Editorial

By Paul Schratz

More than a year ago Pope Benedict XVI, in his first full-length message as Pontiff, outlined his “primary commitment” as successor to Peter.

It wasn’t cracking down on dissident theologians, contrary to the predictions of many of his detractors. It also wasn’t addressing liturgical errors, inappropriate music, or any of the other goals some of his supporters might have been hoping for.

In a lengthy statement to members of the College of Cardinals in April 2005, the Pope said the main goal of his pontificate would be “to work without sparing energies for the reconstitution of the full and visible unity of all the followers of Christ.”

Many believe ecumenical progress was Pope John Paul II’s greatest desire, and setbacks in that department his hugest disappointment.

This week, Pope Benedict picks up the gauntlet as he heads to Turkey.

He has already made significant overtures toward ecumenism, but now the Pope is reaffirming unity among Christians as his priority. “The Second Vatican Council considered as one of its main objectives the re-establishment of full Christian unity,” he said Nov. 17. “This is also my objective.”

Speaking to participants at the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, led by Cardinal Walter Kasper, Benedict pointed out that progress has indeed been made since Vatican II, “where the observer delegates of the other Churches and ecclesial communities were attentive, but in silence.”

In subsequent decades, that image has evolved to “the reality of a Church in dialogue with all churches and ecclesial communities of East and West,” the Pope said. “The silence has been transformed into a word of communion.”

He noted the tremendous work that has been done internationally as well as the local level. “Fraternity has been rediscovered among all Christians and has been established as the condition of dialogue, co-operation, and common prayer of solidarity.”

The Pope said he was especially moved by the members of other churches and ecclesial communities who came from around the world for the funeral of Pope John Paul II and for his own inauguration. “To share sorrow and joy is a visible sign of the new situation that has been created among Christians.”

How hopeful the Holy Father must be, then, to see that amid the protests among Muslims over his trip to Turkey, there are also positive signs. For instance, Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople says he is awaiting the Pope’s visit with “fraternal love.”

The Pope will visit the Orthodox patriarch at the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, a visit that Patriarch Bartholomew said “will be very important for our country and Orthodox-Catholic relations.”

The Pope will be received by the patriarch and will participate in a Doxology of Peace at the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. George, where mutual veneration of the relics of St. Gregory the Theologian and St. John Chrysostom will be followed by a private meeting between the two Church leaders, according to the Zenit news agency.

The Ecumenical Patriarch, regarded as “first among equals” among Orthodox leaders, described himself as a living witness to the world of Orthodoxy’s painful and redemptive struggle for religious freedom and of the innate dignity of humankind.

A communique from his office said: “As a citizen of Turkey, His All Holiness’s personal experience provides him a unique perspective on the continuing dialogue among the Christian, Islamic, and Jewish worlds.”

After nearly a thousand years of division in Christianity, that unique perspective is badly needed, especially as the Pope arrives in Muslim Turkey, where tensions are still high over his remarks about Islam in Regensburg, Germany, in September.

The further we get from that controversy, and the more perspective we gain on it, the more the Regensburg speech can be seen as a deliberate attempt by Pope Benedict to engage in dialogue and put into action the goals he stated in his first address.

In that address, he said: “I turn to all, also to those who follow other religions or who simply seek an answer to the fundamental questions of life and have not yet found it. I turn to all with simplicity and affection, to assure them that the Church wishes to continue to engage with them in an open and sincere dialogue, in search of the true good of man and of society.”

His visit to Turkey will go a long way in determining whether open and sincere dialogue is something society is ready for.