ADDRESS OF PATRIARCH ILIA II TO POPE JOHN PAUL II

6 June 1980

Your Holiness,
Blessed and Beloved Brother in Christ,
First Bishop of the most Ancient Church of Rome.

How marvellous and incomprehensible to human understanding is Divine Providence, by whose will we have come to the Holy City in which once suffered the great Apostles Peter and Paul, as well as many other luminaries of the Universal Christian Church.

We attach great importance to our visit, for this is the very first occasion on which the Chief Pastors of the Roman and Georgian Churches have met.

We have come here from the land in which is preserved the Tunic of Our Lord Jesus Christ; the land in which St Andrew, the first-called, and St Simon the Canaanean preached; the land in which St Nina carried out her work, she who bears the title “Equal to the Apostles”; the land in which the bishop and universal doctor St John Chrysostom died. We have come to the city in which there is the Chair of St Peter, to re-establish those ancient and brotherly relations which traditionally existed between our two ancient Churches.

Sadly the complexities of history have brought about the division of our Holy Church. Nevertheless we believe that the Lord, with his almighty power, will grant us once again the unity which we have lost and which we desire.

Despite this sad fact, there have always been good mutual relations between our two Churches, and these have found expression in political, spiritual and scientific collaboration.

The Georgian Church and the people of Georgia form the great bridge that links the two great cultures of Europe and Asia.

Today the Christian Churches face many com­ mon problems; to resolve these we must draw closer together.

We value greatly the great contribution the Roman Catholic Church is making to mutual understanding between peoples and to the maintenance of peace in the world.

As we raise our prayers for the well-being of the Roman Catholic Church, we wish Your Holiness and long pontificate, full of grace and rich in abundant fruit.

Christ is in our midst; may he always be so!

Information Service 44 (1980/III-IV) 95-96