2-March-2010 -- Vatican Information Service

Pope Greets Patriarch Bartholomew I for His 70th Birthday

VATICAN CITY, 27 FEB 2010 (VIS) - Made public today was a telegram from the Pope to His Holiness Bartholomew I Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, for the latter's seventieth birthday.

The English-language text reads: "The happy occasion of your seventieth birthday offers me a welcome opportunity to give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the giver of every good gift, for the abundant blessings which He has bestowed upon Your Holiness, and at the same time to convey my warm good wishes.

"These fervent and fraternal good wishes are accompanied by my prayers that our one Lord will sustain you with His strength and grace as you carry out your high ministry of pastor, preacher of the Gospel and teacher of the spiritual life.

"With pleasant memories of our meetings, particularly my visit to the Phanar for the feast of the Apostle Andrew, Peter's brother, I exchange with Your Holiness a holy embrace, while expressing my prayerful confidence that the spirit of God will continue to enlighten and guide our path towards the full communion willed by Christ for all His disciples".

Mnohaya Lita to His Holiness Bartholomew and to Pope Benedict!

God grant him many blessed years!

Eis polla eti Despota!

Eis polla aeti, Despota!

Eis polla eti Despota!

What language do they converse in? English? Italian? Greek? Anyone know?

Here's an interesting blog piece on the pope and the patriarch and birthday greetings. The language and tone, while not using "cuss words," may be offensive to some readers, especially Orthodox ones. I thought that this type of stuff was dead, but apparently it's alive and flourishing in the new generation of the hermeneutic of continuity.

On the pope and patriarch

John,

I'm not Orthodox, but I am offended - and flabbergasted, though I'm unsure why, because - unlike you - I didn't think it was dead. Guess I just wasn't prepared for such a concentrated dosage of it so early in the morning.

Many years,

Neil

It is sad because you will see such devilish stuff on both 'sides' of the great Apostolic divide. Some (many) zealous faithful seem to view the division of God's Church as a sporting event full of 'one up manship' - our side's better than, holier than, truer than etc..etc..etc...your side. Others seem to rejoice in the division, rather than pray for the end to it. As an Orthodox Christian I can state that for some within the Orthodox Church when polemics aren't being hurled at the Vatican, they seem to be hurled at each other - just follow the threads on some of the Orthodox boards on the internet. I often wonder why anyone would explore the Church beyond the internet if that was the only source of their knowledge of the Faith. Fortunately, most of our hierarchs, clergy and lay people are beyond this some of stuff, anyone can set up a 'neat looking' website and issue pronouncements and tomes to their hearts' delight. The journey towards truth is long and arduous, but the rewards are great.

I'm in the same place as Neil. The sad thing is that this sort of thing is still alive and well in an age when the Popes, from John XXIII of blessed memory to the late John Paul II asked Catholics to think of Christians not in communion with us as brothers and sisters, not as heretics or schismatics. When I read this type of thing I feel like I'm in a time warp. Sadly, too many of our young people seem to have been infected with this sort of poison. The real tragedy is that by taking this sort of attitude, they are really outside the very Church they think they are the defenders of. This is not where the Catholic Church is today, regardless of the many who think that by dredging up these ancient polemics they are "restoring" the Church.

In Christ,

BOB

The same may truly be said for my Orthodox brothers and sisters who misguidedly reciprocate.

My brothers, Bob and DMD, are, unfortunately, both correct. The topic is one that's available and employed for equal opportunity bigotry.

And, the point that DMD makes about polemics being used in intra-Church disputes is, likewise, one that is not unique to either side of the divide. A random look at any on-line Catholic site will demonstrate the same kind of in-fighting that he describes as happening on Orthodox fora. As someone who has been to and posted on both, only the names and jurisdictions change. The nastiness remains the same.

Many years,

Neil

While I take exception to Patriarch Bartholomew's position on ecclesiology (among other things), it remains true that, in the lamentable phrasing which the author of the blog quotes, Patriarch Bartholomew has not withdrawn from the Pope's jurisdiction - one really cannot withdraw from something of which one has never been part. Thus it is not merely discourteous; it is inaccurate to term the Ecumenical Patriarch a "schismatic".

There are some disputes, although not usually bitter ones, about the timing of the Great Schism. Rome regards the Great Schism as dating from the collapse of the Union of Florence, hence in the later fifteenth century. We are now in the early twenty-first century, nearly six hundred years later, so it is surely appropriate at this late date to seek and strive for the restoration of full communion and reconciliation, rather than assert a triumphalist attitude over the ecclesiastical events of six centuries ago.

May God show us mercy, and restore the peace of His Holy Church.

Fr. Serge

Father Serge:

Father bless!!

Sadly, the same thing goes on in parishes, too, where people decide to get nasty over the most simple things. What makes me wonder about us Christians is the fact that, by comparison, when Moslems fight internally, they usually come together when an outsider attacks another Moslem. Christians, however, seem to take a perverse pleasure in seeing their own brethren attacked and seem to want to pile on.

Lord, save us from ourselves.

Asking for your blessing and continued holy prayers,
Bob