Benedict Urges Dialogue Among Christians

Standing before a sparkling sea, Benedict received his most sustained applause when he pledged to work "with all my energy" toward rebuilding "full and visible unity with all the followers of Christ."

"We cannot communicate with the Lord if we are not communicating among ourselves," he told tens of thousands of followers gathered for the open-air celebration in the seaport of Bari. "I ask all of you to decisively take the path of spiritual ecumenism, which in prayer will open the door to the Holy Spirit, who alone can create unity."

His comments echoed a theme that the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has emphasized since his election to the papacy on April 19. As enforcer of church doctrine for nearly a quarter of a century, Ratzinger said other religions, including Christian denominations, were inferior. But since becoming pope, he has made a concerted effort to reach out to other faiths and promote interreligious dialogue.

And though that outreach has included the Anglican Communion, other Protestant churches and Jews, the homily was especially directed at Eastern Orthodoxy and efforts to heal the 1,000-year-old schism between it and Roman Catholicism.

Bari, which looks east toward the Balkans, long has been regarded as a bridge between East and West. It is the final resting place of the bones of St. Nicholas of Myra, the 4th century bishop revered by Catholics and Orthodox alike as the patron of Russia, Sicily and Greece.

Archbishop Francesco Cacucci of Bari, greeting Benedict, said the St. Nicholas relics constituted an East-West connection that "neither time nor divisions have ever demolished."

The pope praised Bari as a "land of meeting and dialogue" with Eastern Orthodoxy and called on the faithful not to allow the "woodworm of resentment" to destroy the soul. Instead, he said, Christians will have to move past old conflicts and open their hearts to mutual understanding and forgiveness.

The inability of the late John Paul II to make amends with Eastern churches was seen as one of his failures and a matter of great personal disappointment to the Polish-born pontiff. Especially in Russia, Orthodox leaders are mistrustful of the Vatican, and have accused the Catholic church of attempting to convert their followers.