Romania, that tradition names with the
beautiful title of "Garden of Virgin Mary", I come to you in the name of
Jesus Christ, Son of God and of the Holy Virgin Mary.
BUCHAREST, Romania -- Pope John Paul II
conducted, between May 7-9, for the first time, a visit to Romania,
the first visit by
a pontiff to a mainly Eastern Orthodox Christian country in almost
1-thousand years;the Pope's visit was part of his drive for reconciliation among the
various Christian denominations as the new millennium approaches; it sets the world record for being the First papal visit to a majority Orthodox country
, according to the World Record Academy.
"It is for the first time that Divine Providence offered me the
possibility to make an apostolic journey to a country predominantly
orthodox", said Pope John Paul II, thanking Patriarch Teoctist of the
Romanian Orthodox Church, as the latter greeted him on the airport.
During his pontificate, Pope John Paul II conducted a great number of
trips in different countries of the world and highly valued ecumenical
dialogue between the different rites of the Christian religion and other
religions.
He was also the first Pope to visit a synagogue and a
mosque.
The visit of Pope John Paul II in Romania took place between May 7-9, 1999.
His Holiness Pope John Paul II uttered a speech in Romanian: "With great
joy I come, today, to Romania, a nation dear to me and that I wished
for a long time to visit. With great emotion I kissed the ground,
grateful before anything to God almighty that, in His provident
goodwill, allowed me to see this thought accomplished. (...) I trust
that my visit will help heal the wounds produced in time between our
Churches in the fifty years that passed and will open a up a new season
of reciprocal collaboration full of trust (...)"
Pope John Paul II
encouraged the Romanian people by saying: "Romania,
bridge country between Orient and Occident, turning point between
Central and Oriental Europe, Romania, that tradition names with the
beautiful title of "Garden of Virgin Mary
", I come to you in the name of
Jesus Christ, Son of God and of the Holy Virgin Mary.
"On the eve of a
new millennium, build your future upon the hard rock of the Gospel. With
the help of Christ, you will be the protagonist in a new period of
enthusiasm and courage. You will be a prosperous nation, a land rich
with goodness, a solidarity and peace-creating people. May God favor you
and bless you always!"
On two occassions the Pope and Patriarch Teoctist, the leader of the
Orthodox Church in Romania (in 1999), embraced each other, a symbolic gesture
indicating the formerly strained relations between the two churches was
close to being healed.
A pope has not set foot in a predominantly Orthodox Christian country
since the Great Schism of 1054, when the Eastern church definitively
split from Rome.
Thousands of people lined the roadway of the 11-kilometre (6-mile) journey from the airport, wave flags and cheering.
The visit became possible only after the Orthodox and Romania's
Catholics agreed to set aside a dispute over ownership of thousands of
Catholic churches seized by the communists in 1948 and transferred to
Orthodox parishes.
Pope John Paul II passed away on April 2, 2005.
On May 1, 2011, Pope John Paul II was beatified by his successor
Benedict XVI, and on April 27, 2014, Pope Francis declared him a saint
in front of a crowd of hundreds of thousands of believers coming from
all around the world.
On May 31st, 2019, Pope Francis began a three-day pilgrimage to Romania that
in many ways is completing the 1999 trip by St. John Paul II that marked
the first-ever papal visit to a majority Orthodox country.
Francis
referred to that historic trip during his opening speech before
Romanian government authorities, praising the progress the
once-communist country has achieved since it was “liberated from a
regime that oppressed civil and religious liberty.”
“This visit by Pope Francis is in continuity with the visit of John Paul
II in 1999. That same atmosphere can be found today, because today
Francis is welcomed by the same people. A people that can be defined
with two key words: hospitality and welcome.” Father Teleanu
Bogdan-Aurel, from the Press Office of the Romanian Orthodox
Patriarchate, described to SIR the climate in the Orthodox world ahead
of Pope Francis’ visit to Romania.
