Ecumenical Patriarch to meet with new Pope on Wednesday

Newly-installed Pope Francis will meet Wednesday morning at the Vatican with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the first spiritual leader of the world’s estimated 300 million Orthodox Christians to attend a Papal enthronement since the Great Schism of 1054.

According to sources, Bartholomew will address an invitation to the new Pope to pay an official visit to the Ecumenical Patriarchate

The Italian mass media on Wednesday highlighted the Pope’s warm embrace with the Ecumenical Patriarchate at the end of Tuesday’s installment Mass, while the Rai Uno television network broadcast that “the new Pope, with his first moves, appears to want to make every effort to become closer to the Orthodox”.

According to the Italian media, the strong ‘common points’ between the leaders of the world’s two largest Christian Churches, is their devotion to environmental protection, their simplicity and accessibility in their relations with the faithful, and their common desire for frank dialogue with other religions.amna

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, also known as the ‘Green Patriarch’, is a prominent leader in the environmental movement. Since 1997, he has been bringing principal scientists, environmentalists, religious leaders from all faiths and policy-makers from all over the world together to work on the ecological crisis.amna

He has also continued the reconciliation dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church started by his predecessors, and initiated dialogue with other faiths, including other Christian sects, Muslims and Jews, in an ongoing inter-faith dialogue.

Source: AMNA