Appeal to put aside misgivings inherited from divided past

Western and Eastern Christianity came together in a unique show of unity on Sunday as Pope Francis prayed with the Orthodox Church’s “first among equals” in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The meeting of Pope Francis with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, regarded by their respective Churches as the successors to the Apostles Peter and his brother Andrew, came 50 years after Pope Paul VI met Patriarch Athenagoras here, 900 years after the Great Schism split the two Churches.

The church leaders signed a joint declaration of cooperation that said the meeting marked a “new and necessary step” on “the journey towards the unity to which only the Holy Spirit can lead us, that of communion in legitimate diversity”.

The service, in which both men venerated the place believed to be the empty tomb of Christ, marked the spiritual high point of Pope Francis’ pilgrimage, the official theme of which was: “So that they may be one”. It gave a rare moment of peace to a church often a scene of disputes between the predominant Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox communions.

Pope Francis acknowledged the schism between the Churches. “Clearly we cannot deny the divisions which continue to exist among us,” he said. “[Let] us put aside the misgivings we have inherited from the past.”

Pope Francis rounded off his trip by celebrating Mass in the Upper Room, the site of the Last Supper on Mount Zion, which passed largely without disturbance following a week of sporadic arrests around the Cenacle.

The room is adjacent to the Tomb of David, where Jewish extremists were protesting over speculation that Israel will hand the building over to the Church.

Earlier on Monday, the Pope meditated on the agony of Jesus in Gethsemane during a discourse before priests, Religious and seminarians in the Church of All Nations on the Mount of Olives. On the plane back to Rome, he raised the possibility of Orthodox and Catholic Churches finding a common date for Easter.