Greek Catholics define mission for 21st century

More detailed information complete with final statement (in PDF form) available here. Anastasis Dialogue commentary here.

AUSTRIA (RISU) — On 4-6 March 2009, an international conference was held on the mission of the Eastern Catholic Churches with regards to the Universal Church in Gaming, Austria. Its 150 participants included 17 bishops (15 Greek Catholic), numerous priests, leading scholars, students, and laymen from more than 20 countries. According to the official site of the International Theological Institute, the conference was organized by the International Theological Institute in Gaming, the Institute of the History of Eastern Christianity, the Catholic Theology Department at Vienna University, and the Ukrainian Catholic University of Lviv.

The program of the conference included joint prayer, live discussion, and analysis of the history and modern life of Greek Catholic Churches. Greek Catholic hierarchs persecuted during the Communist era for their beliefs participated in the discussions.
The participants of the conference stated that the confessional division between “Orthodox” and “Catholic” is obsolete, pointing to the issue of unification in a divided Christian world as more pressing.

The urgent mission of Greek Catholics is to unify patristic, liturgical, canonical, cultural and mystical elements of the tradition of the Christian east with the living testimony for Catholicism and universality put forth by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In this respect, eastern Catholics have a lot to offer to their Latin brethren, said participants.

Conference participants concluded that the time has come to stop treating Greek Catholics as an obstacle hindering ecumenical dialogue, a common view over the past few decades. They stressed that God’s will for the Greek Catholic Church was to be revived and strengthened.