Prayers for historic visit between pope and patriarch

Pope Francis will begin his historic meeting in Jerusalem with the head of the Orthodox Church, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, on Sunday (May 25). You have a unique perspective on this because for six years, you were co-chair of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation. You even met the patriarch when he came to New Orleans in 2009 for an environmental conference. Can you sum up your responsibilities with that panel?
The committee has had about 80 meetings over the course of many years. It has two chairs – one is an Orthodox bishop and the other is a Roman Catholic bishop. Our goal was to convene theologians from both sides to enable them to dialogue with each other in a very respectful way and debate the topics that were before us. The hope is that one day there might be one flock and one shepherd, that the two churches could be reunited.

Can you sum up what the major source of division is between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church? The Great Schism occurred in 1054, nearly 1,000 years ago.
The official separation occurred on July 16, 1054. A representative of the Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Humbert, was the head of a papal delegation who went to Constantinople and placed a document of ex-communication on the altar of the Orthodox cathedral church of Constantinople. The reasons given for the excommunication were the Orthodox Church’s removal of the term “filioque” from the Creed, their practice of married clergy and their use of leavened rather than unleavened bread for the Eucharist. The “filioque” dispute is theological in nature, but it boils down to this. Filioque means “and from the Son.” The Roman Catholic Church states in its creed that the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, proceeded from both the Father and the Son. The Orthodox Church prefers saying the Holy Spirit proceeded “through the Son.” After “filioque” was officially inserted in the Creed with the Council of Toledo in 589, there then began centuries of mounting tension, which led to the schism in 1054. That separation still exists, although in 1964, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I met each other and lifted the mutual excommunications in a gesture of reconciliation. That has advanced the cause of dialogue. The Orthodox Church has about 300 million members. The Catholic Church has about 1.2 billion members. The things that divide us now really have to do with the way in which the authority of the pope is exercised and the “filioque” theological dispute.

How do you think the meeting between the pope and the patriarch will go?
There’s been a very friendly relationship between the patriarch and the pope for many generations. It’s obvious that Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew want to come together. I think they will come together to show their desire for unity. They will pray together and pray for unity. They will also express their serious concerns about the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and the reality that Christians are being forced to leave the Middle East because of the way they have been treated. Sometimes they can’t find jobs or they are literally persecuted.

2054 is not too far off. Is there a chance for, as Patriarch Bartholomew said he longs for, a “fully shared ecclesial life”?
Miracles are always possible. It’s going to take some real discussion and prayer on both sides. When we would have our Orthodox-Roman Catholic conferences, one of the painful things is that we would participate in the liturgy with one another, but we could not share Communion. When the Orthodox bishop presided, we as Roman Catholics could not go to Communion. When I presided, the Orthodox wouldn’t go to Communion. So while we pray together and the liturgy is reflective of a lot of the same things, we still do not have inter-Communion.

Have there been some in the Orthodox Church who have been less open to seeking unification?
The theologians I was working with were on the front lines of ecumenism, and they were always a very friendly group. The atmosphere at our meetings and during prayer was wonderful. We did a lot of socializing together, and there was always mutual respect, care and concern.

Did you learn a lot from your role on that panel?
I learned a great deal, first of all, about what caused the division and also about the challenges in moving toward unity. There are dialogues between the Orthodox and Roman Catholics in other parts of the world, but it seems as though the one here in the United States seems friendlier and is making a bit more progress. That’s not always reflected in other parts of the world. These divisions happen, as they happen in families. We can never be satisfied to let the divisions continue. We must engage in conversation. We must try to forgive and learn and move toward a sense of unity, even if that takes many more hundreds of years. We can’t wait for the next generation to do it.

Questions for Archbishop Aymond may be sent to clarionherald@clarionherald.org.