Posted on 06/30/2003 2:53:51 PM PDT by 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.
I quoted this passage below. I'm not sure if you are saying the passage you are quoting is the same or not, but there are others of St. Cyril if you need the citations (try googling St. Cyril of Alexandria filioque):
Since the Holy Spirit when he is in us effects our being conformed to God, and he actually proceeds from the Father and Son, it is abundantly clear that He is of the divine essence, in it in essence and proceeding from it.
-St. Cyril of Alexandria, The Treasury of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, Thesis 34, (423-425 AD)
I will let your greatest modern Doctor, St. Gregory Palamas, explain it for you, and I will leave it at that. His explanation seems reasonable to me, and is in line with Catholic thought on the meaning of our traditional Latin phraseology, as well as the < ahref="http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Atrium/8410/filioque.html">official Catholic text you linked to.
Explaining St. Cyril he writes: "When you understand that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Two, because it comes essentially from the Father through the Son, you should understand this teaching in this sense: it is the powers and essential energies of God which pour out, not the divine hypostasis of the Spirit. ... The hypostasis of the All Holy Spirit does not come from the Son; it is not given or received by anybody; it is only the divine grace and energy which are received." (St. Gregory Palamas, Apodictic Treatise, II, fol. 41 and fol. 51, quoted in J. Meyendorff, "A Study of Gregory Palamas", p. 230, 1998 ed.)
There is no reaqson for "filioque" and the like to divide us if both sides are understood.
Hermann - "Have you ever read the Old Testament, where Elijah slew the false prophets of Baal? Does this answer your question?
Its not against the will of God to burn heretics who insist on disturbing the faithful and robbing them of truth."
As long as God gives me a heart to feel, a brain to think, or a hand to execute my will, I will devote it against that power which has attempted to use the machinery of the courts to destroy the rights and character of an American citizen. But there is a thing which is very certain; it is, that if the American people could learn what I know of the fierce hatred of the generality of the priests of Rome against our institutions, our schools, our most sacred rights, and our so dearly bought liberties, they would drive them away, tomorrow, from among us, or would shoot them as traitors. […] The history of the last thousand years tells us that wherever the Church of Rome is not a dagger to pierce the bosom of a free nation, she is a stone to her neck, and a ball to her feet, to paralyze her and prevent her advance in the ways of civilization, science, intelligence, happiness, and liberty.
Abraham Lincoln, following the Chiniquy trial
The catholic church is gathering a lot more power again, and one of my greatest fears, is that history will repeat itself .
There are many good and true things about the catholic church, but I don't trust them to do the right thing when push comes to shove.
Just because things were done a certain way in old testament times, does not mean that it should be that way now.
I share this with you and thank you for your honesty.
And the pope keeps going there to create another saint for them so they can know they are on the right track. He makes public apologies while he desecrates the dying grounds of those killed by clergy of his church.
I understand Argentina, coincidentally, is also a very hard country for the Jews currently.
As a former protestant, I know that my sect was in error, but never ever did I sense that my or any of many of the other denominations ever wanted to impose their beliefs on others or persecute others for failing to see things their way.
And this comment from the same site rings oh so true to my heart.
"The Pope's many condemnations of antisemitism and his landmark visit to Rome's synagogue are indeed important contributions to the conciliation process, but the events of recent months places his acts and statements a different light: John Paul II's Church lauds its concern for the new relationship with Jews while trampling on present-day Jewish sensitivities."
Generally, I agree with you. There is a looming groundswell of fanaticism in certain quarters, and that should make everyone afraid. The masses can be influenced to do the bidding of their masters.
What I fear from the rest of the rank and file is that they are empowering those elements by their blind obedience.
Which is in itself, an invitation to disaster and sin, in my opinion. There is a reason the protestants and orthodox do not have histories of mass, planned, killings over conversion. We do not have a mandate to obey a human head of the church. Absolute power and all...
Orthodox Russia doesn't have a very good track record concerning the Jews in certain places. I don't know how it was in other orthodox countries, before they were overrun.
Yes, Russia has a history of antisemitism, and they were not kind to the Old Believers at a few times either. Since the fall of the USSR, however, the Russian church has worked closely with the Simon Weisenthal Center to extinguish antisemitism - I posted on this a few weeks ago and I really hate to go find the info again, so I hope you just can believe me.
Russia has not set up camps for killing the Jewish population - the gulags of the USSR ( not Russia) were for everyone, not just the Jews. :-)
No :-). I don't like his name for one thing :-). Maybe it is a pseudonym for all I know. There are times when I wish certain forms of immorality could be legislated against, but that could lead down a very slippery slope, and I don't have a firm opinion one way or the other at this point.
I'll take your word about Russia, so don't bother to look it up. It will no doubt come up again. I appreciate your posts and wish I had more time to chat individually with certain people, but I can't handle too much writing on the internet.
I agree with you about the camps. There was undoubtedly a cross section of the population represented there. And there is this famous Russian painting, I can't remember the title or artist, but it really stuck in my mind. It's the one of the Old Believer being carted away on a sled in the dead of winter.
But you know, I've read a lot of the Russian writers. It's been awhile, but I think it was Chekhov who wasn't particularly religiously oriented who noted that when people broke away from the established religion; i.e., orthodoxy, they drifted off into questionable practices and beliefs after awhile. Perhaps it was from a sense of alienation and perhaps it was something else.
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