[Kolokotronis]

"I think the fact that Fr. Taft and Patriarch Bartholomew were students together in Rome presages unanticipated results."

Now there's an interesting and potentially important factoid.

[bornacatholic]

Beginning in 1965, Fr.Robert Taft, S.J., and the great Holy Patriarch, Bartholomew, studied together at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome under the magnificent Juan Mateos.

As the old saw holds, there are no coincidences :)

It it also "coincidental" that Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Benedict are not without EXTENSIVE knowledge of Patristics :)