On Aug. 16, 2012, Kirill I, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, made a stunning trip to Warsaw, Poland. The following day, he and Archbishop Jozef Michalik,  President of the Polish Conference of Catholic Bishops, signed their almost unbelievable  Statement of Reconciliation. 

This statement would never have happened without the apology issued at Vatican II: “in humble prayer, we beg pardon of God and of our separated brethren, just as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Decree on Ecumenism, #7, par. 2).  The fact that the statement pledges that the Polish Catholic Church, and the Russian Orthodox Church will work not only for the reconciliation of their Churches, but of their nations,  shows that the statement will affect Polish and Russians living all over the world, especially in North America and France.

When the Second Vatican Council opened on October 11, 1962, there was no participation by any Orthodox bishop; they had turned down the invitation from the Vatican to send observers.  But the Vatican knew its politics: the Russian Orthodox Church is in a certain sense a rival of the Byzantine Church of Constantinople (Istanbul).  Constantinople is called the Second Rome; Moscow is known as the third Rome. The Patriarch of Moscow has exercised enormous influence within Orthodoxy in the past several centuries, rivaling the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, known as the first among equals in the Orthodox hierarchy. 

So Monsignor Jan Williebrands, Secretary of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, went to Moscow in early October and personally invited the Russian Orthodox to attend.  He showed up in Rome on the morning of Oct. 11 with two Russian Orthodox bishops in tow, and that broke the deadlock; by the start of the second session, in Sept. 1963, there were a good number of Orthodox observers. 

Nikos Nissiotis, a remarkable Greek Orthodox layman who attended all four sessions of Vatican II in a slot offered by the World Council of Churches, told those of us who participated in Bossey, Switzerland conferences in 1964 and 1965, that often the Eastern Orthodox observers would make a comment, a suggestion, a recommendation informally to a Roman Catholic bishop, and the next day it would appear in a council draft document.

Most Roman Catholics are unaware of the impact of Eastern Christianity on our beliefs and practices.  The Russian-Polish action of last August will hopefully increase our awareness, and our need of Eastern Orthodoxy.  Pope John Paul II used a statement probably uncovered by Yves Congar OP:  “The Church must breathe with her two lungs!” (For Congar, see Diversity and Communion [Mystic, CT:  Twenty Third Publications, 1985], p. 76; Pope John Paul II, That All May be One, May 30, 1995, #54). Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity are the two lungs.  The Russian-Polish statement explicitly calls on both Churches to work together to confront secularity and atheism especially.

For a good number of Catholics, the changes of Vatican II smashed their belief that the Church is unchanging and perfect.  As I showed in a previous article, Did Vatican II ‘Reform’ the Church?, the tension between the Church as divine and irreformable, on the one hand, and human and always needing reform on the other hand, must always be preserved. But for the moment, let us look at the apologies begun at Vatican II and see how there is a continuation to the Polish-Russian Statement of Reconciliation. These apologies of course reflect the human, sinful side of the Church, without denying the divine side.

Pope Paul VI did not hesitate to apologize when he met with the observers on October 17, 1963. Robert McAfee Brown, who was present on that occasion, wrote in his memorable The Ecumenical Revolution “it would be hard to measure the impact these words have already had and will continue to have” (Garden City, NJ:  Doubleday-Anchor, 1969, p. 110, with a thorough explanation of #7 of the Decree on Ecumenism above).

When Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople on Dec. 7, 1965 solemnly lifted the mutual excommunications between Rome and Constantinople of 1054, the statement was read during the session held that day of Vatican II, and also simultaneously in Istanbul.  The pope and patriarch apologized for the “offensive words, the reproaches without foundation, and the reprehensible gestures which, on both sides, have marked or accompanied the sad events of this period (Brown, p. 115). What happened on Aug. 17, 2012 began with the Fathers of Vatican II.

Pope John Paul II took the apologies to a new level when he led the 2000 millennium.  On March 12, the First Sunday of Lent, he cried out “We forgive and we ask forgiveness.”  The Jesuit editors of  America commented that this pledge “was echoed by local churches in the United States and elsewhere and generally welcomed by non-Catholics around the world” (March 25, 2000, giving many examples, pp. 4-5).
(Can't find America link, but have found this Guardian link - jw)

I have placed some photos of the visit of Kirill to Poland, on the home page of the ecumenical website www.harrywinter.org; on the Eastern Christianity page, you can find a way to access the statement itself. (For the extension of religious apologies to apologies between secular nations, see the booklets Dividing or Strengthening?, on the  Five Ways page, pp. 67-71, and Supplement, pp. 58-64; for more on Nikos Nissiotis, Dividing, p. 11; Supplement, pp. 9, 119-35).

Apologies, forgiveness and reparation had dropped out of the Roman Catholic vocabulary after the Council of Trent, in the sixteenth century.  One of the great achievements of Vatican II was to restore this attitude to Catholicism.  The ongoing tension between the divine side of the Church, and the sinful side, has been made more evident.  It is a challenge for each generation to preserve and strengthen both sides of the tension.