Heal old wounds, says Pope

IN RELIGIOUS terms, it was an historic moment. John Paul II, struggling to keep under control the shaking caused by Parkinson's disease, stood on the steps of Bucharest's magnificent, ornate Orthodox cathedral beside the heavily-bearded figure of his Beatitude Patriarch Teoctist, the head of Romania's Orthodox community.

The two Church leaders whispered to each other, then, like a well-practised duet, sang their blessings to the thousands. The event, in a place that borders Serbia, an Orthodox nation under attack by western forces, had political resonance. This three-day trip to Romania marks the first time a pope has visited a country where the majority are of the Orthodox faith. John Paul has also become the first pope to participate in their Orthodox services.

The Pope describes the Roman Catholic church and the Orthodox church, which split from Rome nearly 1,000 years ago, as being like the two lungs of Europe. The visit to Romania is seen by the Vatican as the first step along the path to reconciliation. In a long arrival speech on Friday, delivered entirely in Romanian, the Pope called for an end to the ancient quarrels between Rome and Orthodoxy, saying: "It is time we healed ancient wounds."

In the bright sunshine John Paul rode in his pope-mobile, with Patriarch Teoctist, through a city once known as the Paris of the east but now sadly scarred and down-at-heel. The crowds were subdued. Only about six per cent of Romania's 23 million is Catholic. These include the Greek Catholics, a community of less than a quarter of a million who broke away from the Orthodox church in the 17th century, and who recognise Rome's jurisdiction but follow many Orthodox practices, including allowing priests to marry. For a pope vehemently opposed to married priests, embracing this particular branch of his Church may be somewhat paradoxical.

However, the Pope went out of his way to greet the Greek Catholics. Yesterday, he went to the small Greek Catholic cathedral in Bucharest to say Mass.

The Greek Catholics, suppressed when the Communists took over in Romania in 1948, saw their churches confiscated, and their priests and bishops tortured and imprisoned - a development in part supported by the Orthodox hierarchy. And there are still tensions between the two churches.

The Pope had wanted to visit the heartland of Romania's Greek and Roman Catholics in Transylvania and Moldova. However, the Orthodox hierarchy reportedly lobbied against the trip, fearing that the papal sentiment could cause trouble, particularly among the Hungarian community, many of whom are Roman Catholics.