Nowadays Catholicism has more than a billion followers all over the world. Their spiritual leader Pope John Paul II does a great work to make a dialogue between different confessions and does a lot to reconcile the representatives of different confessions. Bartholomew I, who is the Archbishop of Constantinople, is the leader of nearly 300 million Orthodox Christians (who mostly live in eastern and Southern Europe, Middle East and North Africa). More over Patriarch of Constantinople is simply "the first among equals" and does not have any supreme power over other patriarchs. John Paul II looks for the ways to keep the dialogue with Orthodox Church and looks for the ways for reconciliation, but Orthodox Church is not really enthusiastic in this process. Russian patriarch Alexiy II does not show any interest in it, as he says the Catholic Church has to admit its cruelty against Orthodox Christians, as well as immorality and inhumanity of the Crusades that took place up to the end of the 13th century.

References

Ware, K. The Orthodox Church [2nd...

London, Penguin Books, 1993.
Lameygh, E. CICM "The Laity in History" in East Asian Pastoral Review, Vol XXIII No.3 1986

Baldwin, M.W. Christianity Through the Thirteenth Century, New York: Harper & Row, 1970. p.182-183

Differences between Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Christian Churches, Article the Associated Press Saturday, May 8, 1999

Creighton, Mandell a History of the Papacy from the Great Schism to the Sack of Rome Part One Kessinger Publishing August, 2004

Unity, heresy and reform, 1378-1460: The conciliar response to the Great Schism (Documents of medieval history) Edward Arnold 1977

Ullmann, W. Origins of the Great Schism Penguin Books 1982

Gail, Marzieh the three Popes;: An account of the great schism when rival Popes in Rome, Avignon, and Pisa vied for the rule of Christendom, Simon and Schuster 1969

Gail, M. The Three Popes Ballantine Books, 1996

Great Schism, Article available:

http://mb-soft.com/believe/txc/gschism.htm