-1995 war, but since then predominantly Orthodox. He held a mass at thePetrićevac monastery, a place of considerable controversy and distress, both duringWorld War II and during theYugoslav wars . [http://www.nationalcatholicreporter.org/word/word0627.htm]Catholics in
Belarus (at least 10-15% of the population) had hoped for the Pope to visit their country, a trip he himself wished to make. Resistance from the Russian Orthodox Church and Belarusian PresidentAlexander Lukashenko , however, meant the visit never happened.The Pope had been also saying during his entire pontificate that one of his greatest dreams was to visit
Russia , but this never occurred. He had made several attempts to solve the problems which arose over a period of centuries between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches, like giving back theKazan Icon of the Mother of God inAugust 2004 . However, the Orthodox side was not that enthusiastic, making statements like: "The question of the visit of the Pope in Russia is not connected by the journalists with the problems between the Churches, which are now unreal to solve, but with giving back one of many sacred things, which were illegally stolen from Russia." (Vsevolod Chaplin ).
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