Pope Benedict’s First Papal Visit Highlights Christian Unity with Orthodox Church

Sunday 29th May marked the first mission trip that Pope Benedict XVI has made since being chosen as the 265th leader of the Roman Catholic Church on 19th April. The three and a half hour trip to the Adriatic port of Bari, Italy, was short in length, however, it once again proved Pope Benedict’s ecumenical commitment in uniting the Christian body of all traditions, including the Orthodox Church which has previously been a sensitive topic in the history of Catholicism.

Arriving by helicopter, Pope Benedict declared a message of reconciliation and healing on the historical place, the home to the relics of St. Nicholas of Myra, a fourth-century saint popular among both Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians, according to the Associated Press.

At the Mass with a 200,000-strong congregation, Pope Benedict said, "I want to repeat my willingness to make it a fundamental commitment to work, with all my energy, toward reconstituting the full and visible unity of Christ's followers."

"I also ask all of you to decisively take the path of spiritual ecumenism, which in prayer will open the door to the Holy Spirit who alone can create unity."

More than ordinary words, he urged even the ordinary Catholics to reach out to Orthodox Christians in concrete actions.

As widely anticipated by Christian leaders as a loyal follower of his predecessor Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict has put reaching out to the Orthodox and other Christians the first priority of his papacy. His speech yesterday was welcomed by Orthodox Church leaders.

Father Vsevolod Chaplin, foreign relations chief for the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church said to the Associated Press, the Church is ready to "revitalise the dialogue" with the Roman Catholic Church.

Grant White, the principal at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge, Britain, however commented, "The statement was a bit of a surprise. We knew that the Orthodox were on the pope's agenda someplace, but not so conspicuous and not so soon ... I am encouraged by it."

Apart from the Orthodox Church, Pope Benedict has also attempted to open the Vatican-China relationship gradually over the past few weeks. In fact, Pope Benedict has made a great breakthrough surpassing the legacy of John Paul II who had not touched on sensitive dialogue with China. Currently, the Beijing government has showed interest to move forward but insisted that the Vatican’s ties with Taiwan must be severed, and this would be a "non-negotiable" condition for progress.