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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MARCH 2, 1984
PAGE 7
its history? he asked. The churches, he said, must show a united
concern "to offer a contribution of primary importance to the
development of a peaceful and prosperous coexistence between the
European peoples."
The pope met with Metropolitan Cysostomos Konstantinid, repre
senting the Orthodox ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople,
Monsignor Gennadios Zervos, a leader of the Greek Orthodox Church
in Italy, and priests from all other orthodox churches except
that of the Soviet Union.
A Vatican source said church-state
tensions made it "a bad moment" to invite a representative of the
Russian Orthodox Church.
The meeting climaxed the first papal visit to Bari since Innocent
II stayed in the port nearly 847 years ago. It recalled an unsuc
cessful attempt at church unity when Innocent's predecessor,
Urban II, met in the city in 1098 with Greek church leaders.
Because of its geographical location, Bari has been a traditional
bridge between east and west for Christians since the Middle Ages
when King Richard I of England used it to launch his crusade
against Islam.
The pope has certainly not embarked on any crusade toward either Islam or
the Orthodox Christians, but he seems to be stepping up his challenge to
Moscow. He will soon be making a trip to South Korea, and in a manner not
likely to please the Kremlin. The "Periscope" section of the March 5 NEWS
WEEK reports:
John Paul II may be flying in the face of the Russians when he
journeys to South Korea in May. His special Alitalia flight from
Rome wi11 go via Anchorage to Seoul, the same r ath flown �
Korean Air Lines Flight 007 last Septembe'r'""before 1t strayed o""ff
course and was struck down by Soviet missiles.
According to
Vatican sources, John Paul elected not to take the slightly more
logical route from west to east for a variety of reasons, includ
ing his wish to demonstrate solidarity with his hosts. "It is
not an anti-Soviet decision," said one Vatican official, "but it
is pro-Korean."
It turns out, too, that there may have been a bit more to that highly-publi
cized "forgiveness" that the pope recently expressed personally to his in
tended assassin, Mehmet Ali Agca. Here's what THE TIMES of London, on
February 17, said:
The Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca, serving a life sentence in
Rome for attempting to kill the pope in May, 1981, gave the pope
full details of the plot when the two met in Agca' s cell on
December 27 last year, the Turkish Daily HURRIYET claimed yester
day.
Publishing a transcript of the filmed conversation, the
paper said it got hold of the film, of which the only two copies
were kept in the state archives of Italy and the Vatican, through
a mysterious Italian who contacted its Rome correspondent a month
after the meeting.
As the film was without sound, the conversation was deciphered by
lip-reading experts from Rome's school for the deaf and dumb,