Posted on 03/24/2021 6:04:49 PM PDT by marshmallow
Pope Francis and Cardinal Kurt Koch hope that there will be full communion and "visible unity" between the Roman Catholic Church and the Phanar.
On March 12, 2021, Pope Francis sent a congratulatory message to the new Metropolitan of Italy of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Exarch Polycarp (Stavropoulos) of Southern Europe, in which he expressed the hope that the RCC and Phanar would enter into "complete visible unity", the official website of the Vatican reports.
The Pope believes that Catholics and Orthodox will be able to transform, "with God's help, the communion already uniting us into a complete visible unity."
In addition, Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, reminded the Phanar hierarch "of the importance of joint efforts in proclaiming the Word of God, educating new generations and serving those most in need."
According to the cardinal, "this fraternal cooperation is designed to make a particular and effective contribution to the full restoration of communion between our Churches."
(Excerpt) Read more at spzh.news ...
The Orthodox want nothing to do with that fake idiot.
Such a union would be iconic.
OK, I’ll be serious. There was a time, perhaps in my lifetime, when the question was whether the RCC was willing to unschismate (if there is such a word) with the “weird” Orthodox, all those beards and icons and dunking babies and having-to-stand-for-three-hours-worship and stuff. Now it is evident the question is whether the Orthodox would be willing to associate themselves with the heterodox-to-heretic conflagration that the RCC is quickly becoming—something this LCMS takes no joy in.
Agree. No way the Orthodox can bend to this apostate’s will.
....”I don’t think the “full restoration of communion between our Churches” would be possible as long as the original reasons for the schism remain”......
Certainly not if the Roman Catholic Pope continues declaring himself the supreme and infallible leader of all Christendom.....and the members believe that he is.
The Vatican argues that the meaning of "proceeds" in Greek and Latin is somewhat different, and they are fine with dropping the "Filioque" when the creed is recited / sung in Greek.
The official Greek translation of the 1970 Roman Missal does not include the "Filioque", IIRC.
Also, Greek Rite Catholics are free to omit the Filioque, and most do.
I.E., the Pope technically has the ability to depose or appoint bishops in any of the sui iuris churches that compose the Catholic church on his own authority. That isn't the way it's usually done in the Eastern churches, but he technically claims that authority.
The case can be made that the "supreme and infallible leader" part existed before the schism. Much harder with "immediate and ordinary jurisdiction".
We already have Byzantine Rite Catholics who do all of that "stuff". None of what the Orthodox do in their worship is really a problem. They have problems (or say that they do) with what we Westerners do in our worship, but it's unclear how much of a problem, e.g., unleavened bread in communion really is.
There are issues with what they believe and how their church authority structure works, and similar issues in the opposite direction.
Thanks. I wasn’t aware of that. A long time ago I sometimes went to a Ukrainian Catholic Mass with my parents and as I recall the version of the creed they were using had the Filioque. (There were bilingual Ukrainian/English missalettes.) It was the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. Neither of my parents were of Ukrainian descent but they loved the Ukrainian priest at the local Ukrainian Catholic church—when he was replaced as pastor they stopped going. Later they found a traditional Latin Mass and usually went there.
It's "optional," but I don't know if it's at the discretion of the pastor, or of the bishop, etc. I've seen Byzantine Catholic pew missals with it, without it, and with it in parentheses. :-)
>Will the Orthodox accept the Roman Catholic Pope as the supreme and infallible leader of all Christendom.
Maybe they might accept a Primus inter pares type status with regard for the Pope.
The Catholic position was that yes, this topic will be brought up in a council of the entire church - meaning Catholic and Orthodox joint council.
In essence both sides have agreed that they mean the same - the filioque is what the Orthodox believe as “through the Son” and the Catholic position is “yes, let’s bring it up in council”.
The Catholic position on the Papacy is already at the “first among equals” level.
There is a close chance for unity.
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.