The growing collaboration between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches
I love charting the slow but steady progress towards an alliance between the Orthodox and Catholic Church. One day I hope to see them in full communion.
My most recent posts on on the Orthodox – Catholic relationship can be found here and here.
There is a growing collaboration between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches in efforts to slow the collapse of Christian influence in European culture. There have been other signs of the Spirit at work in pulling these Churches to a along the path toward reestablishing communion.
On June 28, 2011 a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople made their traditional visit to Rome for the Feast of Apostles, Peter and Paul. As the West staggers under what Pope Benedict XVI called a Dictatorship of Relativism, it is the fullness of truth revealed in Jesus Christ as found within His Church which can save it from rushing over a cliff to its own demise. The world needs the Church, breathing with both lungs, East and West, to once again become its soul in this age which has lost its moral compass.
Pope Benedict is the “Pope of Christian Unity”. In his first Papal message he proclaimed, “Nourished and sustained by the Eucharist, Catholics cannot but feel encouraged to strive for the full unity for which Christ expressed so ardent a hope in the Upper Room. The Successor of Peter knows that he must make himself especially responsible for his Divine Master’s supreme aspiration. Indeed, he is entrusted with the task of strengthening his brethren (cf. Lk 22: 32). With full awareness, therefore, at the beginning of his ministry in the Church of Rome which Peter bathed in his blood, Peter’s current Successor takes on as his primary task the duty to work tirelessly to rebuild the full and visible unity of all Christ’s followers. This is his ambition, his impelling duty.”
He has placed the commitment to the full communion of the Church at the forefront of his Papacy. This is especially evident in his love, respect and repeated overtures toward our Orthodox brethren, whom we recognize as a full Church and whose priesthood and Sacraments we also recognize. There is a growing collaboration between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches in efforts to slow the collapse of Christian influence in European culture. There have been other signs of the Spirit at work in pulling these Churches to a along the path toward reestablishing communion.
Full text of the Pope’s message to the Orthodox delegation can be found here.
Tags: Church Life