Originally published at The Catholic Thing
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople on Wednesday offered a hopeful historical assessment of the traditional 1054 date for the “Great Schism” between Rome and Constantinople, suggesting that tensions developed gradually over time and “are not insurmountable.” He said that, of course, “problems have accumulated over a thousand years. But we are full of hope that they will be resolved in a few years.” He spoke to pilgrims in Istanbul celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. The potential for a historic breakthrough in ecumenical relations has been building for some time.
