OTHER ECUMENICAL NEWS
Out of sequence, but important sidelights from Wednesday's General Audience - unfortunately, I cannot find accompanying photos . (I do not generally have the time to look through the Vatican and Felici thumbnails, as I don't now.)....So, other ecumenical avenues besides the Anglicans...
10/23/09 P.S. In the main forum, Gloria has posted a photo showing Bishop Tichon with the Pope (not that you can see Papino's face!) which I am reposting here.
Bulgarian Orthodox leader
affirms desire for unity
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 22, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A Bulgarian Orthodox prelate told Benedict XVI of his desire for unity, and his commitment to accelerate communion with the Catholic Church.
At the end of Wednesday's general audience, Bishop Tichon, head of the diocese for Central and Western Europe of the Patriarchate of Bulgaria, told the Pope, "We must find unity as soon as possible and finally celebrate together,"
L'Osservatore Romano reported.
"People don't understand our divisions and our discussions," the bishop stated. He affirmed that he will "not spare any efforts" to work for the quick restoration of "communion between Catholics and Orthodox."
Bishop Tichon said that "the theological dialogue that is going forward these days in Cyprus is certainly important, but we should not be afraid to say that we must find as soon as possible the way to celebrate together."
"A Catholic will not become an Orthodox and vice versa, but we must approach the altar together," he added.
The prelate told the Pontiff that "this aspiration is a feeling that arose from the works of the assembly" of his diocese, held in Rome, in which all the priests and two delegates from every Bulgarian Orthodox parish took part.
"We have come to the Pope to express our desire for unity and also because he is the Bishop of Rome, the city that hosted our assembly," he stated.
Pope invited to Croatia
After the bishop, Luka Bebic, speaker of the Croatian Parliament, addressed the Holy Father, inviting the Pontiff to visit his homeland and thanking him "for the support the Holy See has given our people since independence, during the war back then and now in the process that will lead Croatia to enter the European Union."
Benedict XVI next greeted members of the Association Rondine Cittadella della Pace [Citadel of Peace], which promotes dialogue and peace by bringing together students from conflict areas to live and study in community.
They shared with the Pope a concrete proposal titled "14 Points for Peace in the Caucasus" that was developed at an international congress the association organized in May.
The proposal was also distributed to the ambassadors of the Caucasus countries and to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Young people of all the ethnic and religious groups of the Caucasus were also present at the audience.
Members of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Cardinal Sancha, whose founder, Cardinal Ciriaco María Sancha y Hervas, was beatified Sunday in Toledo, Spain, also greeted the Pontiff.
Headed by their superior, Sister Maria del Carmen Dominguez, the religious expressed to the Holy Father their commitment to be faithful to their original charism "of service to the poor, orphans and the elderly."
And the latest 'tone shift' from Moscow is not quite 'Ho-hum' this time!
Moscow's cold again:
Hilarion gets specific
about Ukraine problem
Oct. 22 (Translated from ANSA) - Archbishop Hilarion, head of foreign relations for the Moscow Patriarchate, said in Nicosia, Cyprus today, that no meeting was possible between Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and Pope Benedict XVI until some conditions set by Moscow are met.
Hilarion, who is attending the meetings of the Mixed International Commission for Theological Dialog between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, speaking to the TASS news agency, said that any such meeting can be organized "only after certain conditions that we have already expressed several times to our Catholic counterparts".
"A meeting can only be the result of certain positive changes that have to take place before the meeting, not the subject for the meeting," he said.
He cited in particular the situation in West Ukraine "where the relations between Catholics and Orthodox continue to be very tense, and where there are areas where the Orthodox don't even have a church they can pray in."
"Until such a situation persists", he concluded, "there can be no possibility of organizing a meeting between the Patriarch and the Pope.
That is the most specific complaint, as well as the most belligerent statement I have yet seen in four years of following Moscow blow hot and blow cold towards Rome, which makes for extreme skepticism about Moscow's intentions and words. Now that Hilarion has brought up the Ukraine, the skeptic in me has lost hope of any breakthrough in the foreseeable future!
The Ukraine problem is complicated. In brief: There are 5 million Ukrainian Uniates [Eastern Orthodox Christians who have recognized the primacy of the Pope since the 16th century] and 1 million Ukrainian Catholics of the Latin rite. During the Soviet regime, the Uniates had shifting fortunes until the regime banned them in 1946, forcing them to go underground.
After Ukraine became independent, the Uniates resurfaced, still loyal to Rome - for which the Moscow Patriarchate blames Rome!(and took it out against John Paul II, whom they also resented for sending Polish missionaries to Russia).
The Ukrainian Uniates (mostly foudn in Western Ukraine adjoining Poland) have since been involved in a festering property dispute with the Russian Orthodox Church which lays claim to their churches that the Orthodox used when the Uniates were underground! I suppose that's what Hilarion meant by saying the Orthodox don't even have churches to pray in.
But what can Rome do? The Uniates are autonomous like all Eastern churches are. They look to Rome only for spiritual leadership, but they are in charge of their own affairs.
Apropos, I find the following entry strange coming from the writer, who was a Methodist once and converted to Catholicism, wrote widely about Catholic matters, and then after covering the sex-offending priest scandals in the US, decided to convert to Orthodoxy in 2006! (What does it mean when you abandon your 'faith' because you are disgusted with the conduct of errant members?]
I've excerpted from his blog entry on 10/22/09, which takes off from the last line of Sandro Magister's initial commentary on the B16-Anglo initiative:
Today more than ever, with Joseph Ratzinger as Pope, the ecumenical journey seems not a pursuit of modernity, but a return to the terrain of tradition.
Benedict XVI's brilliant strategy
by Rod Dreher
10/22/09
Of course! Benedict knows that the only Christians who are going to survive intact over the coming decades are those communities firmly rooted in tradition.
Liberal Anglicans simply aren't going to make it, and not because they're bad people, but because there's precious little solid ground upon which they can stand as a distinctly Christian community against the strong currents of modernity.
Benedict is trying to gather in as many faithful traditionalists as he can. What a blessing it would be if he and the Orthodox patriarchs could come to an understanding that could pave the way for reunion.
Personally, I don't see how it could be done, given the wide divergence between Orthodox and Catholic theology since the Great Schism.
But with God, all things are possible -- and I think as a purely secular matter (that is, for the sake of establishing a united front for the preservation and growth of the faith against a de-Christianizing world), re-establishing communion between Eastern and Western Christianity would be great for both.
Long may this Pope -- and the ecumenism of tradition -- live and prosper!
Meanwhile, the Swedish Lutheran Church has approved homosexual marriages. This, after news that Benedict XVI is visiting the Lutheran Church in Rome early next year.
It has become obvious that the principal hindrance to ecumenical progress with other non-Christian communities is not so much theological differences and their understandable desire to keep the traditions and structures they have built up over time (these being the main issues with the Orthodox Churches), but their increasing secularization. It's happening with the Anglicans, it's happening with the Protestants. As it has happened with cafeteria Catholics for more than half a century now.
And it's a domino effect that is bound to leave the dominos down. Once a Christian community adapts itself to the secular world, it's hard to see how and when it will ever un-adapt itself. Accepting women and gay priests and now homosexual marriages - it's the proverbial slippery slope of de-Christianization. And yet, they will continue to preach in the name of Christ.
Let us pray.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 23/10/2009 23:17]