Saturday, September 10, 2005
THE WORD FROM ROME ON ECUMENISM WITH THE ORTHODOX
John Allen reports on Catholic-Orthodox relations...or more accurately the stall in them:
Most of the Orthodox I talked to in Assisi seemed to agree that the original vision of the ecumenical movement after the Second Vatican Council -- "full, visible, structural unity" between the divided branches of Christianity -- was probably a bit unrealistic, and is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Paul Yazigi of Aleppo told me that he doesn't believe structural unity with Catholicism is in the cards.
"It's not a political problem for us, whether Rome or Constantinople is the most powerful throne," he said. "It's a theological problem. We can accept the pope as a sort of first patriarch, but it's the mode of exercising that primacy that's the problem. The College of Bishops must be above the pope."
I suppose that Metropolitan Yazigi doesn't really know what would happen here in America if this concept were implemented in the Roman Catholic Church. Just imagine an autonomous Cardinal Archbishop Mahony. Even the Orthodox would have a problem with that!
