Orthodox row blunts synod plea

by Viviane Hewitt in Rome THE SYNOD of Bishops on Europe ended on Saturday with ecumenical divisions as wide as when it opened in late November and Christianity looking ill-equipped to act as a force for bringing together the two halves of the continent.
Not only did the dispute, largely centred on the former Soviet Union, between the Vatican and Othodoxy remain unresolved, but Rome's frosty response to the report of the First Anglican Roman Catholic
International Commission (ARCIC 1) added a further note of discord to a gathering looking for a pan-European vision in the wake of the collapse of communism in the east.
One delegate suggested on leaving on Saturday that far from emphasising Christianity's potential as a force for bringing peoples together in the new Europe, the Synod had highlighted the risk it could represent the only divisive bloc in the continent, And Bishop Karl Lehmann, one of the senior figures at the Synod, described Rome's reply to ARCIC as a "slip-up along the way".
Pope John Paul recognised the danger of divisions in European Christianity in his closing address, in St Peter's Basilica, to the Synod fathers. He questioned whether the church would be successful in its bid to become "the promoter of true peace" and whether it would "be capable of transferring reconciliation to the
inter-human, international dimension". If the church could
not re-establish its own unity, its offer to lead the integration of the two Europes, through the construction of "a common home" to "overcome so many threats and current tensions" wouldn't be credible, John Paul told the 135 delegates.
The Synod's final declaration suggested that the Vatican was planning to set up a new office for European affairs.
Observers said that relations with the Orthodox would be high on any new office's agenda, with property disputes between Catholics and their eastern cousins in the Ukraine and a more general mistrust based on fears of
proseletyisation currently blocking progress on a planned papal visit to Moscow in 1992.
The Synod fathers called on the European church to "mobilise all its forces" because "the reconstruction of society in many regions of eastern Europe is much more demanding than expected".
"Communism as a system has collapsed but its wounds and its inheritance remain in the hearts of peoples and of the new societies", the declaration concluded.
The declaration stressed that a full resumption of ecumenical dialogue was vital to European unity but the paper left no doubt that the issues likely to obstruct that unity in terms of the faith moral theology and the role of women for example had been postponed.
In the aftermath of the Synod, Rome began preparations for the visit of Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who is expected to have a lengthy private audience with Pope John Paul 11.