From their historic 2006 visit.
VATICAN CITY, JUNE 24, 2008 (Zenit.org) - The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, will attend the inauguration of the Pauline Jubilee Year and Mass celebrated by Benedict XVI the next day.
According to reports Monday and today from the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, Bartholomew I will participate in Saturday's celebration of vespers at the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls. With this event, Benedict XVI will officially inaugurate the Pauline year.
Representatives of other Christian communities are also scheduled to attend.
On Sunday, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Bartholomew I will participate in the Mass celebrated by the Pope in St. Peter's.
The patriarch and the Holy Father will pronounce the homily; together they will recite the profession of faith and impart the blessing.
The Pope will concelebrate Mass with the new metropolitan archbishops, upon whom he will impose the pallium during the course of the ceremony.
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Some rather unpleasant Roman Catholic traditionalists at rorate-caeli are condemning the Holy Father for allowing the Ecumenical Patriarch to preach at this Mass.
ReplyDeleteShameful!
I sat here for a moment trying to find a reasoned and calm response that would not offend. I failed.
ReplyDeleteI read the Rorate Caeli comments following the post. They went so far as to call it "Disgusting!" In this Ecumenical Patriarch and Pope of Rome we have a rare chance to make real progress.
The fanatical TradCaths who spit on the Novus Ordo and call Orthodox all manner of unkind things sit opposite the more isolationist elements of the Moscow Patriarchate who condemn "Papist teaching" both real and imagined while pointing to the separation of the two Churches as a gulf that will never be crossed.
It stinks of a prideful gnosticism, a Pharisetical aloofness that demands conformity to exacting standards that the early church fathers never countenanced. Our Churches are separated by bright lines of division often tinged with stereotypes and hatred held close to our breasts. When one hierarch goes to speak with another of a different church he is roundly criticized for breaking rank. What progress can be made under such conditions?
My belief is that one must see reunion as something within reach and work towards "authentic" dialogue that resolves theological impasses instead of theological aerial dogfights attempting to gun down the other side.
Will Orthodoxy and Catholicism reunite in one fell swoop or will there be "points of communion" with vocal naysayers at every juncture. If there is to be communion it will probably be piece by piece. The Churches of Orthodoxy are not of mind and do not act of one mind. Prayer and these very acts of goodwill so maligned by some are the only solution. Neither side will come back to the other with their laundry list of heresies begging for readmission. Quit asking for it.