Pope Again Reaches Out to Orthodox Church

Herald Tribune ^ | June 30, 2003

[NYer]

VATICAN CITY Pope John Paul II again reached out to the Orthodox Church on Sunday, saying his efforts at reconciliation weren't just "ecclesiastic courtesy" but a sign of his profound desire to unite the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches.

John Paul made the comments during his regular appearance to pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter's Square. Later Sunday, he welcomed a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople at a traditional Mass marking the feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul.

"The exchange of delegations between Rome and Constantinople, for the respective patron feasts, goes beyond just an act of ecclesiastic courtesy," the pontiff said. "It reflects the profound and rooted intention to re-establish the full communion between East and West."

John Paul has made improving relations with the Orthodox Church a hallmark of his nearly 25-year papacy, visiting several mostly Orthodox countries and expressing regret for the wrongs committed by the Catholic Church against Orthodox Christians.

Despite his efforts at healing the 1,000-year-old schism, he hasn't yet visited Russia because of objections from the Russian Orthodox Church.

During the Mass on Sunday, 42 new archbishops received the pallium, a band of white wool decorated with black crosses that symbolizes their bond with the Vatican. Two of the archbishops received the pallium in their home parishes; the rest took part in the Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

The official title is: Sovereign of the State of Vatican City

Caesar is a term for Emperors in the west.

[TexConfederate1861]

Call it what you like....however, I would highly suggest John Paul stay out of Orthodox business....he isn't wanted.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

But the Muslim Sultan is. How pleased must Christ be with your reasoning.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

King Pepin could not give what he never owned. He restored the Papal States to the Pope after the Pope contacted him at the behest of the Byzantine Emperor who told him to do so once the Byzantines had been driven out by the Lombards.

[TexConfederate1861]

I believe you are just a little more intelligent than you are pretending...You know as well as I that there IS NO SULTAN anymore, and the quote is historical...give me a break.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

The quote is obviously historical (Lukas Notaras), but the thought it represents clearly is still alive and well.

[MarMema]

Are you sure? Why then do Russian Orthodox not rebaptize converts from Catholicism or Protestant sects, while Greek Orthodox do?

You know, you are the most clueless person I have encountered in awhile. It is amazing to watch you post one fantasy story after another here and show your complete ignorance about our church. You are the best excuse for staying away from the RC church I have seen in a long time.

[MarMema]

How pleased must Christ be with your reasoning.

How typical of you and yours to think you might know.

[MarMema]

Caesar is a term for Emperors in the west.

ROFL!! That's exactly what it is.

[FormerLib]

Yes. Ss. Peter and Paul submitted to Nero, did they not? With those dear saints as our example, we are no less duty-bound to obey every authority on earth -- even the evil ones!

Would that include Communist governments as well?

You see, a number of Roman Catholic posters have told me that the Orthodox Church should be condemned for not resisting the Communists more fully. That 30,000 Russian clergy were killed and thousands more tortured until they broke was insufficient for my Western brethern, or so it would appear.

I'm quite sure they could have endured tortures 10 times that of the average Orthodox clergy!

But now you suggest that the Orthodox, in fact, resisted too much?

[FormerLib]

Any predictions on this Wednesday's PowerBall while you're on a roll?

[FormerLib]

What is your explanation of "the keys" given to Peter?

You mean the ones given to all of the Apostles equally? What was your point again?

[FormerLib]

The Primacy of Peter is irrelevant to claiming Primacy for someone else who claims to be sitting in Peter's chair.

[FormerLib]

The Tsars had exiled people to Siberia or jailed them in labor camps for centuries. The Communists carried on this Holy Tradition.

And thank you for displaying the un-Christian arrogance that reminds me the time has come to shake the dust from our sandals.

[RussianConservative]

Pope recieve mark from pagan Shiva priestess

Hitler and Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo, the papal nuncio in Berlin. It was taken On April 20, 1939, when Orsenigo celebrated Hitler’s birthday. The celebrations were initiated by Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) and became a tradition. Note, Hitler never excommunicated by Popes.

Adolf Hitler was a Catholic. As leader of the German state he signed a concordant with the Pope in 1934 in which it was agreed that he would protect Church assets in Germany in return for Catholic political endorsement and support. This treaty gave the people of Catholic Austria, and the German Catholic state of Bavaria permission to wholeheartedly support Protestant-Catholic Germany, but this same treaty concealed the Church's imperative to regain Church lands in Germany which had been lost during the Reformation. It helps one's perspective to remember that after Germany's defeat in 1945 - every institution in that country was turned upside down and inside out, except one - the Catholic Church.

Pope kissing Koran.

[RussianConservative]

Sorry, but Sultan is term used by Turks, there not any Sultans since WW1...so null issue.

[RussianConservative]

Tap dance all you like, Pope was an earthly ruler and still is.

[MarMema]

Kinda like that letter from the RC priest to the Orthodox one, back in WW2.

"With pain in the soul and great disapproval we have condemned the happenings and the policies in regard to the Orthodox Church, but this was a furious storm against which we were powerless to act. People looked on helplessly at what was happening, and everyone in his heart condemned it, but at the same time we had to let it happen. Many others have gradually come to share your fate. Above all the intelligentsia. They have tried to deal with the peasants in another way by making them say that they feel and call themselves Croats. And indirectly they've tried to get them to join the Catholic faith. They began understandably with people from mixed marriages. A mass of others followed, many of them state functionaries who feared for their lives. It was no use saying it wasn't right to convert people without personal convictions or understanding of the tenets of the faith. They were terrified.

I know that you abroad have observed what's happening here, and that it's detrimental to the Orthodox Church. However, my dear colleague, if you consider the human beings involved, it has done them good and a favor. If we hadn't done it, God knows what might have happened in the village. Seen from a spiritual point of view, we've accomplished that unity of the faith that has always been our ideal. In fact they have stayed with their own beliefs.

All they've had to do is acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope in Rome, and for ordinary people that's of no significance. I know it hasn't been done in a legal fashion, for there have been moral pressures, but the responsibility for that doesn't lie with individuals. It's been done under orders. The Church officially condemns forced conversions because they're done for material advantage, but to have stuck by the rules would have been hard and damaging.

The church at Borovo now has Catholic services and the church's goods now belong to the Church. Your vineyard and orchard have gone to some Dalmatians and I fear they'll ruin it unless it goes back into good hands. That's how the revolution has been, and God alone knows what might happen.

I don't know whether you blame and curse me but, my dear colleague, as far as your personal things and property are concerned, the Franciscans haven't got hold of or spent one single dinar. I've saved everything that could be saved. The icons and pictures are secure. I've had the gold and silver service cleaned, and you know what it looks like now? Great!

from the Pavelic Papers

[Hermann the Cherusker]

The Primacy of Peter is irrelevant to claiming Primacy for someone else who claims to be sitting in Peter's chair.

The Popes don't "claim" to sit in Peter's See. They do.

What's next, will you tell us that the patriarch of Alexandira is not really the sucessor John Mark?

Why would Christ institute a Primacy for Peter, and not want him to pass it on to his sucessors? That's certainly what the early Church believed.

[sinkspur]

Any predictions on this Wednesday's PowerBall while you're on a roll?

Yes. The Orthodox will continue to be the most thin-skinned bunch on the face of the earth!

I'm shocked, not only at the number, but at the vitriol in the e-mails I've gotten from Orthodox "Christians" over a little remark on a friggin' website!

I take it back. Who the hell would want to reunite with you people!