Source: Los Angeles Times

On March 9, 2002, the Los Angeles Times reported that "Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, concluding a three-day visit to Washington, told Cardinals William Keeler of Baltimore and Theodore McCarrick of Washington that... persistent and historic theological differences must not harm relations between the Eastern and Western churches... Bartholomew made clear that he did not intend to try to bridge those differences... But he said both sides must make distinctions between 'essential and nonessential differences so that the church does not appear divided due to matters of secondary importance.'"