"I am the door. By me if any man enter in he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture." - John 10:9 At every parish where I have had the pleasure of attending services, there is always a small group of people who find their way all the way up to the church building but don't actually attend services. At one parish it was a group of male gypsies who talked on cellphones or smoked cigarettes. At another it was a few Protestant husbands who, though they never attended services, opened the parish doors for people as they filed in. At yet another parish the men stood in the narthex and chatted until it was time to receive and then got in line. Latin or Greek Catholic, Eastern or Oriental Orthodox I see the same small throng of men standing next to the front door, but not standing, sitting, or kneeling amongst the people. If it were me (and I can only speak for myself here) this option would be an unsavory one. The boredom would be immediate. The anxiety of som...
Is there any word as to whether either of these hierarchs was invited by the ruling hierarch of the Diocese in which they plan to meet?
ReplyDeleteCanon law does not require special permission to be granted by Patriarch Theophilos for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The EP is not receiving Pope Francis in any capacity as "Jerusalem." Rather, their meeting is simply a meeting of two men who decided to go to Jerusalem. Certainly the Orthodox EP and the Roman Catholic Pope have the right to journey to the Holy Land, if anybody does.
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