Pope Francis is preparing to end this month as he began it: with a concerted effort to reach out to the Orthodox world. On May 31, he is expected to arrive in Romania for a three-day visit. The country has the third-largest Eastern Orthodox population in the world, after Russia and Ukraine.
The Pope started the month with a trip to two other staunchly Orthodox nations: Bulgaria and North Macedonia. There, he safely navigated some of the most perilous ecumenical territory in the world. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church has been conspicuously absent from recent rounds of Orthodox-Catholic dialogue. It also rejected the Pan-Orthodox Council, a historic gathering of Orthodox leaders, in 2016. The Macedonian Orthodox Church, meanwhile, has been shunned by other Orthodox communities since it declared independence in 1967. Nevertheless, Francis was able to create a positive impression on Church leaders.
