www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Concrete Steps

Below is an interesting article on potential for improved relations between Catholics and Orthodox.

My question is this:

What do you think the "Concrete steps" that Pope
Benedict mentioned in his homily will turn out to be. He means them to affect hearts. What will they be? I can't wait. I pray that Orthodox hierarchs and faithful will be receptive, that hearts will truly be warmed and that we may all be one. I know that it's silly to get my hopes up for quick change, but I can't help it!


Orthodox leaders predict improved relations with Pope Benedict

By JONATHAN LUXMOORE

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY. Orthodox leaders are predicting improved relations with the Catholic Church under Pope Benedict XVI.

"The new pope, an excellent theologian, will value our church's wealth of theology and spirituality and wish to cooperate with it and support theological dialogue," said Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, spiritual leader of the world's 250 million Orthodox Christians.

In an April 20 statement, the patriarch said he welcomed "with satisfaction and hope" the election of former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, adding that the German background of the pope offered "hope and certainty that he will be able to express the significance of unity or at least of peaceful cooperation."

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow said he also counted on improved Catholic-Orthodox relations.

"I sincerely hope Your Holiness's pontificate will be marked by the development of good relations between our churches and fruitful Orthodox-Catholic dialogue," Patriarch Alexy said in a congratulatory message. "The success of this dialogue is important for the whole Christian world."

Catholic-Orthodox ties have been tense over complaints of Catholic "proselytism" in traditionally Orthodox areas, as well as over the post-communist revival of Eastern Catholic churches.

In his first message April 20 at a Mass with the College of Cardinals, Pope Benedict said the "full and visible unity of all Christ's followers" would be his "primary commitment"; he was determined to "cultivate any initiative" for promoting "contact and agreement" with other churches and ecclesial bodies.

Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan Daniel Ciobotea of Moldava and Bukovina told Catholic News Service that his church believed Pope Benedict would "be able to adapt to new ecumenical responsibilities," adding that Orthodox leaders would accept papal primacy if it conformed with practices from the first millennium, before churches became divided.

Metropolitan Ciobotea said the pope was a "a clever theologian."

"He has said Orthodox churches cannot be expected to accept anything outside our common tradition, including papal dogmas which were formulated without us," said Metropolitan Ciobotea.

"To have a chance of moving forward in fellowship, we have to be more spiritual and less diplomatic. If the new pope rejects the formula of sister churches, he must at least uphold the idea of fraternity," he said.

Patriarch Alexy told Italy's Corriere della Sera daily that Pope John Paul II's pontificate had worsened interchurch "complications"; he urged "radical changes" in Vatican policies.

However, some Catholics have warned that ties could deteriorate under Pope Benedict, who was responsible, as prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for the 2000 document "Dominus Iesus," which was a focal point of ecumenical and interreligious discussion when it came out in 2000 because of its firm statement that Christ and the church are necessary for salvation.

Metropolitan Ciobotea said he believed the document reflected "internal problems in the Catholic Church"; Orthodox Christians agreed with its stress on the "centrality and uniqueness of Christ," he said.

"I don't think the new pope can write more documents like this -- his responsibilities are different now," he said.

"As congregation prefect, he was a defender of the faith, but now he's also a bridge-builder. ... The Holy Spirit works differently according to someone's level of responsibility," he said.

The secretary-general of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches, which includes about 25 Orthodox denominations, said in an April 20 message he counted on "renewed commitment" to "ecumenical openness" under Pope Benedict, who was known for his "theological integrity and ecclesial loyalty, evangelical simplicity and pastoral sensitivity."

Metropolitan Ciobotea told CNS that Catholic and Orthodox churches should stay "faithful to the rich values of their own traditions," while seeking a common position on "synodality, collegiality and reciprocal cooperation."

"As a theologian defending Catholicism, Cardinal Ratzinger's personal values were never in doubt -- he realized the world was changing rapidly and could no longer be viewed in medieval categories," he said.

"Today, we need to find a new a synthesis between the Catholic and Orthodox understanding of primacy. In the meantime, despite all the criticisms, we must work with the pope to make use of today's constructive range of possibilities. The Holy Spirit is at work in the new reality -- surprises are sometimes created out of acts of inspiration," he said.


04/21/2005
Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

I read that the World Council of churches wishes for the Catholic Church to extend 'Eucharistic hospitality' and recognition of the church status of our 'seperated brethren'. That will never happen. What has been written will not be unwritten.

I am far more optimsitic for relations with the Orthodox Church particularly with the Ecumenical Patriarchate itself. I cant see Benedict XVI simply throwing out the dogma's of the Roman Church made after the 1st millenia. However, I can see him being more than willing to re-interpret the universal jurdistiction of the Roman See in a way more closely allied to the Canons of the Council of Sardica and the practice of the 1st millenia. I think this would advance us a great deal towards unity and it might even put in place the neccessary pre conditions for a re-union Council.

No, Rome should admit anyone to the eucaristic table who remains separated. That is surely not what the Holy Father meant.

He certainly can't throw out dogmas to make nice with the Orthodox either.

As Cardinal Ratzinger he made it clear that Roman Primacy could be reinterpreted in light of the common experience of the first millenium, and he said that the Orthodox would have to cease to oppose as heretical the ways that Rome has developed in the second century, and RC's would have to cease to oppose as heretical the ways that the East has remained the same.

So there are two questions:

1. What was primacy in the first millenium?
2. What are the concrete steps that Pope Benedict intends to change hearts?

These are both very important, and, not easy to answer. If there had been consensus on what Roman Primacy meant in the first millenium, things might not have turned out the way they did. I think that consensus will have to be forged now.

What will that consensus look like?

David