Archbishop, Orthodox leader to visit pope
The archbishop of San Francisco and the head of the Greek Orthodox Church here embark Nov. 21 on a 12-day ecumenical trip that will include visits with Pope Benedict XVI and the head of the Orthodox Church in Istanbul. In addition, Archbishop George Niederauer and Metropolitan Gerasimos will meet with the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, Archbishop Hieronymos.
At its core, the trip is one of ecumenical dialogue as the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches work toward unity. The two churches split in 1054 over the primacy of the papacy and the nature of the pope’s authority continues to be the major sticking point. The churches accept most of each other’s sacraments including the Eucharist and are working toward a common formula to decide when to celebrate Easter. The trip is titled “Journey of Faith: East and West.”
“We Orthodox and Roman Catholics need to draw close to one another in appreciation of our different traditions, in prayer, in friendship, and in collaborations of service to the Church and the world, “ Archbishop Niederauer wrote in a comment for Catholic San Francisco about the trip. “In those ways we will recognize and overcome the obstacles to eventual communion. Then-Archbishop William Levada and the late Metropolitan Anthony first embarked on such a pilgrimage, and Metropolitan Gerasimos and I, accompanied by members of both of our Congregations, are continuing this graced experience. May God bless it and cause it to bear much fruit.”
There are 250 million Orthodox Christians, in various national churches including the Greek and Russian Orthodox, while there are about 1.1 billion Catholic Christians. Unlike the Catholic Church, the Orthodox national churches operate largely independently of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Istanbul. Metropolitan Gerasimos heads the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco.
The trip will also be an opportunity for Archbishop Niederauer and his companions to get a first-hand look at religious persecution of the Orthodox Church in Istanbul, Turkey, when they visit Patriarch Bartholomew. Patriarch Bartholomew is the 270th successor of the 2,000-year-old Christian church, founded by St. Andrew the Apostle, and is considered first among the Orthodox primates who head national churches.
Archbishop Niederauer and Metropolitan Gerasimos’s trip will include attending Divine Liturgy in St. George Cathedral at the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul to celebrate the feast of St. Andrew Nov. 30. The visitors will also have an opportunity to visit religious and historical sites, including the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel in Rome and the Acropolis in Athens.
The trip, which ends Dec. 2, is a way to further friendship in the San Francisco Bay Area, said Msgr. John Talesfore, rector of the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption. Msgr. Talesfore is accompanying the archbishop and Metropolitan Gerasimos. “They are both men of great warmth,” Msgr. Talesfore said. “There has been significant improvement in the dialogue between Pope Benedict and Patriarch Bartholomew. It inspires us on to our own local experience of Christian unity among the Romans and the Greeks,” Msgr. Talesfore said.
By Valerie Schmalz
