Pope returns icon to Russian Orthodox Church

POPE John Paul II said he hoped the return of a precious icon to the Russian Orthodox Church would hasten “mutual understanding and reconciliation” between the Roman Catholic Church and its eastern counterpart.

The 84-year-old Pope was speaking at a ceremony at the Vatican marking the return of the icon of Our Lady of Kazan to the Russian Church in what Vatican analysts said is an ecumenical gesture designed to heal a longstanding rift with Orthodoxy.

He also said he hoped the gesture would speed the Christian Churches toward “full unity.”