2014-11-01 14:10:00

Ecumenical pilgrimage unites East and West at the grass-roots level


(Vatican Radio) Just weeks before Pope Francis’ journey to Turkey to meet with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, several pilgrims have already paved the way.

The Orientale Lumen Foundation, headed by American Eastern Catholic Jack Figel, recently organized an ecumenical pilgrimage to the historic centres of the Christian East and West, Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) and Rome.

The group, comprised of Orthodox and Catholics, both Eastern and Western, aims to promote Christian unity at the grass-roots level among the laity. The pilgrims gathered for prayer at various holy sites in both cities. They also had private audiences with both Pope Francis and Patriarch Batholomew.

Mr. Figel led the group, along with Metropolitan Kallistos Ware of Diokleia, a notable Orthodox bishop and theologian from England, and Fr. Thomas Loya, an American Byzantine Catholic priest and iconographer from Chicago.

Listen to the report by Andrew Summerson:

Mr. Figel said the goal of the pilgrimage was “simply to learn about each other’s churches…and to have a face-to-face dialogue at that local level…to learn about what unites us and the few things that are left that divide us.”

A long-time figure in Catholic-Orthodox dialogue, Metropolitan Kallistos spoke with Vatican Radio about the pilgrimage in relationship to the Pope’s upcoming visit with the Ecumenical Patriarch. Giving some historical perspective, he noted that the meeting of Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras in Jerusalem, in 1964, was the first meeting between the Christians leaders of the East and West, since 1438 at the Council of Florence.

“Such meetings are not as exceptional as they once were. It is quite clear that the present Pope Francis is deeply concerned about union with the Christian East, as were his predecessors, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict.  I welcome this meeting as a sign of the commitment of the new Pope of rapprochement between the Orthodox East and the Catholic West,” he said.

The group leaders were mindful that their pilgrimage to Rome came shortly after the Extraordinary Synod on the Family. Metropolitan Kallistos remarked about the importance of the Synod, saying“the family is greatly under threat.”

He said the Orthodox look to the Synod as an expression of greater synodality in the Catholic Church, a principle which he maintains has not been fully realized in the years following the Second Vatican Council.

Fr. Loya brought his pastoral perspective to the Synod, saying he was grateful the Synod attempted to confront the question of how to “deal with people in irregular situations, which is almost the norm in America”.

 

 








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