“Deepening the debate on the Balamand document provides a unique occasion to promote dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox, study the complexity of historical events that gave rise to the phenomenon of Uniatism [the system of those Eastern Churches that retain their own liturgy but submit to papal authority] and thus overcome mutual misunderstandings”, declared Nicolas Aubertin, bishop of Chartres, in a recent address. Aubertin was introducing a conference on “Les enjeux de l’uniatisme” held by ISEO (Institut Supérieur d’Etudes Oecuméniques) at the Institut Catholique de Paris on 24 January. The aim of the meeting, chaired by Bishop Aubertin together with Emmanuel Adamakis, Orthodox metropolitan in France, was to describe the content of the most recent document of the mixed Catholic/Orthodox Committee in France “Les enjeux de l’uniatisme dans le sillage de Balamand”, (“The stakes of Uniatism in the wake of Balamand”) published by Bayard, Fleurus-Mame and Cerf. “The theological aspect – argued Hervé Legrand, member of the mixed Committee does not constitute the main obstacle to dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox”. Rather, it is “the mutual mistrust” that still persists and exacerbates the problem of Uniatism. Michel Stavrou, another member of the mixed Committee, recalled that at the Balamand Conference “the problem of Uniatism was tackled from a new point of view: namely, by the clear affirmation that it had deteriorated relations between Catholics and Orthodox; Uniatism was not to be considered, therefore, an ecclesiological model for ecumenism, but an inadmissible method of union. It was an unprecedented admission on the part of the Catholic Church”. “The problem now added Legrand is to persuade the conclusions to be accepted not only by Orthodox and Latin Catholics, but also by the Uniate Churches themselves”.
