Pope John Paul, attempting to mend relations with Orthodox Christians, on Saturday returned the remains of two of their most prominent saints 800 years after Crusaders snatched sacred relics from Constantinople.
Flanked by Bartholomew I, the patriarch of Constantinople and spiritual leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians, the 84-year-old Polish Pontiff renewed calls for unity among the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity that split in the Great Schism of 1054.
"We see in the transfer of these sacred relics a blessed chance to purify our wounded memories, to affirm our path toward reconciliation," the Pope said.
Bartholomew, echoing the call for closer ties, praised the Pope for correcting an "ecclesiastic injustice."
"This brotherly gesture by the Church of Old Rome confirms that there are no insurmountable problems in the church of Christ," he said.
Steps away stood two white chests holding the partial remains of fourth-century church leaders St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. John Chrysostom, which will be officially welcomed to Istanbul in a mass later on Saturday.
Since his election in 1978, the Pope has made reconciliation with Orthodox Christians a priority of his reign.
During a visit to Athens in 2001, he asked God to forgive Roman Catholics for 1,000 years of sins against Orthodox Christians. He has also apologized to Muslims for the Crusades, which aimed to win the Holy Land back from them, and to Jews for centuries of anti-Semitism.
HEALING THE RIFT
"Pope John Paul's overtures in recent years are the first effective actions in 500 years aimed at healing the rift," said historian Richard Wittmann.
"For centuries both sides never gave up hope. But the last serious attempt to unify the church was right after the fall of Constantinople (to the Ottomans) in 1453."
Some historical accounts say the remains of Nazianzen and Chrysostom were taken in 1204 during the sack of Constantinople, now Istanbul. But the Vatican's chief spokesman said Nazianzen's relics were moved to Rome in the eighth century to protect them.
Bartholomew's fresh trip to Rome could be significant in the Pope's desire to visit Moscow, the seat of the powerful Russian Orthodox Church.
But Orthodox leaders there have accused the Roman Catholic Church of using its new-found freedoms in former communist nations to "poach" their converts. The Catholic Church denies this.