TBILISI,
Georgia (AP) -- Pope Francis' efforts to improve relations with
the Georgian Orthodox Church suffered a setback Saturday after the
patriarchate decided at the last minute not to send an official
delegation to his Mass and reminded the Orthodox faithful they cannot
participate in Catholic services.
Francis
still pressed on with his agenda, insisting that Catholics must never
try to convert Orthodox and bowing in prayer alongside the Orthodox
patriarch after they both lit a candle in the Orthodox cathedral.
Francis
called for the historical divisions that have "lacerated" Christianity
to be healed through patience, trust and dialogue.
"We are called to be one in Jesus Christ and to avoid putting disharmony and divisions between the baptized first, because what unites us is much more than what divides us," he told Patriarch Ilia, amid the Aramaic chants and hypnotic bells tolling at the cathedral in the spiritual capital of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
Saturday's
developments on the second and final day of Francis' visit to Georgia
reflected the "one step forward, two steps back" progress that often
accompanies the Vatican's outreach to the Orthodox Church, which split
from the Catholic Church [cough cough A/O] over 1,000 years ago over issues including the
primacy of the pope.
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