Inching towards a reversal of the Great Schism of 1054
This is at the heart of the Christian cry to unify, the very heartbeat of the prayer of Jesus. Pray obstacles are removed for an historic meeting between Pope Benedict and Patriarch Kirill:
Russian Orthodox Metropolitan (Archbishop) Hilarion, urged the Vatican to show “some signs” of readiness to resolve a decades-long conflict between Orthodox and Catholics in Ukraine that has been blocking a meeting of the two world religious leaders.
An unprecedented meeting between Benedict and Patriarch Kirill could begin to heal the 1,000-year-old rift between the Western and Eastern branches of Christianity, which split in the Great Schism of 1054.
Since the break-up of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the Russian Orthodox Church has accused Catholics of using their new freedoms to poach souls from the Orthodox, a charge the Vatican denies.
But the biggest bone of contention concerns the fate of many church properties that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered confiscated from Eastern Rite Catholics, who worship in an Orthodox rite but owe their allegiance to Rome.
Stalin gave the property to the Russian Orthodox Church but after the fall of communism, the Eastern Rite Catholics took back more than 500 churches, mostly in Western Ukraine.
“Not very much was done or is being done in order to solve this problem,” said Hilarion, who is head of the external relations department of the 165-million-member Russian Orthodox Church and one of the closest aides to Patriarch Kirill.
“As soon as we have this understanding, we will be ready to begin preparations for such a meeting,” he said.
My previous posts on this topic can be found here.
Tags: Church Life
September 14th, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Somewhere on the internet there are several of my comments/posts from years ago that indicated the reconciliation of Western and Eastern Christianity.
September 14th, 2011 at 1:42 pm
I’m not an expert on this subject, more an interested layman, and so any insights you can proffer, would be greatly received.
September 14th, 2011 at 9:46 pm
Webmaster,
Have no special qualifications other than an opinion formed around the Nineteen Nineties while reading around the subject regarding other World events – the curse of dumb insight.
Doubt there is anything I could teach you Webmaster, though I may have one story that would interest you, if I get the chance will share it with you over a bottle of bourbon.