From Jubilee to Mission: the footsteps of Christ and the journeys of St. Paul

During the Great Jubilee of the year 2000, Pope John Paul II visited many of the places where God’s self-revelation took place. He spent some days in the Holy Land itself, where Jesus was born and where he preached, worked miracles, suffered, died and rose. The Pope wanted to visit all the places linked historically with divine revelation as we celebrated the 2000th anniversary of the birth of our savior.

Between his resurrection from the dead and his ascension to the Father, Jesus gave his mission of salvation to the Church. After the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the apostles took up this mission. The foremost missionary of the apostolic age was St. Paul; and Pope John Paul II, after the Jubilee, is now retracing part of Paul’s missionary journeys. From May 4 to 9, the Holy Father will visit Greece, where Paul preached and organized local Churches in many cities; Syria, where he stayed right after his conversion; and the island of Malta, which he visited when he was shipwrecked. As the Pope invited us to enter into the history of revelation during the Jubilee, he now invites us to enter into the history of the apostolic mission at the beginning of the third millennium.

During the Holy Father’s trip, I hope Catholics of the Archdiocese will accompany him and those he visits with their prayers. This journey to Greece and his trip to Ukraine in late June, along with his trip to Armenia in September, bring the Pope into lands where most Christians belong to the Orthodox Church or, in the case of Armenia, to an Oriental Church which is not in full communion with either the Byzantine Orthodox or the Catholic Church.

The Holy Father has often prayed that the Church visibly breathe with two lungs, East and West. Since many Orthodox Christians are Slavs, this Polish Pope believes he is called to play a particular role in reconciling Orthodox and Catholics. In the last 25 years, theological dialogue has taken place, diplomacy has been brought into play, and now the Pope is paying personal visits. What can he and we expect to happen?

Given the Holy Father’s track record on personal appearances, I believe his visits will in some way advance the goal he so earnestly desires. If they do, however, it will be in the face of a lot of local opposition. What we choose to remember and what we choose to forget forge our identity now and determine what is possible in the future. Both Orthodox and Catholics remember historical incidents which are hurtful. It would be good if both Churches could, together, re-read our respective histories with penitent hearts rather than resort to name-calling. And name-calling there is, especially on the part of some elements of the Greek Orthodox Church in Greece, who have taken to calling the Pope “the two-horned grotesque monster of Rome.”

Even more difficult will be the trip to Ukraine in June. Ukrainian Eastern Catholics have re-claimed many churches and properties that were stolen from them under Stalin with the connivance of the Russian Orthodox Church. Between 1946 and 1989, the Ukrainian Catholic Church was illegal and existed underground, with many of its bishops, priests, nuns and faithful suffering in Soviet prisons. The Russian Orthodox Church has never admitted to the part it played in the persecution of Eastern Catholics, however, largely because many Russian Orthodox still don’t believe that Ukrainian Eastern Catholics have a right to exist at all. Eastern Catholics should simply become Orthodox, the argument goes. The basic anomaly, however, is not the existence of Eastern Catholic Churches but the situation of apostolic Churches not in communion with each other and with the apostolic see of Rome.

Even when Catholics are conceded a right to exist, Orthodox will sometimes argue that they have no right to exist on Orthodox “canonical territory”. These are lands where the established Church has been Orthodox because Orthodox Christians have faithfully preached the Gospel and celebrated the sacraments there for many centuries. The apostolic ideal of a single bishop and altar in each city remains strong for them. The Catholic Church has tried to respect these sensitivities, but only up to the point where respecting them would mean pastorally abandoning thousands of Catholics, whether Latin or Eastern. There are Catholic bishops in Russia for the same reason there are Orthodox bishops in France and Italy: the faithful of any Church have a right to their own bishops. There are Catholic faithful in historically Orthodox lands because, in some cases, they have been there for centuries and because, in other cases, they were brought there in the 20th century as forced labor and as prisoners.

The price of anti-papal rhetoric and anti-Catholic teaching over many generations by some Orthodox is very high: the inability now to move forward together toward a reunion of Churches in the apostolic faith, according to the will of Jesus Christ. There are important reasons why Orthodox believe Catholics’ faith is inadequate and vice versa. They should be discussed, but you have to meet in order to have a discussion.

Last March 25, Pope John Paul II wrote to the Metropolitan of Kiev and of all Ukraine, who is under the Patriarch of Moscow: “My upcoming visit ... wishes to demonstrate a constant and respectful attention towards our Orthodox brothers, together with the determined commitment to continue to travel the way of dialogue in truth and charity. ...In order to emphasize this yearning for unity, ... I would strongly desire, on the occasion of my trip, to also meet you, Respected Brother, and to show you personally, with a fraternal embrace, the love which I have for you and for all the faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.”

This letter’s tone represents the love and respect for Orthodox Christians in the Holy Father’s heart as he begins to travel along the path marked off by St. Paul. Today, a missionary journey has to be a “way of dialogue in truth and charity.” We pray that the Holy Father’s trips will encourage and promote this dialogue with the great historic Churches of the East.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Francis Cardinal George, OMI
Archbishop of Chicago