Orthodox Leader Sees ‘Massive Religious Revival’ Bartholomew I Receives Highest Award Of Congress

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of 270 million Orthodox Christians, said Tuesday the world is experiencing a religious revival.

Receiving the highest award of Congress, the Gold Medal, Bartholomew said that after three centuries, the pendulum of secular faith was swinging back.

“It is no longer considered unfashionable or backward to believe,” he said in a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda. “A generation that worshipped many false idols - from drugs and cults to power and wealth - now seeks an authentic tradition for its own children” and is being drawn to a “massive religious revival.”

With House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other congressional notables listening, the bearded, black-robed patriarch thanked the United States for helping preserve the Orthodox faith while it was under communism. Bartholomew hailed its restoration in the former Soviet Union and other East bloc states such as Albania.

Later, in an address at Georgetown University, a Roman Catholic institution, Bartholomew said the Orthodox church “is always open for any good-faith dialogue but declines to take part in planted squabbles because there is always a danger to be misunderstood.”

Pope John Paul II has made bringing the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches together a goal for 2000. But Bartholomew, while stressing the need to begin reconciliation, has been careful to point out he does not advocate reunification.

The churches split in the 11th century in disputes over the growing power of the papacy and doctrinal issues.

“Our heart is opposed to the specter of an everlasting separation,” Bartholomew said at Georgetown. “Our heart requires that we seek again our common foundations and the original starting point we share.”

Receiving treatment normally accorded presidents, prime ministers and royalty, Bartholomew meets today with President Clinton.