Yet to hit the secular press, but big news passed on by Rorate Coeli (his translation of the Italian newspaper original):
The Pope is the 'first among the Patriarchs', Rome is the 'first See', the Church of Rome 'presides in charity'. A joint document of the Catholic Church and of the Orthodox Churches explicitly acknowledges definitively and in an unequivocal way the primacy of the Roman Pontiff, easing the way for the reunification of Catholics and Orthodox, divided by the schism of 1054.
The reserved document is the result of the October meeting at Ravenna, where a Catholic delegation presided by Cardinal Kasper and a pan-Orthodox delegation, guided by Metropolitan Zizioulas, of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, established the bases for a deepening of the questions left to be resolved in order to reestablish unity.
Well, all the Orthodox except the Russians, who left the meeting in a huff.
More here at Fr Z's blog.
A joint commission working to heal the 1,000-year split between the Catholic and Orthodox churches has agreed the Pope has primacy over all bishops but disagrees over just what that authority permits him to do.
"While the fact of primacy at the universal level is accepted by both East and West, there are differences of understanding with regard to the manner in which it is to be exercised, and also with regard to its scriptural and theological foundations," the document continued.
Etc., etc.
"Presides in charity" is a nice way of saying, we may join back with you, but you are not in charge. Much like the Eastern Catholic churches who are in "union" with the Roman Catholic church with the understanding that Rome cannot touch their canon law. In union, but independent.
ReplyDeleteYou'll sooner see the Anglicans swimming the Tiber sooner than Russians acknowleging Rome..
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