ORTHODOX PATRIARCH TEOCTIST WELCOMED BY JOHN PAUL II

VATICAN CITY, OCT 7, 2002 (VIS) - At the end of the audience in St. Peter's Square this morning for the pilgrims who came for the canonization of Blessed Jose Maria Escriva de Balaguer, Pope John Paul II welcomed His Beatitude Teoctist, the Orthodox patriarch of Romania, who is in Rome for a visit.

"Beatitude and dear brother," said the Pope in Romanian, "You are making this visit animated by the sentiments and the hopes that I myself feel." He added that he wanted the patriarch's visit "to begin in the framework of this general audience, in the presence of so many faithful from throughout the world."
"Your current visit," the Holy Father continued, speaking in Italian, "is a purifying act of our memories of division, of often strong confrontation, of acts and words that have led to painful separations. The future, in any case, is not a dark and unknown tunnel. It is lit by God's grace: on it the invigorating light of the Spirit shines in a consoling way. This certainty prevails not only over every human discouragement or fatigue that at times hinders our steps; it convinces us above all that noting is impossible for God, and that, therefore, if we will be worthy of it, He will grant us the gift of full unity."

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