Athenagoras, Orthodoxy's Bergoglio
January 19, 2018
The day Pope Francis moved on from Chile to Peru on his current trip marked the beginning all around the world of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which culminates on January 25 with the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul.
Half a century ago, on July 25, 1967, in Istanbul, the ecumenical journey marked the second meeting between Paul VI and the ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras. [It followed their historic first meeting in Jerusalem in 1965.]
And on the occasion of this anniversary, Eliana Versace, a Church historian, has published in the “Notiziario” of the Paul VI Institute in Brescia two documents of exceptional interest.
These are two reports sent by the Italian ambassador to Turkey at the time, Mario Mondello, to the Italian foreign minister, Senator Amintore Fanfani.
The first report is a detailed account of that 1967 trip of Papa Montini to Turkey. And the second, a dozen pages or so in length, reports the long conversation that the ambassador had with Athenagoras shortly after that meeting with Paul VI.
A conversation that the ambassador himself found “surprising” and “troubling,” beginning with the personage he found before him: “picturesque,” “ardent and affable,” “perhaps a bit awkward and perhaps a bit histrionic.”
And this character profile itself leads one to associate the figure of Athenagoras with that of pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
But there’s more, much more. We now know that there is an extraordinary proximity between the two, precisely in their manner of conceiving of the ecumenical journey.
To grasp this proximity it is enough to read this passage from the ambassador’s report:
“To the question from the ambassador on the importance of the theological differences among the various Churches, the patriarch responded vigorously, and said: ‘And how could I attribute importance to them, if there are none?’
To explain the meaning of his words to his surprised interlocutor, he compared himself to a diplomat: ‘You know, theologians are like jurists. Do you diplomats listen to the jurists when you feel that you must carry out some gesture or some important act of international politics? Of course not. Well then, I am a diplomat. Besides, out of scruples of conscience I asked a few theologians to study in what these differences would consist. Well then, you know what they found? That there are none. That’s it. On the contrary, they realized that our Churches separated without any motives for conflict, without any reason, but only because of a succession of actions carried out by one side and the other, imperceptibly. In short, a querelle d’évêques (quarrel among bishops).”
And further on:
“So there was only one path for the Patriarch of Constantinople [himself, Athenagoras] to follow: ‘There is only one Blessed Mother, the same for all. Just as there is only one Christ, the same for all. And we all use the same baptism, which makes us all Christians. Enough with the differences: let us draw near to each other with ‘acts.’ The only path to follow is that of love and of charity, and love and charity impose the way of union.”
[Not, of course, that any appreciable 'progress' was made in Catholic-Orthodox relations until in 2007 (40 years since Athenagoras said all that), the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialog between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches made a breakthrough agreement in Ravenna to begin discussing the primary issue that divides the two Churches: the primacy of the pope. But whereas the subsequent meetings of the Commission (Cyprus, 2009, and Austria, 2010) pursued this discussion of "The Role of the Bishop of Rome in the Communion of the Church in the First Millennium" (that is, before the Great Schism of 1057), the two subsequent ones in Bergoglio's pontificate appeared to have dropped that in favor of 'Primacy and Synodality in the Church'.]
And now compare this with what Pope Francis said on February 26, 2017 in a question-and-answer session at the All Saints Anglican Church in Rome:
"Your Predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, warned against the risk, in ecumenical dialogue, of giving priority to cooperation in social initiatives rather than following the more demanding path of theological agreement. It appears that you prefer the contrary, that is, to 'walk and work' together in order to reach the goal of Christian unity. Is this true?"
"I do not know the context in which Pope Benedict said this. I don’t know, and so it is a little difficult for me. I cannot really answer this.... Whether he meant to say this or not?... Perhaps it was during a conversation with theologians.... But I am sure that both aspects are important. This is certain. Which of the two has priority?...
And on the other hand, Patriarch Athenagoras’s famous comment – which is true because I asked Patriarch Bartholomew and he said: 'This is true' – when he said to Blessed Pope Paul VI: 'Let us make unity together and leave the theologians on an island to think about it'. It was a joke, but historically, it is accurate. I had doubts but Patriarch Bartholomew told me that it was true.
