_WORLD WATCH______________________________
________________Romania_______________
Vatican official marks an ecumenical milestone
Catholic Patriarch welcomed in Orthodox land
Patriarch Ignace Moussa
Daoud, the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Eastern Churches, met in August with Romanian Orthodox Patriarch
Teoctist. Under ordinary circumstances a meeting between a Vatican official and an Orthodox leader might be regarded as routine. But these were not ordinary circumstances.
The five-day visit by Patriarch Daoud, from August 23-28, marked the first time that a Patriarch of an Eastern Catholic Church has visited Romania as representative of the Vatican Congregation. Patriarch Daoud is the former head of the Syrian Catholic Church, who resigned that post in order to take up his new duties at the Vatican. He retains the title of Patriarch, in addition to his status as a cardinal.
Eastern Orthodox leaders have frequently complained about the activities of Eastern Catholic churches. In Romania, tensions between the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Byzantine-rite Romanian Catholic Church had caused a series of angry confrontations in recent years. Relations between the two Romanian churches have improved markedly in the past two years, and the ecumenical climate in the country has improved markedly since the visit by Pope John Paul II in 1999. Still, as recently as May of this year, the Greek Orthodox Church made it clear that Cardinal Daoud would not be welcome in that country because the Vatican official is associated with what the Orthodox call a “uniate” Church. In Romania, no such objections were lodged, and the unprecedented visit passed without incident.
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