Catholic and Eastern Orthodox bishops exchanged dialogue and joined together in prayer at an ecumenical conference in Washington, D.C., this week with a hope that one day the Eastern and Western churches will be reunited.
The conference, held at the retreat house for the St. John Paul II National Shrine on July 13–15, was organized by the Orientale Lumen Foundation. Jack Figel, an Eastern Catholic who founded the group, named it after St. John Paul II’s apostolic letter expressing hope for reunification.
Speakers included the secretary for the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, Archbishop Flavio Pace; the primate of the Orthodox Church in America, Metropolitan Tikhon Mollard; Cardinal Seán Patrick OʼMalley; Greek Orthodox Bishop Anthony Vrame; and Romanian Catholic Bishop John Michael Botean.
“I grew up with — I lived with — the tension between East and West my whole life,” Figel told EWTN News.
A reunification, Figel said, “all depends on the Holy Spirit.” He said: “It is going to be a miracle and it’s going to be on God’s time.”
The conference included speeches by both Catholic and Orthodox bishops and joint panels. Prayer services were held in the Eastern form in which bishops from both traditions
