The two lungs

An “important step” on the path of unity between the Churches: that’s the message that emerges from the work of the international mixed Commission for theological dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, which met at Ravenna (Italy) from 8 to 14 October. This was the Commission’s tenth plenary assembly. Its members met to discuss “The ecclesiological and canonical consequences of the sacramental nature of the Church: ecclesial communion, conciliarity and authority in the Church”. The meeting was chaired by the two co-chairmen of the Commission, Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, and Metropolitan Ioannis of Pergamon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The participants comprised 27 of the 30 Catholic members of the Commission and the Orthodox members representing the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Moscow (who withdrew during the plenary), Serbia, Romania and Georgia, and of the Orthodox Churches of Cypress, Greece, Poland, Albania, Czech Lands and Slovakia, Finland and Estonia.A JOINT DOCUMENT. The meeting “was distinguished by a spirit of friendship, collaboration and mutual trust”, says the communiqué issued at the end of the plenary. The focal point of discussion was the question of conciliarity and synodality in the Church, expressed on three levels: from the local level (dioceses) to the regional level (metropolitanates and patriarchates), and up to the third level, that of universal primacy. Examination of the question, begun in Belgrade in 2006, was completed during the session. It led to the approval of a joint document on the sacramental nature of the Church, which “offers a solid basis for the future work of the Commission”. According to Cardinal WALTER KASPER this document, which is already definitive though confidential, represents a “positive message for the future”, sign that “East and West are on the way to coming closer together” and a premise for “the Church to begin breathing once again with two lungs”. “On the question of the relation between primacy and synodality – explained Cardinal Kasper – we have built common foundations from which to start out the next time. This is the real step forwards; it is very promising”.THE QUESTION OF PRIMACY. The next plenary session, due to be held in 2009 in a country with an Orthodox majority, will thus start out from the results achieved in Ravenna and have as its theme “The role of the bishop of Rome in the communion of the Church of the first millennium”. It’s a question, said the Metropolitan of Pergamon IOANNIS ZIZIOULAS , “crucial for full communion and unity”. Already John Paul II, he recalled, “had invited all Christians to study in depth the problem of the primacy of the bishop of Rome”. This is a very important question that the meeting in Ravenna enabled us to tackle “in a positive way”, thus laying the basis to be able to make further progress, with the grace of God, in future”, said the Orthodox exponent. RAVENNA AND PRAYER. The work of the Commission was punctuated by prayer, beginning with vespers in the basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe, on 8 October, presided over by the Archbishop of Ravenna-Cervia, Monsignor GIUSEPPE VERUCCHI , and followed by a prayer of the Orthodox members. “We are happy to have you here”, declared the archbishop, pledging the affection and prayer of the local Christian community. At the end of the session, on Saturday 13 October, the Catholic delegates celebrated the Eucharist in Ravenna Cathedral, in the presence of the Orthodox members, while on Sunday 14 the latter celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the basilica of San Vitale, in the presence of the Catholic members. This was a way, stressed Cardinal Kasper in his homily on Saturday evening, to “express gratitude to God”, since “even if in the past we have not always remained faithful to the commandment of brotherly charity, Christ has remained steadfast, and the schism was not irreversible: “the pillars” of common faith were safeguarded. The choice of the venue was “particularly significant”, said Zizioulas, recalling the first millennium of Christianity, when East and West had not yet been divided. “Ravenna – he pointed out – is a link between East and West, between Constantinople and Byzantium on the one hand and the Western Church on the other”.THE BREACH OF MOSCOW. During the plenary the delegate of the Patriarchate of Moscow abandoned the meeting due to the presence of delegates of the Church of Estonia, declared “autonomous” by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, a status not recognized by the Patriarchate of Moscow. The two co-chairmen deplored the event. Kasper emphasized, however, that it was “an inter-Orthodox affair”, and hoped “it could be resolved before the next session”, while Ioannis remarked that what had happened does not undermine ecumenical dialogue, since “a pan-Orthodox accord exists, thanks to which dialogue goes forward even if one of the members should abandon the work”.