Other Columns by Paul M. Weyrich
Paul M. Weyrich Bio

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During the latter part of the first Millennium the Catholic Church Hierarchy began disagreeing about rites. The East and West no longer understood one another. In 1054 A.D. the Pope in the West and the Patriarch of Constantinople in the East pronounced mutual anathemas. The Church officially had split. Through the schism, the Roman Catholic Church was established in the West and the Orthodox Churches in the East. They have remained split. Several attempts to reconcile them have resulted in the creation of the Eastern Catholic Churches. Some Orthodox returned to Communion with Rome in Carpatho, Russia, Ukraine and the Middle East, especially Syria and Lebanon. They returned because of the Greek Catholic Churches. That complicated the situation even further. The Orthodox, rather than regarding their Eastern Catholic counterparts as blood brothers with whom to be reconciled, treated Eastern Catholics as the problem, not the solution.

The Pope had many problems dealing with the Orthodox. First, unlike the Roman Catholic Church, where the Pope can speak for the Church, the Orthodox Church consists of many ethnic churches. There is no single authority with whom the Pope could discuss unity. The Patriarch of Constantinople is supposed to be "the first among equals" in the Orthodox Church. But when the Greek Church warmed up to the Pope's initiatives the Russian Church said no, never, not ever. In fact, as traveled as this Pope was, he really wanted to visit Russia, but the Russian Patriarch refused him. Russian President Vladimir Putin, himself a rather fervent Orthodox Christian, said upon several occasions that as far as he was concerned the Pope would be welcome to visit Russia. He would hardly make that pronouncement when his Patriarch would contradict him and make it clear that John Paul was indeed not welcome in Russia.

I was told by one Vatican official who dealt with these issues that the Patriarch sent a delegation to Vatican City which told the Pope that if he would shut down all of the Roman Catholic Churches in Russia the Patriarch then would consider inviting him to Moscow. (Before the revolution there were hundreds of thousands of so-called Volga Catholics who had been imported from Germany and elsewhere to help Russia develop and who had opened many churches in cities ranging from those along the Volga River all the way to Vladivostok.) After all, the Orthodox delegation argued, Roman Catholics could get everything they needed by becoming Orthodox. The Pope reportedly did not blink an eye. He said to the Russian delegation "and in the United States, most Catholics are Roman Catholics. If I shut down all of the Roman Catholic Churches in Russia, are you willing to shut down all of the Orthodox Churches in the United States? After all, Orthodox Christian can get everything they need from Roman Catholic Churches." Reportedly the Russian delegation left shortly thereafter. The Cardinal who told me that story is dead now but he was a very active and knowledgeable Prince of the Church, even after his retirement. So I have no reason to believe it isn't true.

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