But what is the heart of the matter, because I believe that what Pope Benedict said is true: we must seek a theological dialogue in order to also seek the roots... of the Sacraments .. of many issues on which we are still not in agreement. But this cannot be done in a laboratory: it must be done as we advance, along the way. We are on a journey, and as we journey, we also have these discussions. Theologians do this. But in the meantime, we help each other, we, one with the other, with our needs, in our lives; also spiritually we help each other.
For example, in the ‘twinning’ [of the parishes] there was the fact of studying Scripture together, and we help each other in our charitable service, in service to the poor, in hospitals, in wars.... It is very important. This is very important.
It is not possible to have ecumenical dialogue while standing still. No. [But in the mindset of Bergoglio and the professional ecumenicists, dialog is the end in itself and becomes a never-ending dialectic that never gets resolved! And what is that but 'standing still'?] Ecumenical dialogue is carried out as we walk, because ecumenical dialogue is a journey, and theological matters are discussed along the way. I believe this betrays neither the thought of Pope Benedict, nor the reality of ecumenical dialogue. This is my interpretation. If I knew the context in which that thought was expressed, I might say something different, but this is what comes to mind to say."
And what the pope said on November 30, 2014, on the flight back from Turkey:
"I believe we are moving forward in our relations with the Orthodox; they have the sacraments and apostolic succession... we are moving forward. What are we waiting for? For theologians to reach an agreement? That day will never come, I assure you, I'm sceptical. Theologians work well but remember what Athenagoras said to Paul VI: 'Let's put the theologians on an island to discuss among themselves and we’ll just get on with things!'
I thought that this might not have been true, but Bartholomew told me: 'No, it's true, he said that'. We mustn't wait. Unity is a journey we have to take, but we need to do it together. This is spiritual ecumenism: praying together, working together. There are so many works of charity, so much work.... Teaching together.... Moving forward together. This is spiritual ecumenism. Then there is an ecumenism of blood: when they kill Christians, we have so many martyrs.... starting with those in Uganda, canonized 50 years ago: half were Anglican, half Catholic, but the ones [who killed them] didn't say: 'You're Catholic.... you're Anglican….' No: 'You are Christian', and so their blood mixed. This is the ecumenism of blood. Our martyrs are crying out: 'We are one! We already have unity, in spirit and in blood'. […]
This is ecumenism of blood, which helps us so much, which tells us so much. And I think we have to take this journey courageously. Yes, share university chairs, it's being done, but go forward, continue to do so.... I’ll say something that a few, perhaps, are not able to understand: the Eastern Catholic Churches have a right to exist, but uniatism is a dated word. We cannot speak in these terms today. We need to find another way."
It is not known for sure where and when Athenagoras is thought to have made his quip about the theologians to be marooned on an island. Certainly not during his first historic encounter with Paul VI in Jerusalem on January 5, 1964, the entire audio recording of which has been made public.
The fact is, however, that the quip has entered the oral tradition, and Francis has resorted to it a number of times for confirmation of his own vision of ecumenism.
Returning to the report of Ambassador Mondello, Eliana Versace has also published a summary of it in
L'Osservatore Romano in July 2017.
And it is a letter that has other surprises in store, for example, where Athenagoras tells the ambassador that he is in the habit of addressing Papa Montini as “Paul II, because he is the true successor of Saint Paul, updated for the present time,” or better yet, by the name of “Paul II the Victorious,” “imitating with his hand the gesture that Churchill used to indicate victory.”
In the run-up to the present week of ecumenical prayer, Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the pontifical council for Christian unity, recalled in
L'Osservatore Romano that there are two paths that feed into the ecumenical way, from its origin until today.
The first, begun in 1910, took the name of “Faith and Order,” and has “as its primary objective the search for unity in faith,” on the terrain of doctrine and theology.
The second, opened in 1914, took the name of “Life and Work,” and is intended to unify the various Christian denominations, regardless of their doctrinal divisions, in a shared “effort on behalf of understanding and peace among peoples.”
It is patently clear that of these two paths only the second interests Pope Francis. Just as, we now know, it did Patriarch Athenagoras before him.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 20/01/2018 02:28]