ORC Prelate on Pilgrimage to Rome & Assisi

Our heartfelt prayers and best wishes for a fulfilling and safe "Bon Voyage" go out to Msgr. Roger Fawcett, S.T.L., pastor of Christ The King ORC Mission Parish in Manhattan. Father Roger is also a pastoral associate and the VP of our St. Anthony's Bread ORC Mission Apostolate.  He and some priest friends left for Rome and Assisi yesterday* morning with a group from a covenant parish. Their journey there is scheduled for a week and will follow in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi. I hope to accompany my sister on this same spiritual pilgrimage there this fall.

[*For security reasons, I did not disclose their plans prior to their safe arrival there today. Likewise, my sister, a US Navy Commander, and her contingent were asked to quietly fly across country last week on military business in civilian clothes aboard a commercial jet. Such are the tense times we presently live in.]

Today, on this Solemnity of the Apostles Peter and Paul, co-patrons of the Archdiocese of Rome, they may also participate in a historic liturgy when they reach their destination in St. Peter's Square where Pope John Paul II is scheduled to concelebrate the Holy Mass with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. As primus inter pares (first among equals) among all the apostolic patriarchs**, † Bartholomew I will (may?) concelebrate the Divine Liturgy Holy Mass that the Holy Father will preside at.

[**The Apostolic Patriarchs: 1.) His Holiness Pope John Paul II -- The Bishop of Rome and Primus inter pares, 2.) The Patriarch of Jerusalem, 3.) The Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, 4.) The Patriarch of Alexandria and See of Saint Mark 5.) The Archbishop of Constantinople and New Rome -- The Ëcumenical Patriarch.]

Their fraternal meeting together will commemorate the historic encounter 40 years ago in 1964 between Pope Paul VI and the Patriarch Athenagoras when they lifted their mutual excommunications that were pronounced in 1054 and led to the Great Schism between the Churches of the East and the West. Tomorrow, the traditional bilateral talks between the Holy See and Fanar (site of the patriarchal see in Istanbul, Turkey) will be convened.

This is a significant step for ecumenism since the Ecumenical Patriarch usually sends a delegation to Rome, instead of visiting personally. (However, † Bartholomew I had previously visited † John Paul II in 1995.) And beforehand, the Roman Pontiff returned the visit of representatives of the Orthodox Patriarchate by sending a delegation to the Patriarchal See of Constantinople on Nov. 30 for the feast of St. Andrew, founder of the Church in Constantinople and brother of St. Peter, Bishop of Rome.

[The Orthodox clergy will be guests at the St. Martha's Residence in the Vatican until their departure Friday. Our New York brethren will be staying with the Sisters of the Atonement and also with the Trinitarian Fathers while in Rome.]

Now there is a current tension between them. Last Nov. 29th, the Ecumenical Patriarch asked † John Paul II not to establish a Greek-Catholic patriarchate in Kiev, Ukraine which he labeled as "erroneous, confused, unacceptable, provocative," warning His Holiness of the risk of a break in ecumenical relations.

Within that missive to the Pope, † Bartholomew I said there is a danger "of returning to the climate of hostility that reigned up to a few decades ago." Recognition of the primacy of † Peter is a key point in the discussion between Eastern-rite Ukrainian Catholics (who number about 5 million) and the Orthodox. (According to the conciliar decree "Orientalium Ecclesiarum" on the Catholic Eastern Churches, a pope has the faculty to recognize on his own initiative the patriarchal rank of a Church without having to submit this recognition to the consensus of other ecclesial authorities.) If "New Rome" had it's way with "Old Rome" then † Bartholomew I would have all uniate churches suppressed. But that won't happen on this Polish Pontiff's watch!

This Thursday, the Pope will give a restored Roman church, dedicated to the Great Martyr Theodore of Tyre the Tyro (Latin: "newly enlisted recruit")to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy. The church was a Jubilee year gift from Pope John Paul II to the Orthodox Christians who venerate St. Theodore with great devotion. The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I will preside over the inauguration of that church in place of Metropolitan Archbishop Gennadios who is also the Exarch for Southern Europe of the Ecumenical Throne.

Few Christians realize that the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome is the cathedral and see of the Archdiocese of Rome. THAT is where the cathedra (Episcopal Throne) of the Archbishop of Rome (the Roman Pontiff) is canonically situated. Rather, St. Peter's Basilica is the rightful cathedra of the Ecumenical Patriarch. However, His "All Holiness" elects to occupy his seat at St. Sophia's in Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) Turkey. (Perhaps because they refuse to officially recognize the Primacy of St. Peter and his papal successors.) Still, don't even think that the Pope might relinquish that sanctuary to his brother Patriarch. I mention this in consideration of the Roman Patriarch's gift of St. Theodore's church to the Ecumenical Patriarch.