VISIT BY PATRIARCH OF THE ROMANIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

VATICAN CITY, OCT 4, 2002 (VIS) - The patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Teoctist, will make an official visit to the Holy Father and the Church of Rome from October 7 to 13. The Pope visited Patriarch Teoctist in May of 1999 during his apostolic trip to Romania.

According to a communique made public today, three metropolitans, an archbishop and various representatives of the Romanian Orthodox Church will accompany the patriarch.

Patriarch Teoctist and his entourage will participate in the audience with the Pope for the pilgrims who have come for the Canonization of Blessed Escriva. On October 11 the patriarch will be received by the cardinal vicar of Rome, Camillo Ruini, in the Basilica of St. John Lateran where he will attend a short liturgy during which a relic of St. Silvester will be returned to him to be restored to an Orthodox church in Bucharest.

On the morning of Saturday October 12, a meeting between the Holy Father and the patriarch is scheduled. During this meeting, there will be an exchange of speeches and gifts and they will sign a common declaration. In the afternoon at the church of St. Bartholomew on Tiberina Island, an ecumenical celebration will take place which will be presided by the patriarch, Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Ruini and Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago, U.S.A., titular of the same church.

The concluding solemn event of the visit will take place on October 13 with the Eucharistic Liturgy of the 28th Sunday in Ordinary time, presided by John Paul II in the presence of His Beatitude Teoctist and his entourage in the Vatican Basilica.

During his stay in Rome, His Beatitude Teoctist will meet with Cardinal Kasper, the secretary of the dicastery, and officials from the Eastern section. In addition, he will visit the basilicas of St. Peter, St. Mary Major and St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls. He will also meet with the Romanian Orthodox community of Rome in the Cistercian Abbey of the Three Fountains and in the Church of the 'Scala Coeli'. The patriarch, invited by the community of St. Egidio, will meet one afternoon with young people and will participate in a prayer ceremony in the Basilica of St. Mary in Trastevere and in a dinner in his honor.

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