Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land - 05/05/2001 info: custodia@netvision.net.il |
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Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land - 05/05/2001 info: custodia@netvision.net.il |
Address by the
Archbishop of Athens and all Greece
Athens: 04.05.2001
Archbishop Christodoulas to Pope John Paul II of Rome
Your Holiness, Pope John Paul II of Rome, we bid You welcome!
We feel it a special honor that the Primate of the Church of Rome has expressed his desire to visit us as the
Primate of the Orthodox Church in Greece while on a pilgrimage in our Homeland. We are especially moved by
the fact that at the center of this pilgrimage stands the figure of the Apostle Paul, founder of our Church. His
teaching to the Athenians laid the foundations for the spiritual identity of all Christian peoples, especially those
of Europe. By this teaching was revealed to us the gift of the love of God and of our redemption in Christ.
Truly, "while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we are now justified by His blood
much more shall be saved by Him from wrath. For if while we were enemies were reconciled to God by the
death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved in His life". (Rom. 5, 8 - 10)
A Pope of Rome is visiting Athens for the first time in history. This event brings us joy. Our joy however is
overshadowed by the fact of our division. Dogmatic and ecclesiological reasons, existing for a millennium,
poison the atmosphere and negate the necessary conditions that would have allowed for your visit to be
fruitful and to have borne results. The anathemas have been lifted, by the grace of God. The causes that
brought them about however, have not.
In spite of the above, the Church of Greece wishes to address to You, through me, a word of love and truth,
devoid of conventional courtesies, because only if we "speak the truth in love" (Eph. 4, 15) and admit our
errors can we hope to arrive unto the unity of faith.
Your Holiness,
Understandably a large part of the pleroma of the Church of Greece opposes your presence here, though St.
Mark of Ephesus, expressed our tradition when he said in Ferrara, while addressing Pope Eugene IV in 1438:
"Our Head, Christ our Godí does not tolerate that the bond of love be taken from us entirely". (PO, xvii,
198)
We wish to explain the reactions of this people because Your visit to the city of Athens functions as an
unusual stimulus for "cleansing of ecclesial memory" from the traumatic experiences, that resulted from the
unbrotherly behavior of the western Christian world towards the Orthodox peoples through the second
millennium, since the Great Schism of 1054.
These reactions express not only explicit censure of the unacceptable acts of violence perpetrated against
concerned Orthodox peoples, but also the demand of Orthodox conscience for a formal condemnation of
injustices committed against them by the Christian West. This would facilitate the advancement of a spirit of
constructive dialogue in our bilateral relations. The Orthodox Greek people, more than other Orthodox
peoples, senses more intensely in its religious consciousness and national memory the traumatic experiences,
that remain as open wounds inflicted on its vigorous body, as is known to all, by the destructive mania of the
Crusaders and the period of Latin rule, as well as by the unlawful proselytizing of the Latin Unia. Yet until
now, there has not been heard even a single request for pardon.
Indeed, on many occasions in our history, our people bitterly noted that the powerful Church of Rome denied
it during difficult moments; that, she frequently oppressed its ecclesial conscience; and that, she wronged it
even with regard issues of its national concern. It would be useless for us to set forth a list of events, either
from among those that belong to the past, or among those that remain as sores on the historical body of the
Church. The problem of Unia, for example, which constitutes the basic reason for the blockage of the Roman
Catholic and Orthodox theological dialogue. That which is important is that we await a courageous word to be
uttered by Your lips, the word of a Christian Bishop that speaks to our heart. This word must set the
foundation stone on which shall be built understanding, forgiveness and reconciliation.
