Saturday, November 19, 2022

EP keeps sidling up to Rome

(ZENIT News) November 15, 2022 - In an interview with a Turkish media , the Patriarch of Constantinople stated that conversations are underway between representatives of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches to come to an agreement on the common celebration of the most important date for Christians, namely, Easter. 

The conversations are being held in the framework of the coming celebration of the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, which took place in 325 AD, whose dispositions continue to be binding for both Christians denominations. Patriarch Bartholomew disclosed that specialists in the scientific realm will be consulted to identify the most accurate date for the Easter celebration, given that it’s not about religious considerations but about something that has to do with astronomy, a scientific area of human knowledge. “Our objective is that in this context of the anniversary, we can find a solution in regard to Easter. The Pope has the  best intentions and I think the moment has arrived, both for the Orthodox Church as well as the Catholic, to fix a common date to celebrate Christ’s Resurrection . I hope that on this occasion we will be able to come to an agreement,” said the Patriarch of Constantinople.  

The 1700th  anniversary of the Council of Nicaea will also coincide with the 2025 Ordinary Jubilee of the Catholic Church, an ecclesial event of global reach, which is usually celebrated every 25 years. In this framework, an agreement on the celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection would be one of the most important moments of that Jubilee. 

4 comments:

  1. If this happens (unlikely!) the Orthodox world will add divisions over observance of Pascha to its divisions over the annual calendar. Progress?

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  2. Another solution in search of a problem.

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  3. Can we at least admit that having a common date for Pascha (arrived at the right way) would be a good thing?

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  4. Joseph Ratzinger and a few others within the Roman Catholic church recognized the significance of the West as "west apart from the east". They are a minority however, and the fact is that most of the Roman Catholic leadership and body see the east as a little more than a historical anachronism, one that won't survive its contact with the "modern" world , at least not in its current form (and in this opinion there is no small amount of truth).

    Talks such as this are much more important for the EP as an institution given their existential crises. Given the modernization of the EP's flock (GOA) and its situation in Turkey, symbolism (much if not most of it "empty" in relation to the real life of the Church) is about all it has left.

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