Posted on 12/03/2014 5:08:24 AM PST by marshmallow
Moscow, December 3, Interfax - The Moscow Patriarchate is still not ruling out a possibility of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia meeting with Pope Francis, but pointed to the factors that impeded dialogue on this matter.
"The subject of a meeting between the Patriarch of Moscow and the Pope is on the agenda of the two Churches, and the Holy Patriarch highly values the balanced and genuinely Christian position of Pope Francis on many problems faced by present-day society," Patriarchate spokesman Deacon Alexander Volkov told Interfax-Religion.
This makes both Churches "strategic partners" in the attestation to the Christian moral values, the need to preserve peace and mutual understanding between people of various faiths and nationalities, in defending the rights of Christians in the Middle East, the spokesperson said.
The view of the leader of the Roman Catholic Church on the difficult situation in present-day Ukraine largely overlaps with that of the Russian Orthodox Church, he said.
"Like Patriarch Kirill already said on multiple occasions, the only service the Church can conduct in this conflict is a peacekeeping one that would exclude any political preferences. And in this sense, we have to acknowledge once again that the line pursued by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is a significant factor thwarting normal development of the relations between the Churches," he said.
Another factor is "the overt support for one of the parties to the conflict, and public association with schismatics in Ukraine," Deacon Volkov said.
"We would like to hope that the voice of our Church will be heard and the involvement of the Greek Catholics in the political conflict in Ukraine will decrease, thereby creating favorable conditions for maintaining a proper dialogue between the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, including on the subject of a possible meeting between the Patriarch and the Pope," he summed up.
One of these days the Pope expressed a wish to meet with Patriarch Kirill. "I signaled to the Patriarch Kirill that I would like to meet him. He backed the idea. I told him: 'Invite me, and I will come over.' He too expressed such a desire," the pontific said on the Italian television.
At the same time Pope Francis said that the current international situation is not conducive to such a meeting. "Recently, the problem of the war (in Ukraine) and many other difficulties have pushed the subject of a meeting with the Pope to the back burner. Nevertheless, both of us want to meet and move forward," he added.
The Uniates, or Greek Catholics, are part of the Roman Catholic Church; however, they conduct church services according to the Byzantine ritual which is identical to the Orthodox one. The Uniates' positions are particularly strong in Western Ukraine which saw a number of serious conflicts between the Uniates and the Orthodox Christians in the 1990s.
Tensions in the relations between the Orthodox believers and the Uniates in Ukraine is among the factors which have for years prevented a meeting between the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Pope.
The Pope threw the Uniates under the bus a couple of days ago in one of his dreaded plane interviews. He said that he wasn’t interested in theology or in anything except a sort of formal reunion with intercommunion, and that the Uniates were “not the way to go.” The Uniates are Catholics, living in a very difficult situation in many cases, but the Pope is so eager to be loved by the press that he simply dumped part of the flock.
“...and the involvement of the Greek Catholics in the political conflict in Ukraine will decrease.”
That’s right. Get people to not love their country. Sure. Why not? Get people to just knuckle under to an invasion by “Orthodox” Russians. R-I-G-H-T. Ain’t gonna happen. The Ukrainian Catholics remember what happened the last time.
He’s a train wreck. An absolute train wreck.
I just don’t get why Greek Catholics are a bee in anyone’s bonnet, particularly when we have these guys floating around out there:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Rite_Orthodoxy
The difference between Catholicism and Orthodoxy is one of ecclesiology not ritual: is it a sine qua non to be in communion with the Bishop of Rome, or is it not?
What he is suggesting, I think, is some kind of “union” that simply ignores any theological or ecclesial differences and just somehow goes directly to proclaiming that we’re all “united.” He might be able to conceive of this, and perhaps even a lot of people in Rome might agree with him ...but the people he’s going to get resistance from are the Orthodox themselves, to whom, well, orthodoxy is important. They actually want a clear understanding of the situation, not happy-talk.
Pope Francis mentioned in passing that the Eastern Rite (Catholic) churches “had a right to exist,” which was big of him, but that what he described as “uniatism” (I’m not sure he even knows what it is) has no future. So in other words, he was just dumping those churches, hoping to appease the Russian Orthodox and thereby avoiding actually having to think about anything or work it out.
There’s a famous saying that one should never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity, so maybe he’s not acting maliciously.
I could see his point if he meant that in a united Church everyone would pretty be in the same Church and there would be no need for “Uniatism”.
Still, he needs to be more careful with what he says. Getting to be a full time job cleaning up after him.
As for +Francis, I think it's actually best that there is no meeting for the time being, given the potential for damage. His comments on the Uniates mirror his reported comments on the Anglican Ordinariate and evince an alarming lack of charity towards those whose desire for union with Rome is costing them a great deal, up to the point of persecution, in some cases.
His much touted "pastoral" approach often leaves one with a burning pain and sore ears.
Trust Russia? Trust Putin?
I don't think so. The Russians hardly trust each other.
Yes, I agree entirely. Furthermore, the Orthodox are not even very united among themselves, and the Russian Orthodox Church is very tied up with being Russian rather than being Christian. That, of course, is the danger of not being in union with Rome: national identification becomes more important than anything else, and you can see this in all of the autocephalous Orthodox churches, which essentially function as a religious expression of nationalism. Thus, it’s really essential to sit down with the representatives of the major Orthodox church (the Patriarch of Constantinople is pretty powerless, btw) and seriously examine these issues without blithely proclaiming that all is well.
Pope Francis seems to reserve all his “charity” for those who oppose the Church, not for its members, particularly those members who make the greatest efforts to stay in harmony with the Church and Her teachings.
Every time I see the headline, “Pope Gives Interview,” I shudder...
ya think?
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