A Seed Planted

"This moment, Your Holiness," said Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople, "is one of the most significant for mankind. Humanity at its highest spiritual level has the opportunity at last to guide the world toward peace." Pope Paul VI, gesturing animatedly, often clasping his hands in prayer, replied: "Your Holiness, we must bring our churches closer together. It will not be easy, but we are already on the right road. Nothing is insurmountable in our striving to unite mankind, but we must unite beforehand."

So spoke the highest-ranking prelates of Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, the branches of Christianity sundered in the great schism of 1054. Their meeting, at the residence of the Vatican's Apostolic Delegate to Jordan on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives, was the first encounter of Pope and Patriarch since a tentative reconciliation in 1439, and it became a meeting of brothers. Responding to one of Paul's remarks, Athenagoras once demurred: "I am not a Holiness, only a patriarch." "You are Holiness to your people," the Pope answered, taking Athenagoras' hand. "I am Holiness to mine."

"I want to know your ideas and those of your church," said Paul, adding somewhat optimistically that there were only two or three points of doctrine dividing the churches, and that they could be resolved by theological studies. Thus, the Pope in effect agreed to establish a dialogue between the two churches, which Orthodoxy had proposed at a conference at Rhodes last fall. Then, in a spirit of joy and brotherhood, the two men summoned their retinues to join them in the solemn chanting of the Lord's Prayer.

New Prestige. The meeting was the high point of Pope Paul's extraordinary trip to the Holy Land, which, among its other claims to historical notice, added a new dimension to the image of the modern papacy created by Paul's predecessors. Through his countless audiences and learned addresses, the austere and ascetic Pius XII made the figure of the Pope an impressive reality to millions of Catholics and non-Catholics alike. By summoning the second Vatican Council, the fatherly Pope John XXIII put the power and influence of his office behind what promises to be a striking internal reform of Catholicism. His Holy Land trip suggested that Pope Paul VI, also, has plenty of imagination and authority, and that he may be a warmer man than past appearances would indicate.

By praying at shrines in Israel and Jordan that honor events in Jesus' life, he dramatically brought to mind Christianity's roots in Judaism, and its historic links with the Old Testament, and even with Islam. By meeting with Athenagoras, he created an "opening to the East" that John had only dreamed about. By traveling in a jet aircraft he made it clear that a modern bishop of Rome need not be a prisoner of Italy.

Hurt Feelings. Yet the Holy Land trip was no unalloyed triumph. The Pope's dream of a peaceful pilgrimage was shattered by the glare of modern publicity (see PRESS), and despite a determined effort to be diplomatic, Paul managed to step on the acutely sensitive toes of Jordanians, Israelis and Orthodox alike.

On his first day in the Holy Land, Jordan had surprised the Pope with huge, unruly crowds and roughneck, rifle-swinging guards. Israel surprised--and disappointed--the Pope with its cool disinterest. During his 11 1/2-hour trip Sunday to the holy places in what Jordanians called "occupied Palestine," fewer people than expected lined his carefully policed route. Shrugged one Orthodox Jew: "If our Chief Rabbi went to Rome, how many would come to see him?"

Israelis were pleased when Eugene Cardinal Tisserant, at the Memorial Room of the Holocaust at Mount Zion, lighted six candles in memory of the Jewish dead of World War II. But the Pope, who never once referred to Israel as a state, zealously praised the wartime efforts of Pius XII on behalf of the Jews, and obliquely attacked Rolf Hochhuth's Pius-mocking play, The Deputy--which the Israeli government had temporarily banned. Bidding the Pope farewell, President Zalman Shazar quoted a line from Micah: "For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever"--the standard Israeli reply to Christian convert seekers.

The Pope faced more hurt feelings when he crossed back to Jordan. There, King Hussein's government had been offended by a papal speech seeming to imply that only Israel was the Holy Land. Hussein dispatched his Foreign Minister to Vatican Secretary of State Amleto Cardinal Cicognani with a discreet complaint.

Prayer in Bethlehem. The day after his historic meeting with Athenagoras, the Pope drove nine miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. He celebrated Mass at an altar near the spot on which Jesus' manger is believed to have stood, and then delivered the principal speech of his Holy Land visit.

It was a warm and gracious summons to Christian unity and world peace, perhaps the most moving address of Paul's papacy. The speech was full of ecumenical-minded references to the ancient churches of the East. Nonetheless, Orthodox clergy in the Patriarch's retinue were outraged by Paul's plea to the "Roman Christ" and by references to Roman Catholicism as "the one church of Christ."

