Ecumenism: Pope Meets Patriarch

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On his historic three-day trip to Israel and Jordan at the end of this week, Pope Paul VI plans to meet Athenagoras I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and first among equals of the world's Orthodox bishops. The encounter will be the first between a Pope and a Patriarch of Constantinople since the Council of Florence in 1439, when the breach between the eastern and western branches of Christendom—then 400 years old—was momentarily healed.

"They will meet in a spirit of Christian fraternity," said a Vatican official, meaning no more than that. After Paul announced, at the closing of the Vatican Council's second session last month, that he intended to visit the Holy Land, the Patriarch suggested that the trip be turned into a "summit conference" of the world's Christian leaders. The Vatican's Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity responded by sending Father Pierre Duprey to Istanbul with a letter for Athenagoras explaining that Paul was going as a pilgrim to pray at Christian shrines, but also expressing the Pope's willingness to meet the Patriarch and establish a friendship.

Duprey returned with the news that Athenagoras was eager for the meeting, although as spokesman for Orthodoxy he had first to get the approval of the other patriarchates and autocephalous churches. By last week Athenagoras felt that the consensus favored his going, dispatched two prelates to the Vatican to work out final details of the encounter.

"Too Dramatic." The two churchmen will meet on the morning of Jan. 6—a date celebrated by both Rome and most of Orthodoxy as the Feast of the Epiphany. The site, proposed by the Vatican, will be the residence of the apostolic delegate in Jordanian Jerusalem. Rome ruled out any confrontation at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher as "too dramatic," although the two men may go there later to join in common prayer. It is expected that the Pope and Athenagoras will talk for about an hour and exchange gifts.

During a busy Christmas week, in which he received an enthusiastic welcome (including the gift of a white lamb) from one of Rome's working-class areas, Pope Paul described his pilgrimage as "a journey of prayer, made with humility and with love." In fact, the trip will be a protocol-hedged ordeal for the Pope, who will have to pray while under the eyes and cameras of more than 1,000 newsmen, 8,000 policemen and 500,000 Jordanians and Israelis. The trip was planned to avoid adding to Near Eastern tensions, but some bitterness inevitably was aroused; Arab papers complained about the Pope's visiting Israel as well as Jordan, and Jerusalem's Chief Rabbi refused to take part in Israel's welcoming ceremonies.

With his retinue of about 30 clerics and guards, Pope Paul will leave Italy early on Jan. 4 by a leased Alitalia DC-8, which will fly around Israel and get an escort of Jordanian Air Force fighter planes before setting down at Amman around noon. Despite the personal character of his trip, the Pope will have to accept the pomp of welcome due to a head of state: King Hussein will be on hand to greet him, and cannons will roar out a 21-gun salute.