Posted on 12/01/2013 5:58:16 AM PST by marshmallow
Vatican City, Nov 30, 2013 / 03:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis sent special greetings to the Archbishop of Constantinople today, expressing his desire for continued dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
“You Holiness, beloved brother in Christ, this is the first time that I address you on the occasion of the feast of the Apostle Andrew, the first-called. I take this opportunity to assure you of my intention to pursue fraternal relations between the Church of Rome and the Ecumenical Patriarchate,” he wrote on Nov. 30 in the message delivered by Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
Cardinal Koch had led a delegation from the Holy See to Istanbul for the feast of St. Andrew. After taking part in a Liturgy presided over by Patriarch Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Cardinal Koch delivered Pope Francis’ message.
“It is for me a source of great reassurance to reflect on the depth and the authenticity of our existing bonds, the fruit of a grace-filled journey along which the Lord has guided our Churches since the historic encounter in Jerusalem between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras,” the Pope’s message said, referencing the momentous event of 1965 in which the leaders of the two churches lifted the excommunications that had been placed on each other in 1054.
Pope Francis explained, “God, the source of all peace and love, has taught us throughout these years to regard one another as members of the same family.”
“For indeed, we have one Lord and Savoir. We belong to him through the gift of the good news of salvation transmitted by the apostles, through the one baptism in the name of the Holy Trinity, and through the holy ministry.”
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnewsagency.com ...
The Pope is not orthodox at all. I’d show him the door.
Thanks be to God, then, that you’re not the Patriarch.
I should say so. I’m an OT guy.
Paradoxically, it tends to be the (small or large "O") Orthodox of every religion who are least likely to be interested in interfaith stuff, and yet it's the o(O)rthodox who are most likely to respect each other, I think.
As a Catholic, I observe that I have more in common with Eastern Orthodox Christians, and Orthodox Jews, than I do with "Modernist" Catholics.
I respect the Orthodox because in my heart I know where they're coming from.
Won’t happen...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.