JOHN PAUL II WELCOMES GREEK-ORTHODOX PATRIARCH OF ANTIOCH

VATICAN CITY, OCT 22, 2001 (VIS) - Pope John Paul II this morning welcomed His Beatitude Ignace IV Hazim, Greek-Orthodox patriarch of Antioch and, in his talk to the patriarch, called him one of the "avant garde artisans in the efforts at rapprochement between the East and West."

The Pope spoke of his trip to Syria in May of this year, recalling the ecumenical celebration of the Word at Our Lady of the Dormition Cathedral in Damascus. He also recalled Patriarch Hazim's visit to Rome in May of 1983 "so that we could advance resolutely together on the path of unity in the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God."

"We suffer," said the Holy Father, "for our pace is sometimes slowed down. It happens that the love, sweet and peaceful, compassionate and merciful, which animates us is tarnished en route by the habit of confrontation, by the powerlessness to find a common expression, by forgetting Christ's prayer: 'I ... pray also for those who believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one'."

The Pope told patriarch Hazim, "From the start you have supported the theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches in their ensemble. Today we implore the Lord to give us the grace and strength to go beyond the marking of time of dialogue, due to fruitless hesitating, for the Lord has already shown us the way, ... for He has vanquished the world!"

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