Papal Call for Christian Unity Gets Cool Reception

Pope John Paul II arrived in Georgia on Monday calling for “new bridges” between the long-estranged Eastern and Western branches of Christianity. But he met a wall of silence from the country’s Orthodox Christian patriarch.

The patriarch, Ilia II, refused to be drawn into an open discussion of Christian unity. In three joint appearances, he addressed the Roman Catholic leader only as a statesman, asking his help in resolving Georgia’s worldly problems.

Their awkward encounters showed the elusiveness of the pope’s dream of “total communion” with the Eastern churches that broke from Rome more than a millennium ago. That ideal faces resistance in many of the world’s 15 Eastern Orthodox churches, including the one in this former Soviet republic.

John Paul had hoped for an ecumenical breakthrough after communism collapsed. Arriving here in the capital Monday, the pope greeted Georgian President Eduard A. Shevardnadze and said his liberal policies as Soviet foreign minister had played a “substantial part” in the breach of the Berlin Wall 10 years ago today.

Throughout the 1990s, however, Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians have feuded over church property and Catholic missionary work in Russia and elsewhere. Last week, the Russian Orthodox patriarch, Alexy II, said John Paul is still “not welcome” in his country, prompting the pope to decry what he called “the scandal of a divided Christianity.”

Georgia is only the second predominantly Orthodox country to welcome a Roman pope. The two-day visit follows a groundbreaking May encounter in Romania, where John Paul and Orthodox prelates jointly led each other’s religious services.

No joint services were scheduled here, the patriarch’s spokesman said, because Georgian Orthodox canon law forbids them. The two leaders’ only joint statement, issued in writing, urged “decisive action” by world statesmen to settle ethnic conflicts here in the Caucasus region.

The 79-year-old Polish pope and his 66-year-old host, who have headed their respective churches and known each other since the late 1970s, stood together at Tbilisi’s airport, in the patriarch’s palace and in the Sveti-Tskhoveli Orthodox Cathedral. They took turns speaking but did not pray--together or separately.

Their speeches appeared to talk past each other.

The pope said it was time to acknowledge “in a spirit of sorrow and repentance, the divisions which have arisen between us during this millennium, in open contradiction to the will of the Lord, who prayed that all his disciples might be one.”

“My presence among you now is a sign of how deeply the Catholic Church desires to foster communion with the Georgian church,” he said. “We must build new bridges so that with one heart and mind Christians may together proclaim the Gospel to the world.”

The patriarch said he valued the pope’s visit for the international attention it brings to Georgia, which is trying to make a case to the West that the nation belongs in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

He asked the pope to help Georgia’s government find support for 300,000 war refugees who fled violence in the separatist province of Abkhazia in the early 1990s.

Addressing the pontiff as the head of the Vatican city-state, he said: “We hope that friendly relations between our countries will become stronger and broader.”

Not once did Ilia acknowledge the ecumenical theme of John Paul’s visit, and only once did he hint at his reason for being evasive: He complained that “various kinds of sects and religious movements from foreign countries” are exploiting Georgia’s poverty to proselytize among the needy by luring converts with “so-called humanitarian aid.”

His complaint did not mention Roman Catholics. But other Orthodox Christians said they oppose closer ties with the Vatican precisely because they might lead to stronger competition from the country’s 100,000-strong Roman Catholic minority. Most of Georgia’s 5.4 million people are Orthodox.

“If, as a result of the pope’s visit, the Catholic Church flourishes and its proselytism grows stronger, then we’re against it,” said Georgi Andriadze, a lay representative of the Orthodox patriarchate serving in Georgia’s parliament.

“It’s an ancient, ancient battle,” said Olga Gogitidze, a Russian-born Roman Catholic here. Orthodox leaders “just don’t recognize a relationship with other Christians.”

Ilia has voiced support for ecumenical ties with Catholics but faces growing opposition from traditionalists in his church. Shevardnadze, who is close to the patriarch, pushed hard for the pope’s visit, but until a few weeks ago, the patriarch was trying to put it off until 2001.

In a curious role reversal, it was Shevardnadze, rather than the patriarch, who addressed the pope as a religious figure. As John Paul stepped off an Air India jet from New Delhi, the former Communist Party boss told him: “Through centuries of imperialism and totalitarianism . . . the Georgian people never lost their faith in God.”

The pope looked tired throughout the long day but perked up as he entered the 11th century cathedral in the evening. “For me, this is indeed a moment of true blessing,” he said, calling the beautifully frescoed church “a haven of spiritual strength for the nation.”

Hundreds of worshipers packed the stone cathedral, built in the ancient capital of Mtskheta, where Georgia accepted Christianity in 337. A phalanx of Orthodox clerics locked arms to hold an admiring, mostly Catholic crowd back from the pope.