“Romania, the Garden of the Mother of God” – 25 years since the first visit of a Sovereign Pontiff to a majority Orthodox country after the schism of 1054 –

Today marks 25 years since, on May 7, 1999, the Holy Father Pope John Paul II arrived in Romania, in Bucharest, at the invitation of President Emil Constantinescu and Patriarch Teoctist. The visit lasted three days and had a special historical significance, being the first time since the great schism of 1054 that a pope visited a predominantly Orthodox country.

The day of May 7, 1999 remained in history also because Pope John Paul II kissed the Romanian soil calling our country “Garden of the Mother of God”. In his fraternal and emotional speech, the Holy Father spoke about the hardships our country went through during the communist regime and emphasized the important sacrifice of the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic. The visit of Pope John Paul II to Romania gathered huge crowds, over a million people of all denominations and remained a reference for the famous phrase spoken by the Pope, in which he claimed that the Church must breathe through its two lungs, the Western and Eastern Christian churches, highlighting the case of Romania, a country Christianized by the Apostle Andrew, the brother of the Apostle Peter, the first bishop of Rome.

To celebrate 20 years since the visit of Pope John Paul II to Romania, on the eve of the visit of Pope Francis to our country, the Institute for Advanced Studies for the Culture and Civilization of the Levant launched in 2019, within the program “The Levant, the cradle of Abrahamic religions “, the volume “Pope John Paul II in Romania. The Catholic-Orthodox dialogue nine centuries after the Great Schism”. Today, 25 years after this historic visit, ISACCL decided to offer the general public the opportunity to access and read this volume for free, available in the digital library of the institute: https://institutlevant.ro/papa-ioan-al -ii-in-Romania-Catholic-Orthodox-dialogue-nine-centuries-since-the-great-schism/

The volume “Pope John Paul II in Romania. The Catholic-Orthodox dialogue nine centuries since the Great Schism” in a bilingual, Romanian and English edition, published in special graphic conditions at the Bucharest University Publishing House, presents the premises, course and consequences of this major historical event and is part of a vast research project of the history of religions and interreligious dialogue in the Levant, the cradle of the three great Abrahamic religions. The book has a preface signed by Prof. Univ. dr. Vlad Nistor and with an afterword signed by the former ambassador of Romania to the Vatican, Teodor Baconschi, the volume being coordinated by Laura Ganea (ISACCL). Along with them, the pages of the album are signed by: Dr. Radu Preda, the painter Sorin Dumitrescu, the general secretary of the Sant’Egidio Community, Alberto Quattrucci and Cătălin Ştefan Popa (ISACCL).

The volume explains the entire political and religious context prior to the visit of Pope John Paul II. There are also the historical, cultural and political arguments that convinced His Holiness to accept the invitation to come to Romania, addressed on July 6, 1998 by President Emil Constantinescu, the first democratic president of Romania and the one who launched the religious reconciliation program . It was a huge job until the announcement of the acceptance of the official visit, in which, together with President Constantinescu and Patriarch Teoctist, the Community of Sant’Egidio, the largest institution of the Catholic laity in the world, which organized the important ecumenical meeting “People and Religions ” in Bucharest (August 30 – September 1, 1998). It was the first time in history that a meeting of such importance, with 800 priests and theologians representing all the great religions of the world, took place in a predominantly Orthodox country. Then, with photographs and documents, the visit of Pope John Paul II is narrated step by step, including the papal audience for Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim political leaders from the former Yugoslavia, where violent conflicts took place, granted at the request of President Constantinescu and the Joint Declaration for peace in the Balkans of Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Teoctist.

In order to understand the significance, but also the consequences for Romania of this important visit, the volume contains information about the continuation of the inter-religious dialogue, as well as the own activity for this purpose of President Emil Constantinescu and the Institute of Advanced Studies for Culture and Civilization Levant, realized through the “Levant Initiative for Global Peace”, supported by Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders.
Press release – Emil Constantinescu

Photo source ProTV