Kosta is right. Universal primacy has never been an issue.
By the way, the understandable cautionary tone of the commentators notwithstahnding, this is VERY VERY BIG! While not an Ecumenical Council in any sense of the words, the fact that the EP and the Patriarch likely will jointly preside over a collection of Catholic and Orthodox theologians is "religious world" shaking.
the fact that the EP and the Patriarch likely will jointly preside over a collection of Catholic and Orthodox theologians is "religious world" shaking. Coming from you, K, I will accept your assessment of the situation and rejoice :-) Hallelujah!!!
I recall your initial reaction following the election of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to the papacy. You liked his "theosis". It is not even 2 years since that great day.
Following his election, I recall certain media labeling him an 'interim' pope, fully anticipating a short and meaningless papacy. It has been anything but! When he traveled to Turkey last month, the forum Catholics set up prayer threads, fully anticipating some crazed Muslim would kill Pope Benedict XVI. We believe that God is in control but, hedged our bets on the Pope's life through our prayers. Not only did he come through unscathed, the media have now altered their view of him as one who can traverse the divisions that separate Muslims from Christians.
Is it just me or do you also see the Holy Spirit at work through this man?
the fact that the EP and the [Pope] likely will jointly preside over a collection of Catholic and Orthodox theologians is "religious world" shaking It's a historic moment for sure, possibly the first. When was the last such meeting held? Anxieties of some aside, one must recognize at least that incredible efforts are being made to begin the end of our separation.
This is a glacier that has not moved, but rather solidified and grew larger in the last 1,000 years, and we are privileged enough to witness its reversal, no matter now small. The ice is melting.
I also agree with those who are cautious. Unless our theologians in secret reversed centuries of disagreement, our faiths remain depely divided along some very important and even crucial issues.
No re-union will be possible without resolution of these obstacles, and false ecumenism is not what we need. But we can at least treat each other as one Catholic and Apostolic Church, we can recognize our love and faith as genuine, and our division as our own failure.
Pope Benedict XVI said it very clearly that any re-union would not involve absorption of one side into the other. True re-union can only be mutual. Many people didn't think we could even get this far. And the Russian Church is right when it says that only 40 or so years have passed before we started cautiously speaking with each other on friendlier terms. This is not going to be a fast-faith drive-through!
Yet we witnessed the incredible: an Orthodox Patriarch raising the Pope's hand in arm embrace as if saying: we stand united even if are not one and the same (yet, again).
And those who caution that the Russian Church must not be neglected and that the EP is not the "spiritual leader" of the Orthodox world are also right. This must be an all-Orthodox affair and not just the EP. And any re-union will have to be made through the an All-Orthodox Synod and not through the EP alone. I am sure the Catholic side is very much aware of that.
But it is clear that the Vatican is dealing with Russia as well, and perhaps the level of that cooperation is not yet the same as that with the EP, the BUT the ice is melting!
Russian top Church officials have recently stated that the Orthodox and Catholics are allies. And we are.
I agree with Kolokotronis that this is "VERY, VERY BIG." Not only that, it is VERY, VERY GOOD too!