[sionnsar]

He is also dealing with so many other issues. One biggie, in my mind, in the union of Orthodoxies with Rome. All but the Russians have joined. I think that was huge.

'star, are you sure of this?

[Agrarian]

There have been no unions or establishment of communion of any Orthodox Church with the Roman Catholic church.

Relations between the Church of Russia and the Roman Catholic church has been the worst (most prominently because of the problems left over from the Unia), so their poor relations with Rome get more attention. But the entire Orthodox Church is united on this issue of not being in communion with Rome.

Many of us Orthodox are cautiously optimistic about B16's prospects. He is more capable of speaking our language than JPII ever was. This may be because he is simply smarter than JPII, but I think that he is genuinely influenced by patristic thought in a way that JPII was not.

I like the guy, and hope he is capable of restoring Rome to patristic thought and praxis.