Vatican reaches out to Orthodox

In a message marking the feast of the apostle Andrew, patron saint of the Orthodox world, Pope Francis urged Catholics and Orthodox to offer a “credible and effective witness” to the Christian values of trust, respect, charity and reconciliation.

The message was hand-delivered to the Orthodox leader Patriarch Bartholomew (pictured) in Istanbul by the head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch, who led a delegation to the Patriarchal Church of St George for the feast of St Andrew on Monday.

The Pope recalled his own visit to Turkey a year ago, as well as the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of the lifting of mutual excommunications by Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras 1 on 7 December 1965. There is no longer “any impediment to Eucharistic communion which cannot be overcome through prayer, the purification of hearts, dialogue and the affirmation of truth”, Pope Francis wrote.

Meanwhile, 16 Orthodox bishops, numerous Orthodox priests and deacons, three Orthodox choirs and approximately 1,000 Orthodox faithful from the Greek, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Georgian Orthodox Churches gathered in Cologne Cathedral for an Orthodox Vesper on 28 November. The reason for the unprecedented festive celebration was to mark the beginning of the two-day Orthodox Churches’ bishops’ conference in Germany.

The Orthodox faithful crowded round the famous Shrine of the Three Kings. Said to contain the bones of the Magi, it is the largest reliquary in the Western world.