NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      BALTIMORE (CWNews.com) - Catholic and Orthodox leaders announced on Tuesday that a key meeting between the two groups planned for June will be postponed because of the current war between NATO and Yugoslavia.

      Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore and Archbishop Spyridon of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America said in a statement that the meeting of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches will be rescheduled for 2000. The commission has met periodically since 1979 and was set to meet on June 5 at Mount St. Mary's College near Baltimore.

      The decision to postpone the meeting was made by the international co-chairs of the commission, Cardinal Edward Cassidy and Orthodox Archbishop Stylianos of Australia who said they hoped to use the delay to "the benefit of this dialogue." The postponement came as NATO entered the sixth week of a bombing campaign against Yugoslavia which has a majority population of Serbian Orthodox Christians.