Catholic and Orthodox Theologians ‘Reach Landmark Agreement’

The Catholic Herald (UK) ^ | 9/22/16 | Staff Reporter

[marshmallow]

Scholars reportedly achieve breakthrough on synodality and primacy

Catholic and Orthodox scholars have reached a landmark agreement on synodality and primacy in the early Church, it has been reported.

According to a Russian Orthodox Church website, the Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church has approved a joint document called “Synodality and Primacy during the First Millennium: Towards a Common Understanding in Service to the Unity of the Church”.

Differing views on the synodal structure of the Church and the primacy of the Pope are regarded as two of the greatest obstacles to unity between Catholics and Orthodox believers.

The Russian Orthodox Church said that the text will be published “in the nearest future”.

[marshmallow]

Details still sketchy.........

[jafojeffsurf]

Interesting...

Know this:
Return to God, a Moral people and Christendom! Anything Else if for Not! When you see the reunification of Christians into the One True Faith the Holy and Apostolic Catholic Church the End to the Darkness will be Assured... Until then PRAY for All the Lost Souls!

God Bless

[piusv]

Sounds like there are still disagreements on the content.

[annalex]

From Asia News, linked in the posted article:

This was announced by the Synodal Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, which in a statement on its website also pointed out to future challenges. According to Moscow, "it will be difficult to move forward in the dialogue, if the question of the ecclesiological and canonical consequences of Uniatism" (derogatory term which indicates the Greek-Catholic Ukrainian church of Eastern rite but loyal to the Pope)  remains unresolved.

[...]

According to the Moscow Patriarchate, the consensus has been reached, even if the Georgian Orthodox Church "disagreed with the individual paragraphs" of the document. The Georgian objection is contained in a note in the final communiqué adopted by the plenary session. A side note, in this regard, will also be inserted in the joint document, which will be published soon by the Commission. It is an encouraging decision, some commentators have pointed out, as the Orthodox have not allowed the objections of the Georgian Church to prevent the adoption of the document.

The conciliatory stance of the Russians is notable; I also think that it goes against the strong anti-Catholic sentiment among the Russians laity. We should be aware of the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) has become somewhat a branch of Putin's dictatorship, and Putin seeks to find ways toward re-admission of Russia in the West. This is one of them, and it is likely to be a fake rapprochement.

However, the work on the deeper understanding of episcopacy and papacy in the early unified church is a good thing by itself. Russia used to block it vehemently. Now that it does not, hopefully something of lasting value can be worked out.