Catholics and Orthodox unite? Solidarity possible?

Good question. Not a question that you hear with any degree of seriousness in the Church among the "middle management" and met with wonder among the laity. In the recent past tensions have been fired up in various circles. The question of unity among the Catholics and Orthodox has been the lightening rod between the two churches for a long time. One can't forget the tensions over the establishment of Catholic dioceses in Russia or the refusal of the previous Russian Patriarch to allow John Paul II to visit Russia and the walking out of high level theological discussions of the Orthodox, etc. Now none of this is meant to point figures at any one church official or way of proceeding as much as it is to remember recent history and to note where we have come in a short span of time.