Surely Your bold word will not automatically resolve our dogmatic and ecclesiological differences. This shall
be achieved with the grace of God through a sincere theological dialogue, which already has been taking
place over the last two decades, albeit facing hurdles. The dialogue in truth between the Roman Catholic and
Orthodox Churches must be based on the common Apostolic faith of the undivided Church of the seven
Ecumenical Councils and on our Patristic Tradition. "We seek", together with our Holy Father St. Mark of
Ephesus, "and we pray for our return to that time when, being united, we spoke the same things and there
was no schism between us". (Acta Graecorum, p 53)
In this common course we have as illustrious examples the God - bearing Fathers of the Church of the first
millennium, both Eastern and Western. They illumined, and continue to illumine both by their word and deed,
the spiritual course of the Church in this world. Thus they showed themselves not only as brilliant examples of
men who placed the greater interest of the Church of God, before all personal or worldly expedience, but also
as the diachronically fixed criterion for the continuous confirmation of the healthy functioning of ecclesiastical
memory.
Your Holiness, representing the two thousand year historical course of Western Christendom, is well aware of
the priceless contribution of the Greek Holy Fathers of the East to the formation of the spiritual legacy of the
Christian world of the West, as for example Saints Athanasius the Great, Basil the Great, Gregory the
Theologian, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Irenaeus of Lugdunum, Maximus the Confessor. Without
them the establishment of Western Tradition in its entirety would have been difficult, if not impossible. This can
be readily seen in the declarations concerning the relations of the Roman Catholic with the Orthodox Church
made by the Second Vatican Synod (1962-1965). Thus, Your Holiness in the recent encyclical "Ut unum sint"
proposed that all differences that have disrupted the communio in sacris, be dealt with on the basis of the
Patristic and the wider ecclesiastical Tradition of the first millennium.
Your Holiness also is well aware that the Orthodox Church, having held firmly on to the common Tradition of
the first millennium, lives and experiences the entire mystery of Divine Economy in Christ, in the Holy
Eucharist par excellence, not simply as remembrance, but as continuous manifestation of the Holy Spirit, Who
composes and sustains the entire institution of the Church. In it also is preserved the resounding voice of the
Western Fathers, as for example of Saints Cyprian of Carthage, Ambrose of Milan, Augustine of Hippo, Leo of
Rome, Gregory Dialogus, Martin the Confessor Pope of Rome et al. Through their voice was strengthened the
communion of faith in the bond of love. We yearn therefore to return to this unity. Henceforth, "being eager
to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" may we reach that point when we all confess "one
body and one Spirit, just as we were called to the one hope that belongs to our call, one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all". (Eph. 4, 3 - 6)
Walking uprightly, we wish to work, with the Lord's blessing, for the formation of a United Europe. We hail
Your decision to recognize the enlightening and civilizing mission in Europe of our Greek Saints Cyril and
Methodius, from Macedonia. The time has come for us to work together in order to welcome the Slavic, Baltic
and other European peoples, both those who are Orthodox and those who are not, and Cyprus, into the bosom
of United Europe.
It should be noted that, even though the Apostolic island of Cyprus groans for a quarter century as a result of
barbarous partition, a victim of brutal ethnic cleansing, having suffered hecatombs of dead and missing martyrs
on behalf of liberty, living through constant vandalism and looting of its most beautiful Christian monuments,
she has not heard even one statement of sympathy on the part of Your Holiness, even though You have
frequently and justifiably intervened on behalf of different peoples of our planet.
The time has come for us to coordinate our efforts to assure that Europe remain a Christian land, away from the
apparent tendency to transform her nations into atheist states, denying their Christian identity.
The time has come for us to work for a United Europe, that respects its minorities as well as the freedom of each
of its peoples to retain its faith, its language, its culture and its tradition, in other words, its spiritual identity.
Having always before us His will, we shall work, neither to increase the influence of one Church at the expense
of another, nor to reinforce our superiority on the basis of secular criteria, that are foreign to our spirituality, but
in order to contain the insatiable appetite of injustice, to relieve the suffering of God's children, to offer to man
of the twenty first century the one Gospel of life, grace and freedom; to put forth the hope of faith to
contemporary man who, while inundated by material goods and technological achievements, greatly suffers
from the lack of hope, inner peace and certitude.
Your Holiness,
We wholeheartedly wish You a blessed stay in our homeland. Even more, we wish that Your visit constitute
the beginning of positive developments in the great matter of the unity of all, and that it should be for the glory
of God.
Amen.
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