Hope in Cyprus

The International Mixed Commission for Catholic-Orthodox theological dialogue is due to convene in Cyprus October 16 to 23. The plenary meeting will resume the theme addressed in Ravenna in 2007, delving into “The role of the Bishop of Rome in Church Communion in the first millennium”. The mixed Commission has 30 Orthodox and 30 Catholic members and is moderated by two co-presidents, Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Christian unity and H.E. Johannis Metropolitan of Pergamon (Ecumenical Patriarchate). The theme of “the Bishop of Rome in Church Communion in the first millennium” was explored by two sub-commissions in the years 2007-2008 and by the Mixed Coordinating Committee (Crete 2008) that drew up the project to be debated in Cyprus on the basis of the guidelines established in the Ravenna document. However, in Ravenna the Russian Orthodox delegation left the meeting because of the presence of Estonian Church representatives, invited by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Church of Estonia was declared independent by Constantinople but is not recognized as such by the Patriarchate of Moscow. We have asked Msgr . Eleuterio Fortino from the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, who is co-secretary of the mixed Commission with H.E. Gennadios, Metropolitan of Sassima, to present us the challenges and objectives of the forthcoming plenary meeting. From which stage is dialogue being resumed?“With the plenary meeting in Belgrade (2006) of the international mixed Catholic-Orthodox Commission, dialogue undertook a new positive path. After a first fruitful phase in which three important documents on the sacraments and Church unity were issued (1980-1988), the Commission experienced a period marked by hot debates on the theme of ‘Uniatism’, during which it did however publish a significant document (Balamand 1993). No true convergence was found on its consequences (Baltimora 2000). For this reason after the Ecumenical Patriarchate attempted repeated intermediations between the Orthodox Churches in 2005, the Mixed Coordinating Committee convened and decided to resume the dialogue on the basis of a project drawn up in Moscow in 1990 for the session held in June of that same year in Freising, which however was never debated. The theme was: Canonical and ecclesiological consequences of the sacramental nature of the Church. Conciliarity and authority inside the Church. The Belgrade session, hosted with generosity and cordiality by the Serbian Church, bore important fruits and produced a new joint document. But in fact, only half of the project was examined. The remaining half was discussed in the following plenary session (Ravenna 2007), which approved the entire document”. Could you tell us more about this document?“The Commission’s fifth document addressed the relationship between conciliarity and authority in the Church on three levels (diocesan, regional and universal). Accordingly, on each of these levels there is a protos, a primus (bishop, patriarch – metropolitan, bishop of Rome). The document addresses the core of the pr?tos at universal level. It recalls first of all that “both parties (Catholics and Orthodox) agree that Rome, as the Church that presides on charity, occupied the first place in the taxis and that the bishop of Rome was the pr?tos among the patriarchs”. The last item of the document conveys the importance of the achieved results in these terms: As members of the International Commission (…) we believe that the above-mentioned statement is a positive and significant progress in our dialogue and that it provides a solid basis for future debate on the question of primacy in the Church at universal level”. Are Russian representatives expected in Cyprus? “The Russian members of the mixed Commission will be attending the meeting in Cyprus. There has been a clarification and an agreement between Constantinople and Moscow with the other Orthodox Churches. Orthodox Churches’ full representation is crucial to the success of dialogue. Indeed, for the first time in history since the Churches split, dialogue involves the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches in their entirety. This complexity sometimes slows down the progress of dialogue. However, its objective justifies the need for clarification and for the unanimous consensus of all the stakeholders. This is the true novelty in the ongoing Catholic-Orthodox dialogue”.Do the fraternal relations between the Churches help theologians’ work? “Dialogue can truly progress only with close fraternal relations between the Churches. In the past the dialogue of charity was justly considered the preliminary condition for theological dialogue. The dialogue of charity on the one side enables confrontation with our brothers in faith, on the other it liberates doctrinal questions from burdens that are heterogeneous to faith. This attitude plays an important role in the Commission’s work in Cyprus, where the role of the Bishop of Rome in the life of the Church in the first millennium will be closely examined. Judgment and historical prejudice characterize this theme, which requires rigorous and harmonious examination, marked by an open attitude towards the future. It would be useless to seek a wholesome solution in the past. Conflicting interpretations of Scriptural and historical accounts took place already in the first millennium. The Holy Spirit continues inspiring the Church at all times. However, in the first millennium, in spite of the tensions, the Christian Eastern and Western worlds experienced full communion. The message of full communion coming from the first millennium must always be present in the framework of Catholic-Orthodox dialogue”.