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Finding religious unity

Christoph Strack / bkDecember 1, 2014

Officially, the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church are still separate. But the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people is unexpectedly bringing them together, says DW's Christoph Strack.

https://p.dw.com/p/1DxPC
Papst Franziskus in Istanbul 30.11.2014
Image: Reuters/T.Gentile

"Today's persecutors of Christians aren't asking themselves which church their victims belong to." That line from Patriarch Bartholomew I of the Eastern Orthodox Church could just as easily have come from Pope Francis, who was listening carefully to his words this Sunday in Istanbul.

The heads of the western and eastern Churches represent a cooperation and a friendship that is historically unique. The suffering of so many people in Syria and Iraq under the rule of the "Islamic State" is bringing them even closer together. Christians who have lived for nearly 2,000 years between the Euphrates and the Tigris, as well as Yazidis and people of other faiths are on the verge of extinction.

The connection between Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew is unique. They met in Jerusalem in May, in Rome in June, and now four times in a day and a half in Istanbul, which the Orthodox still call Constantinople. It was only in the 20th century that these two religious bodies excommunicated each other, on occasion displaying hatred and arrogance - now their heads consider one another as brothers. Not only that, Francis bowed before Bartholomew, three years his junior, and asked him for his blessing - for himself and for the Church of Rome. Bartholomew, articulate and well-educated, in office since 1991, is a blessing for this cooperation between the churches - just as Francis appears to be.

Christoph Strack Redakteur im DW Hauptstadtstudio
DW's Christoph StrackImage: DW

Emotional reconciliation

There are unlikely to be quick steps towards formal reconciliation, some 1,000 years after the Schism of 1054. The Greek patriarch still has to perform the feat of bringing the Russian-Orthodox Church into the same boat. Moscow sees itself as a third Rome and likes to define its own course. But one glance at the crisis in Ukraine - with its own religious dislocations - demonstrates how necessary reconciliation is. Religious conflicts have shaken Europe often enough in the past centuries.

The pope and the patriarch also addressed the Ukraine crisis, emphasizing the perspective of those in danger. In a country with an ancient Christian tradition, they said, all those in charge should return to dialogue and respect for international law.

But more than anything the two men focused on the victims of the "Islamic State" militia. In dramatic words, they called on Muslims the world over to fight violence in the name of faith. "We cannot imagine a Middle East without Christians, who have lived there for 2,000 years in the name of Jesus," they declared. And now their suffering is uniting the two churches - what they call martyrdom is enough to overcome all confessional hurdles.

Refugees

Muslims in the western world say they are already doing what they can to oppose extremism. But the emergency with the refugees, of whom the pope met a handful at the end of his trip, has shown that more needs to happen. That visit closed a circle with the beginning of his trip, when the pope thanked Turkish President Reccep Tayip Erdogan for taking in around two million refugees and called on the international community to provide support.

Erdogan can pick up that thread himself. Russian President Vladimir Putin is to visit Ankara this Monday.