Relics returned to the Orthodox Church.

Vatican City -- In continuing steps to heal the divisions between Rome and the Orthodox Churches (see article in C.I., Dec. 2004, pp. 17-18), Pope John Paul II returned to the Orthodox Church the bones of two of the most important Eastern patriarchs, St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory of Nazianzus, both archbishops of Constantinople before the split between the Western and Eastern churches in 1054. The three-hour ceremony was conducted at St. Peter's jointly by the Pope and Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The relics were enclosed in precious alabaster reliquaries.

Both John Paul and Bartholomew spoke about reconciliation at the service. But, as usual, media and various spokesmen troubled the waters a little with erroneous accounts, one of which contended that the relics had been stolen by Crusaders when they sacked Constantinople in 1204, and, secondly, that the Pope had asked "pardon".

The Vatican's spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, had to point out that the bones of Gregory were brought to Rome in the eighth century, a time in which Catholics were being persecuted in Constantinople. And he reiterated that the Pope was not asking pardon for the removal of the bones from Constantinople; rather, their return to the Orthodox Church marked a gesture of reconciliation.

A portion of the remains of each saint remains interred in St. Peter's. The return of the relics is expected to encourage the resumption of dialogue (N.Y.T., Nov. 28; Zenit, Nov. 29).