WASHINGTON — Cardinal Seán Patrick O'Malley, retired archbishop of Boston, encouraged Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians to pray together for reunification at a joint conference focused on healing the nearly 1,000-year schism between the churches.
"Come together and pray for unity," O'Malley said at the conference, hosted by the Orientale Lumen Foundation at the retreat house for the St. John Paul II National Shrine on July 13–15.
Speakers included Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox bishops, and a few dozen laity and clergy focused on ecumenism attended. Along with O'Malley, speakers included Archbishop Flavio Pace — secretary of the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity — and Metropolitan Tikhon Mollard, primate of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA).
O'Malley encouraged concrete steps to integrate Catholic and Orthodox communities, one of the most important of which was "praying together." Just prior to his speech, the Catholic and Orthodox clergy — including O'Malley, Pace, and Mollard — prayed daily vespers together in the form used in Eastern churches.
The cardinal, speaking to those gathered, said unity will ultimately be achieved as a gift to the faithful granted by Christ and will come about "how he wills [it]." He said he considers joint prayer to be crucial because it is the Holy Spirit who will "illuminate the way" toward East-West communion.
'Work for unity'
In his address, O'Malley discussed his concern with the disunity of Christianity, which he said "weakens our ability [as Christians] to proclaim the Gospel with coherence and authority."
He recalled his early work in the 1970s with the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. The order was deeply involved in missionary work in Papua New Guinea. Although O'Malley himself was not a missionary there, he spoke about conversations with colleagues who were working with people accepting Christianity in large numbers.
O'Malley noted that when new converts had learned about the various Christian denominations, many felt "sad and embarrassed." Although many Christians view the disunity as "normative," he said, the people of Papua New Guinea correctly recognized it as "scandalous."
"All disciples of Jesus Christ must feel an impulse to work for unity among Christians," O'Malley said.
O'Malley said Catholics should see Orthodoxy as the "greatest possibility of success in this task in fulfilling Christ's wish so that we all become one so the world may believe." He noted that the two share "so many saints and devotions" and are more similar to Catholics in theology than any other Christian community.
He expressed joy that many Orthodox churches send representatives to meetings held by the Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and that the Catholic Church also sent representatives to the Orthodox Council of Crete in 2016. Yet, he encouraged a stronger bond.
O'Malley urged the bodies to "consider the possibility of joint pastoral letters or statements" on issues of mutual agreement like world hunger, euthanasia, and abortion. He said they should establish committees together to organize joint prayer, study sessions, and works of mercy.
His idea of unity, he explained, would be "communion without absorption" and said there is a difference between "unity and uniformity." He said people should look to the Eastern Catholic Churches as a model, saying "they are bridges for reconciliation and laboratories for synodal communion."
Although Rome's relationship with the Eastern Catholics was not always perfect (O'Malley noted historical attempts at forced Latinization), the cardinal said there is an opportunity to work more closely with Eastern Catholics as part of ecumenical efforts, focused on "greater respect for their uniqueness."
Mollard, speaking from the Orthodox position, echoed O'Malley's desire for unity and the feeling of pain over continued separation.
"It affects the faithful in the parishes and how they live their lives," the metropolitan said. "And perhaps encourage[s] us all to not just reach out and educate but really inspire in people that faith in Christ and love for the Church can drive … [the path toward] unity."
O'Malley told EWTN News that ecumenism requires "different groups that would be Catholic and Orthodox, working together," and Church leaders should be "letting people know the progress that has been made in the dialogue."
He said Eastern Orthodox Christians "have the sacraments," they have apostolic succession, and "the differences are not great." Although theological disputes remain a division between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, he said he believes the causes of the schism were more political and cultural.
"Most Catholics and Orthodox in the pews are not focused on those fine points of theology," O'Malley said.
Ongoing Vatican ecumenical work
Many theological disputes, however, are being hashed out at the highest levels of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. Some of the biggest include questions of papal supremacy, primacy, and jurisdiction as well as the language of the Nicene Creed and subsequently certain details about the Holy Trinity.
Pace, who flew in from Rome, discussed some of the history and recent progress on ecumenism related to these subjects during his speech, noting that the end goal is "full unity" between the East and the West.
The Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, formed in 1980, created two subcommittees in 2024. One focuses on infallibility, which is the current priority. The other is about the dispute about the Nicene Creed.
"We have to prepare a very good draft," Pace told EWTN News.
He said once the subcommittee completes its draft on infallibility, the body will consider a call for a full meeting for approval. He said the subcommittee must "arrive to a good document that the [full committee] can discuss and approve."
The First Vatican Council teaches that the pope speaks infallibly on matters of faith and morals when defining matters of doctrine and invoking his papal authority, binding the declaration on the entire Church.
Bishop Anthony Vrame, a Greek Orthodox bishop and director of Holy Cross Orthodox Press, said in a panel discussion that Orthodoxy recognizes the indefectibility of councils: "When the Church gathers together in council, … no error is possible." Yet, papal infallibility is different, as it is "designated to one person."
Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, offered a prerecorded video message for the conference, stating that he hopes the eventual documents will be received by the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox churches.
Koch emphasized the importance of clergy informing the laity when there are developments, so the progress is "not to be remained known only by experts."
