Benedikt XVI og Bartolomeus I ser nå på muligheten for å møtes på nytt til våren, for å åpne den nesten dialogrunden mellom katolikker og ortodokse – for å vise tydelig at de støtter dette arbeidet for å nærme seg full kommunion. I Konstantinopel sier kilder at dette møtet kan skje i Ravenna (i Italia) tidlig neste år.
The same sources indicate that the sensational proposal was made by Bartholomew I during the Pope’s visit to Istanbul. Card Walter Kasper, head of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, is said to have liked the idea and Benedict XVI approved it in principle, conditional on his future agenda. The Joint Commission began to meet again after six years.
It was suspended because of the impossibility to find common ground on issues like the place of the Uniate Churches, i.e. Catholic Churches, especially in Ukraine and Romania, which reached full communion with Rome in the 16th century whilst at the same time preserving the Eastern rituals and liturgies.
With the Joint Commission back on—first meeting in September in Belgrade (Serbia)—, Catholics and Orthodox have began looking at another key issue in ecumenical relations, namely the powers of the bishop of Rome, i.e. the Pope.
During the three meetings between the Pope and the Patriarch in Istanbul a joint statement was signed that, whilst it added nothing new in terms of Catholic-Orthodox relations, it expressed “joy” over the renewed dialogue and reasserted the two parties shared commitment to the process.
Bartholomew I and Benedict XVI also stressed separately their desire to pursue the ecumenical path. Bartholomew expressed “our common desire to pursue without wavering our path in the spirit of love and fidelity towards the truth of the Gospel in the shared tradition of the Holy Fathers to re-establish the full communion of our Churches.” Benedict XVI did likewise and confirmed his readiness to finding an acceptable way to exercise the Petrine primacy.
Fra AsiaNews
Hvilke ortodokse kirker er det som er knyttet til «Joint Commission»? Hvilke følger vil det man eventuelt kommer frem til ha for forholdet mellom Den katolske kirke og la oss si den russisk-ortodokse kirke eller det bulgarsk-ortodokse kirken?
Jeg fant det ut selv – det ser ut at de fleste ortodokse kirkene i Sentral- og Østeuropa er med, inkludert Moskva-patriarkatet.