Unifying all Christians and healing the 1,000-year rift between Catholics and the Orthodox is "particularly urgent," Pope Benedict XVI said in a message released Monday. In the message to a Catholic-Orthodox symposium on Sunday, the pope called for intensified prayers and dialogue to help heal the rift, which he has said would be a fundamental priority of his pontificate. "The search for the full, visible union among all the disciples of Christ is seen as particularly urgent in our times, and for this one feels the need for a more profound spirituality and an increase in reciprocal love," the pope said.The Catholic and Orthodox churches split in 1054 over several questions, including the issue of the primacy of the pope. More recently, relations between the two sides have been made tense by Orthodox charges of aggressive Catholic missionary work in eastern Europe and by property disputes.