Christian Science Monitor
 FINDING
WHAT UNITES: Pope John Paul II greets Orthodox clerics at St.
George’s church in Quneitra, Syria, as Syrian Greek Orthodox
Archbishop Agnatios Hazim IV waves to onlookers.
PIER PAOLO CITO/AP
As he traces
the footsteps of the Apostle Paul in Greece, Syria, and Malta
this week, Pope John Paul II also appears to be on a larger journey
of Roman Catholic contrition.
During his
trip to Israel last year, the pontiff apologized for Christian
persecution of Jews. On Sunday, he sat with Muslim religious leaders
in a Syria, during the first visit by any pope to a mosque. "For
all the times that Muslims and Christians have offended one another,
we need to seek forgiveness," he said. In Greece Friday,
he asked pardon for his church's sins of "actions and omissions"
toward the Orthodox world, and in particular the Crusade that
resulted in the sacking of Constantinople, the headquarters of
the Orthodox Church.
"I call
him perhaps the most innovative pope we've ever had," says
Vatican-watcher Wilton Wynn, author of "Keeper of the Keys,"
a book about the modern papacy. "He's been pushing the boundaries
back. He feels the church has been static in recent centuries."
John Paul
II has indicated that only by wiping the slate clean at this time
can the Catholic church move forward, some observers say. The
fact that the Western world has entered a new millennium seems
to have heightened the pope's ardor to seek forgiveness and reconciliation.
"Both
as a Christian and as a Pole, he has a very strong perspective
on the Millennium," says John Wilkins, London-based editor
of the international Catholic weekly, The Tablet.
This pope
has traveled more than any other, visiting more than 120 countries,
in an attempt to reach the world with his church's message. Often
the message has been forgiveness.
At St. Peter's
Cathedral in March 2000, during the Catholic Church's Jubilee
Holy Year of pilgrimage to Rome, the pope asked sweeping forgiveness
of what he said were his church's sins committed over the last
2,000 years. At the same time, the Vatican released a document
entitled "Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and its Past
Errors," acknowledging the church's involvement and guilt
in such issues as the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews, the Spanish
Inquisition, and the Crusades.
"It's
a theme of his papacy from way back," says the Rev. Gerald
O'Collins, a professor of theology at the Pontifical Gregorian
University of Rome. "I remember reading some of his retreat
sermons before he became pope. There were also some of these things
there."
The man christened
in Poland as Karol Wojtyla is no stranger to the devastating effect
of cultural clashes. He was raised a Catholic among persecuted
Jews in a central European country tyrannized successively by
Nazis and Communists. This experience seems to have left its mark.
Arguably, a bigger event than the first-ever visit to a mosque
Sunday, was Pope Paul II's visit to a Roman synagogue in 1986.
The pope sees
the need, according to Mr. Wynn, to reach out to others with a
new kind of evangelism, to go as a kind of witness into the world,
and to show other religions that they are respected and that the
Catholic Church is open to working together with them when possible.
"I think
that he wanted to clear the decks. All these things like the Inquisitions
and the mistaken Crusades were blocking [the church's relationship
with the world at large]," says Wynn. "It was something
that put Christians on the defensive. They couldn't deny what
they had done, but they were forced to justify it. Now he says,
'We were wrong, we're sorry about it, and let's go on from here.'
"
One reason
for reaching out to other faiths, analysts say, is that John Paul
II says the great religions must fight together against the common
enemies of materialism and extreme individualism. Moreover, the
pope has desired for years to mend relations with the Orthodox
world, and Wynn sees it as the most likely candidate for "rapprochement,"
as he puts it.
The Catholic
Church requires that the Eucharist be consecrated by priests who
have been ordained in what they consider the apostolic succession,
which includes the ceremonial "laying on of hands."
Catholics would recognize Orthodox priests as so ordained, whereas
they would not recognize ministers of many Christian faiths.
After centuries
of schism, this could lead to an eventual opening to Catholics
worshipping among Orthodox and vice versa, Wynn says.
The reception
in the Orthodox world to the pope's conciliatory tone has so far
been cool.
Dozens of
Greek Orthodox monks protested the pope's visit to Greece. And
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II, whom the pope has repeatedly
said he wants to meet (and who has repeatedly rebuffed the pontiff)
responded coolly to the pope's gesture in Greece.
The pope's
apology seemed aimed mainly at the Crusades, said Alexy, adding,
"It's necessary to see how this apology will be manifested
in actions.'' Next month, the pope plans to travel to Ukraine,
and this plan has upset the Russian Orthodox leader as well as
those in Ukraine.
"I think
the ultimate object was to have a great reunion of the church
of the East and the church of the West," notes Mr. Wilkins.
"But it's gone rather badly."
Unease exists
also within the Catholic Church itself. Commentator Vittorio Messori
wrote in yesterday's prestigious Corriere Della Sera daily, that
there is a part of the Roman Curia (the church administrators)
that says "John Paul II is distorting the past of the church,
is risking exposing it to humiliation, is paying his respects
to its persecutors, is interpreting ecumenism as syncretism, in
which one religion seems to be as good as any other."
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