Witness to Hope by George Weigel

Author:George Weigel [Weigel, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0060872292
Publisher: HarperCollins e-books
Published: 2009-10-12T22:00:00+00:00

HERE AND NOW

Even as he scouted the unexplored terrain of twenty-first-century Catholicism in Christifideles Laici, John Paul continued to deal with the Church’s mission here and now: its ecumenical commitment, its social doctrine, its defense of human rights, its post-conciliar divisions, its internal structure, and its bishops.

Andrew Visits Peter

Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I of Constantinople came to Rome on a five-day pilgrimage in December 1987 that marked a public high point in John Paul II’s attempts to reconcile the millennium-long division of Christianity into East and West. After his arrival on December 3, Dimitrios addressed the Roman Curia and the Lateran University on December 4, and spoke to young Catholics at the Basilica of S. Maria in Trastevere on December 6. The possibility of a Church breathing again with its two lungs, the Pope’s favorite metaphor, was powerfully embodied in two liturgical services, a solemn celebration of Vespers at the Basilica of St. Mary Major on the evening of December 4, and a Mass at St. Peter’s the following day, the Second Sunday of Advent in the liturgical calendar.

According to the official announcement, the Vespers service was celebrated “with the participation of Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I.” Both the Pope and the Patriarch preached. Similar language was used to describe the Mass at St. Peter’s: the Mass was “celebrated by Pope John Paul II with the participation of Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I.” John Paul met the Ecumenical Patriarch in the atrium of St. Peter’s. The two leaders processed into the basilica side by side, preceded by an Orthodox deacon and a Latin deacon, each liturgically vested and carrying the Book of the Gospels. Pope and Patriarch kissed the altar together and, after the Pope had incensed it, were seated together in front of the papal altar for the first half of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Word. It was not a concelebration, so John Paul was liturgically vested while Dimitrios wore his choir robe, the mandyas. But it was as close to concelebration as the two “sister Churches” could come at the present moment. The two deacons proclaimed the Gospel in Greek and Latin, the Greek deacon receiving the Pope’s blessing before chanting the reading and the Latin deacon receiving the Patriarch’s. Pope and Patriarch then kissed each other’s lectionaries and blessed the congregation with them. Both men then preached.

The Ecumenical Patriarch referred to the sad fact that “on this propitious day…we gather near the Table of the Lord but are not yet able to serve there together,” and closed by praying that “the Lord grant that the Church may see his day (cf. Acts 2.20), the day of reconciliation, peace, fraternity, and unity.” That seemed to put off the restoration of full communion until the Second Coming of Christ. John Paul, in his homily, had a different timeline in mind. He repeated Vatican II’s declaration that full communion could be achieved on the basis of the relationship that had existed between Rome and the East before 1054: the traditions of

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