Pope makes gesture toward reconciliation

ROME — Pope John Paul II wrote a new chapter in the history of ecumenism recently by opening the Holy Door of a major Roman basilica together with an Orthodox metropolitan and the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury.

Then, in a dramatic and unscripted gesture expressing their wish for unity, the two representatives of churches separated from Rome since the 11th and 16th century kneeled in silent prayer on either side of the pope at the threshold of the great Byzantine door of the Basilica of St. Paul’s-Without-the-Walls.

“Welcome to this encounter, which marks a step forward toward the unity of the spirit in which we have been baptized,” the Roman Catholic pontiff said. “Christ, who leads to reconciliation, to peace and to unity, is the door of our salvation.”

John Paul addressed delegations from 23 Christian communions assembled in the basilica for a historic liturgical celebration at the start of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Vatican officials said it was the largest ecumenical gathering since the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s.