In Christ there is no East or West...

Romanian Orthodox Patriarch Teoctist (right) made history when he invited Pope John Paul II to Bucharest in 1999. The two attended an Orthodox Mass in Bucharest's Unirii square. (1999 file/ap).

Patriarch Teoctist, the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church, who made history when he invited the late Pope John Paul II to his Orthodox country in 1999 but was criticized for being too close to former Communists died Monday, July 30 at the age of 92. Patriarch Teoctist died of a heart attack following surgery on his prostate gland...Patriarch Teoctist was appointed to head the church in November 1986, but briefly stepped down after anticommunist protesters in 1989 said he had been too conciliatory toward former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu...

Although he was often criticized for failing to take a stand on thorny issues such as the rights of the Eastern Rite Catholic Church in Romania, the patriarch won praise when in 1999, the pope visited Romania at Patriarch Teoctist's invitation. It was the first invitation extended by an Orthodox Church leader to a Catholic pope since the churches split in the Great Schism of 1054. The two leaders called for the healing of divisions within Christianity.

Patriarch Teoctist also won the respect of Romanians after he confessed that he had felt abandoned by God for years, from the time when he briefly resigned as patriarch until the pope's visit...

Born into a poor family in northeastern Romania in 1915, Patriarch Teoctist was the 10th of 11 children. He became a monk when he was 20.

Last month, Patriarch Teoctist condemned a Vatican document in which Pope Benedict XVI reasserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, describing it as "brutal" and saying it made interchurch dialogue difficult.

Many Catholics have little understanding of the differences between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The Patriarch's death might provide us a moment to learn about those differences and to pray for unity between these two ancient traditions. Here's a prayer written by Most Rev. John Elya of the Melkite Diocese of Newton. (The Melkite Church is a Catholic Eastern Rite in union with Rome.)

Let us pray...

Abba, Father,
We your children come before you
broken, hurt and spintered.
We need your healing.
Give us the courage to take responsibility
for the harm we have caused by our divisions.
Give us the strength to make amends
to our brothers and sisters.
Give us the grace to forgive those who have harmed us
and bring us all to full unity
with you and with each other.
In the depths of our spirits
we rejoice in the prayer of your Son our Lord Jesus:
“I have given them the glory that you gave me,
that they may be one as we are one.

Amen.