Afterwards, Paul returned to Jerusalem for another meeting with Athenagoras, this time at the residence of Orthodox Patriarch Benedictos above the Apostolic delegation on the Mount of Olives. The Pope and Athenagoras spoke in private for only five minutes before photographers burst through the doors, much to the prelates' surprise. They exchanged the kiss of peace, and again recited the Lord's Prayer. Then Athenagoras suggested: "Let us read together from the Holy Book." Alternately, in Greek and Latin, the two men read verses from St. John's Gospel.Then the Pope left for Amman and home.

Welcome in Rome. It was a damp and chilly night when Paul arrived in Rome, but he got a royal welcome that far exceeded anything the Eternal City had ever extended to Pius XII or John XXIII. More than 1,000,000 people lined the streets of the city, which were festooned with lights. A banner proclaimed: "Rome welcomes its sweet pastor." As the open-topped car crossed from Italy to the Vatican City, women crashed through police cordons, held up their children and screamed for a blessing.

Even after the motorcade disappeared behind the Vatican walls, some 35,000 people clustered beneath the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace. When the Pope finally appeared at his window, he spoke not as Catholicism's Supreme Pontiff but as a city's pastor, abandoning the magisterial "we" in his informal address. "I want to thank everyone who was in the crowd to welcome me," he said. "I bring you back blessings from Jerusalem where I celebrated Mass this morning. I have had the fortune to embrace, after centuries and centuries, the Patriarch of Constantinople, and to exchange with him words of peace and fraternity. Let us hope that these beginnings bear good fruit and that the seeds grow to maturity."

Meeting of Hearts. Pope Paul and Patriarch Athenagoras, without question, had achieved a meeting of hearts. The Pope, the Patriarch said later, "is full of kindness, has a good heart, a fine mind, and is full of wisdom." But Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy are still nowhere near any meeting of minds, and neither participant at the meeting on the Mount of Olives is likely to see the two churches achieve genuine unity of action, much less corporate union.

For one thing, both Paul and Athenagoras must overcome the intransigence of high-placed lieutenants with an excessive regard for the rights of their churches. In Rome, many Curial conservatives, who almost openly opposed the Holy Land trip, regard unconditional surrender by Orthodoxy as the only formula for union. Athenagoras' ecumenical outlook is profoundly deplored by a majority of the twelve bishops on Greece's Holy Synod, which seems to believe that Orthodoxy can survive only apart from Rome--long-ago sponsor of the crusaders who despoiled Constantinople's Church of the Holy Wisdom.

In the Holy Land, both Paul and Athenagoras implied that the dogmatic differences between the churches were mere trifles that scholars could resolve.

Some of them probably are, such as the long-standing quarrel about the filioque clause in the Nicene Creed* which some Catholic thinkers believe could be settled to Orthodoxy's satisfaction. But other issues cannot so easily be smoothed over.

One major problem is papal infallibility, which Orthodoxy holds is a divine gift to the church, not to one prelate. Another is the existence of dogmas--such as the Marian Assumption and Immaculate Conception--that have been irrevocably defined by Rome but remain merely "pious beliefs" in the East. Other disputed doctrinal issues are the Roman belief in purgatory, which Orthodoxy denies, and the Catholic refusal to permit remarriage after divorce on grounds of adultery.

Perhaps Orthodoxy's greatest complaint against Rome is the existence of the so-called Uniat churches--some 12 million Catholics who accept the Pope as the Vicar of Christ but observe Eastern forms of worship. Orthodox church leaders unanimously regard these Eastern Catholics as spiritual fifth-columnists, seeking to subvert their people from the true and ancient faith.

A Moment of Love. At their second meeting in Jerusalem, Athenagoras asked the Pope: "What do we do now?" "I don't know," the Pope answered. "When I get back I will consult the cardinals and see." Both men seemed to be cautious about building on the good will engendered by their encounter. In Rome, Paul gave the task to further consultations with the Patriarch to the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, headed by the wise old Jesuit Biblical scholar, Augustin Cardinal Bea. Before arranging for any theological dialogue, Bea was waiting to hear from the Patriarch, who faces the slow and difficult task of reconciling the Greeks to what had been accomplished in the Holy Land.

For something had happened there: a moment of love and unity after 900 years of suspicion and separation. Ending the schism would take perhaps centuries more, but the seed of renewal had been planted. Its growth could be slowed --but not stopped forever.

* Since the 11th century, Roman Catholic theology has universally taught that the Holy Spirit descends eternally from the Father "and from the son" (in Latin, filioque). Orthodoxy answers that this clause is an unscriptural and heretical addition to the original creed.

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