Paul VI, Athanagoras planted seeds of Christian unity

(Vatican Radio)  Pope Francis on Sunday will meet the head of the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople to mark the historic meeting between their predecessors fifty years ago in Jerusalem.

Auxiliary Bishop William Shomali was a 14 year old junior seminarian at the Latin Patriachal school in Beit Jala when Pope Paul VI visited the Holy Land in 1964.  He remembers the day when the Catholic pontiff met his Orthodox counterpart, Patriarch Athanagoras, in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a landmark moment on the laborious path towards Christian unity.

Listen:

“I remember that on that day, the Epiphany, in 1964 it was 0 degrees – very, very cold.  Very gelid.  We went to Bethlehem to welcome Paul VI in that big square in front of the Nativity Church.  We waited for an hour and a half. Finally, the Pope came – my first impression was he was an angel, walking on earth: in white, his look was marvelous, very spiritual.  He was looking at us, blessing everyone.  It took only one minute (before he disappeared) but he left a strong impression on me that I will never forget.  Because I said, ‘it is the first time that the Successor of Peter is coming to the Holy Land, to Bethlehem, to visit the place where Jesus was born.’  It was emotional – but emotion that left a strong impact in my memory and in my heart.  But also I heard  in the same days how he was welcomed in Jerusalem in the Via Dolorosa - he was pushed by people and almost strangled by the crowds.  The opposite of what will happen with Pope Francis who will come in a closed car.  People will not see him in the streets because of the security.  This is exactly fifty years after the opposite of what happened in ’64.”

“Then,” Bishop Shomali continues,  “I was able to look at the pictures of (Paul VI’s) historical encounter  with Patriarch Athanagoras, and to read afterwards, the nice dialogue between both of them.  I was really impressed by the humility of Paul VI and the humility of Athanagoras.  They were really inspired by the Holy Spirit.  And really, they looked for unity.  I believe that if it depended only on these two men  (unity would have been achieved a long time ago).”

Bishop Shomali says the legacy of that historic meeting can be seen today in improved relations between the two Churches.

“First of all, excommunication between the two Churches was removed.  It’s a lot.  I remember that (when) an Orthodox man, used to marry a Catholic woman, she was excommunicated.  She couldn’t take Communion in our Church.  And the opposite was also (the case.)”

Today, Shomali says, such a marriage is a reason to celebrate.   “I remember my father, for fifteen years, didn’t speak with his two nieces because they were married with two Orthodox!  As if they had committed something very, very bad, very shameful.  And I never understood when I was ten years old, why my father couldn’t talk with my nice cousins.  Why?  What bad have they done?  So this atmosphere of suspicion, of looking bad at the others really went (on) forever and then (following Paul VI’s meeting with Athanagoras) there was new trust so that both of them built new relations of trust with each other.  This is very important, the trust.  And when there is trust, we can work together…this is one fruit (of the 1964 meeting).  Another fruit was the removal of hatred in (people’s) hearts.  There was hatred between Catholics and Orthodox!  Hatred is a nasty thing.  Now, there is a strong wish for unity.  I remember that one day, Athanagoras wrote to Paul VI to say ‘how much I wish to celebrate the Eucharist with you before I die.’  Paul VI, the following day, sent him a chalice, to say ‘this is my wish also.’  So, really, something important happened.”

One of the very important things to happen after that meeting Bishop Shomali explains, was the founding of the Orthodox-Catholic committee which continues its mission to bring the two Churches closer.  Most notably, the committee ensures that the leaders of the two Churches meet each year to celebrate the feasts of St. Peter and St. Andrew. 

“Peter and Andrew are brothers,” Bishop Shomali reminds us, “so the Successor of Peter and the Successor of Andrew should also be brothers.  And this exchange of visits really continued to build the trust between the churches.”  So, the fruit of that first encounter fifty years ago is repeated, Shomali says, in these yearly meetings.

Bishop Shomali expresses his profound hope that Sunday’s meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew I “will be the foundation for other steps in the future.”