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Both the Russian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox churches have held extensive ecumenical discussions with Rome, and the patriarchs of both these churches have sought reconciliation with Rome.

Pope John Paul II visited Turkey in 1979 in support of the patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church. In exchange for the support, the Pope was permitted to make a speech in the Orthodox Cathedral wherein he alluded to the primacy of the Papacy, without a word of disagreement from the Orthodox patriarch.
In May 2001, Pope John Paul II visited Greece as part of his famous “Following in the Footsteps of Paul” crusade to demonstrate to the world his reconciliatory spirit.
The Russian Orthodox Church has been a longtime enemy of Roman Catholicism. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a new patriarch was chosen as the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. To the surprise of the world, the new patriarch was not a Russian, and also had strong associations with the ecumenical movement.
TIME Magazine reported this:
The Pope may no longer be an Italian, but it goes without saying that the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia must be a Russian. Until last week, that is, when yet another unbreakable rule was broken in the Soviet Union. At the resplendently gilded Trinity- St. Sergius monastery in Zagorsk, ceremonial bells and chimes greeted the election of an Estonian of German stock, Metropolitan Aleksy of Leningrad, as the next Patriarch.i
The article also says that an anti-Catholic prelate would have sent anti-Catholic signals to the Vatican. Instead, "The widely traveled Aleksy, in contrast, is a committed ecumenist who for 22 years served as president of the Conference of European Churches, a continent-wide Orthodox and Protestant body."
Following these events, Pope John Paul II called upon the Jesuit Order to oversee events in Russia, and take personal care of the retraining of priests for this assignment.ii
Ahead to American Evangelicals
i. Blackman and Ostling, “Victory for a Dark Horse,” TIME (June 18, 1990).
ii. “Making up with the Jesuits,” TIME (December 10, 1990).
This article is adapted from Truth Matters by Professor Walter J. Veith, an international speaker who has studied Biblical issues in-depth in his quest for truth. His popular series Genesis Conflict brings the debate between Creation and evolution to a new climax as he dissects the arguments with a scientific eye. His highly-acclaimed series Total Onslaught sheds light on the state of the world today as we move to a one-world government and an anticipated apocalypse.
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