Pope and leader of Orthodox Christians appeal for Christian unity

(June 30, 2008) Pope Benedict XVI and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople renewed their appeals for Christian unity on Sunday during a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, marking the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. Pope Benedict led the ceremony alongside the leader of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians, and expressed the “common hope of seeing the day of unity draw near.” While acknowledging key differences, Benedict has made healing the 1,000-year-old rift between eastern and western Christianity a priority of his papacy. In his homily, Patriarch Bartholomew said that dialogue between the two branches of Christianity is continuing, despite “numerous difficulties” and that he was praying for these obstacles to be overcome. After centuries of moving apart, the two churches formally split in 1054 over several issues, including the primacy of the pope. The Roman Pontiff and Patriarch Bartholomew have met several times in an effort to promote or to seek a reconciliation. At Sunday’s Mass, Pope Benedict said that Christian unity is even more important in a world that is increasingly connected by technical means, but is unable to resolve its conflicts. “In today's world there are new instruments of unity which, however, also create new conflicts and give new strength to old ones,” he said. “In the midst of this external unity, based on material goods,” Pope Benedict said, “we have an even greater need for interior unity, which comes from the peace of God.”
The Mass celebrated on the first day of the Pauline Jubilee Year, to mark the 2000^th birth anniversary of Paul the Apostle, had a strong ecumenical tone. The leaders of the two Churches delivered the homily, recited the profession of faith and conferred the final blessing. The Mass also included readings from the Gospels in Latin and Greek by Catholic and Orthodox clerics. Pope Benedict and Patriarch Bartholomew also prayed together in Greek. During the Mass marking the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Pope Benedict conferred on 41 archbishops from around the world, the pallium, a white woolen stole symbolizing their bond with the Pope, the Successor of St. Peter, the first bishop of Rome. Two other archbishops, namely William D'Souza of Patna, India, and Edward Tamba Charles of Freetown and Bo, Sierra Leone, were unable to be present at the Mass and hence are being sent the pallium. At the end of the Mass, Pope Benedict and patriarch Bartholomew descended to the crypt below and silently prayed at the tomb where the remains of St. Peter are believed to be buried.
Earlier on Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI joined Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople in launching the Pauline Jubilee Year to mark the 2000^th birth anniversary of St. Paul the Apostle. Presiding over an evening Vespers service at Rome's Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls, which houses a marble sarcophagus believed to contain the remains of the 1st century apostle, the Pope joined the spiritual head of Orthodox Christians, calling for unity among the followers of Christ. "We, although being many, are one body only," the pope said, referring to the ties that unite Christians.” "St. Paul reminds us that the full communion among all Christians finds its grounds in a single father, a single faith and single baptism," Benedict said in an address to earlier on Saturday, when he welcomed Patriarch Bartholomew in the Vatican.
St. Paul was born in Tarsus, in what is now Turkey, at the start of the Christian era, sometime between A.D. 7 and 10, according to church historians. After his conversion on the road to Damascus, he became one of the church's foremost evangelizers, first among Jews, then among Gentiles, or non-Jews. He was beheaded in Rome. Pope Benedict XVI announced the Pauline year in June 2007, saying the church needs modern Christians who will imitate the apostle's missionary energy and spirit of sacrifice. During Saturday’s ceremony, Pope Benedict lit a votive lamp that will burn continually during the jubilee, which ends on June 29, 2009, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. The year long celebration will include numerous special liturgies, symposiums and special events in Rome and across the globe.