In the night he was betrayed Jesus ardently prayed to his Father for the unity of all those who will believe in Him throughout the ages. “I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (Jn 17, 20-21). In actual fact, Christ’s Church was one before the year 1054, when the great schism between East and West unfortunately took place. Like Jesus’ tunic, the Church, in the first millennium of Christianity, was intrinsically “woven from top to bottom” (Jn 19, 23) by the solid bonds of unity in love through her professed faith and sharing the same moral teaching.

After the catastrophic repercussions of the schism, there have been various isolated attempts, most notably the Council of Florence in the 15th century, which tried to seriously restore the unity intended by Christ for his Mystical Body. The latter mentioned courageous endeavour did manage to bring back some of the Eastern Churches, which previously had broken away from the Church of Rome as the result of the 1054 rift. Seeing this pervading grave wound in the Mystical Body of Christ’s believers, the late Pope John Paul II insistently championed the cause of ecclesial reunion. In his elaborate Encyclical Letter ‘On Commitment to Ecumenism’, Ut Unum Sint, the Polish Pope zealously affirmed: “The Church must breathe with her two lungs! In the first millennium of the history of Christianity, this expression refers primarily to the (sisterly) relationship between Byzantium and Rome” (§ 54). Has his fatherly appeal fallen into deaf ears? It seems that it has not. The seed that was diligently planted from Pope John XXIII onwards through the working of the Holy Spirit, has, by now, started giving tangible results.

As a matter of fact, the recent meetings which the Russian Orthodox Archbishop Hilarion Alfeyev had with Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, at the Vatican on 17 and 18 September, augur well for the easing of the process towards full ecclesial reunification between East and West. The comments that Arcbishop Alfeyev, who, since March has been the chairman of the Department of External Affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate, has left to a group of journalists after his meeting with Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Kasper, increase high hopes that the eventual reunion between the Catholic West and Orthodox East may in fact happen in our lifetime.

As it stands, Pope Benedict XVI has won the affection, respect and support of Orthodox Christians in Russia, specifically for the inspiring manner he is carrying out his Petrine ministry. On behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Alfeyev expressed the general admiration and backing of our Orthodox brethren for the German Pope, particularly, when he fearlessly promotes and safeguards Christian values, thus bearing witness to the saving truth they impregnate for the salvation of our shattered world. “We support the Pope in his commitment to the defence of Christian values. We also support him when his courageous declarations arouse negative reactions on the part of politicians or public figures or they are criticised and sometimes misinterpreted by some in the mass media. We believe that he has the duty to witness to the truth and we are therefore with him even when his word encounters opposition.”

The Russian Orthodox Prelate pointed out that there are many areas in which Catholic and Orthodox faithful can cooperate together to evangelise, in their own way, our de-Christianised world, ravaged as it is by consumerism, hedonism, practical materialism and moral relativism. This current spiritual decaying of our secular society calls for an urgent Catholic-Orthodox joint response in order that Christ’s hope is reinstalled in people’s hearts. Although the work that needs to be done is enormous, a sincere openness for cooperation from both sides can, in fact, accomplish miracles.

In this regard, Archbishop Alfeyev affirmed: “All Christians, and especially we Orthodox and Catholics, can and must respond together to these challenges. Together we can propose to the world the spiritual and moral values of the Christian faith. Together we can offer our Christian vision of the family (and) affirm our concept of social justice, of a commitment to protect the environment (and) to defend human life and its dignity.”

Such a Christian vision of cooperation, which is powerfully endorsed by the Russian Orthodox Church, fully accords with the kind of cooperation Pope John Paul II heartily understood and proposed in Ut Unum Sint. “Relations between Christians are not aimed merely at mutual knowledge, common prayer and dialogue. They presuppose and from now on call for every possible form of practical cooperation at all levels: Pastoral, cultural and social, as well as that of witnessing to the Gospel message. ‘Cooperation among all Christians vividly expresses that bond which already unites them, and it sets in clearer relief the features of Christ the Servant’.

This cooperation based on our common faith is not only filled with fraternal communion, but is a manifestation of Christ himself. Moreover, ecumenical cooperation is a true school of ecumenism, a dynamic road to unity. Unity of action leads to the full unity of faith: ‘Through such cooperation, all believers in Christ are able to learn easily how they can understand each other better and esteem each other more, and how the road to the unity of Christians may be made smooth’. In the eyes of the world, cooperation among Christians becomes a form of common Christian witness and a means of evangelisation which benefits all involved. (§40).

The crowning of the abovementioned cooperation which Pope Benedict XVI and Patriarch Kirill suggest, would surely be brought to its fruition when the two spiritual leaders will eventually meet as brothers to one another. To this end Archbishop Alfeyev sounded optimistic. “Personally, I hope that sooner or later the meeting that many are awaiting between the Pope and the patriarch of Moscow will take place. I can say with responsibility that on both sides there is the desire to prepare such a meeting with great care.” If the latter meeting will occur it would be a convincing sign that both Catholic and Orthodox have seriously listened to and put into practice Christ’s keen wish that his disciples would be one so that the world may believe that He and His Father are one. In Archbishop Hilarion’s words, such a fraternal meeting would also demonstrate that “our Christian preaching can have effect, can be convincing also in our contemporary world, if we are able to live this mutual love between us, Christians.”

Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap.