Making one of his most forthright speeches ever on the desirability of Christian unity, Pope John Paul II yesterday called on all Christians to use the inspiration of the Holy Year to renew their ecumenical commitment.
The Pope's remarks came during an ecumenical service at the Basilica of St Paul's Without the Walls in Rome. The ceremony, attended by representatives of 22 churches, was described by the Vatican as "the most significant ecumenical event" of the year.
Flanked on one side by the president of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, and on the other by Metropolitan Athanasios, representing the Ecumenical Patriarch, Patriarch Bartholomeos of Constantinople, the Pope opened a symbolic "Holy Door" in the basilica. This was the fourth such door the Pope has opened since he welcomed in the Jubilee Year by opening a door in St Peter's on Christmas Eve.
Looking and sounding well, the 79-year-old Pope occasionally stopped to smile and nod as his slow progress up the central aisle of the packed basilica was punctuated by bursts of applause.
The congregation included representatives of the Orthodox Churches of Greece, Russia, Romania and Serbia as well as the Patriarch of Antioch, the Coptic Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria, the president of the Methodist World Council, the president of the Lutheran World Federation and senior cardinals.
The Pope told them the Second Vatican Council "justly recalled that division openly contradicts Christ's will, is cause for scandal and damages the most holy cause of the teaching of the Gospel".
His address was the focal point of the ceremony in which representatives of the churches shared in readings, professions of faith and prayers but did not concelebrate the Eucharist. Some Protestant church denominations, including Baptists and Seventh Day Adventists, had declined to take part in the Eucharist.