GENERAL AUDIENCE: APOSTOLIC TRIP TO ROMANIA

VATICAN CITY, MAY 12, 1999 (VIS) - In today's general audience, held in St. Peter's Square, the Pope recalled his recent apostolic trip to Romania, the first "to a country in which the majority of Christians are Orthodox."

"By this pilgrimage I wished to pay homage to the Romanian people and their Christian roots," he said. "The experience of martyrdom has united Christians belonging to the different denominations present in Romania. With the sacrifice of their lives, Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants have given a single witness to Christ."

John Paul II underlined the fact that this trip has "given me the opportunity to experience how splendid it is to breathe with both 'lungs', those of the Oriental and Western traditions. I came to realize this in the solemn and evocative celebrations of the liturgy."

"During the first of these moments of solemn and intense prayer I paid tribute to the Greek-Catholic Church which underwent such severe trials during the years of persecution, recalling that in the year 2000 will fall the third centenary of its union with Rome. The venerable Cardinal Alexandru Todea stands as a symbol of this Church's heroic resistance. ... Being able to embrace him was one of the most joyous moments of this pilgrimage."

The Holy Father indicated that "the meeting with Patriarch Teoctist and the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church was particularly eagerly awaited and significant. ... Ecumenical commitment does not reduce, rather it confirms the role of Pastor of the Catholic Church which falls to the Successor of Peter."

The Pope concluded by asking the Virgin Mary, in this month dedicated to Her, "to rekindle in Christians the desire for full unity in order that together they might become an evangelical leavening."

AG;APOSTOLIC TRIP ROMANIA;...;...;VIS;19990512;Word: 290;