Posted on 06/10/2002 9:05:25 AM PDT by Siobhan
VATICAN CITY, JUNE 9, 2002 (ZENIT.org).- A step toward full unity between Catholics and Orthodox was taken when, for the first time in a millennium, a patriarch of Constantinople celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Byzantine basilica of Ravenna.
John Paul II, at the Vatican, applauded today´s event, which he said helps "encourage us to continue on the road toward full unity between the Christian East and West."
For the first time since the schism of 1054, an Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Basilica of Sant´Apollinare in Classe in the northern Italian city. The mosaics embellishing the walls of the sixth-century structure are considered some of the greatest expressions of Byzantine art.
In his homily, Patriarch Bartholomew I expressed his hope that the event would be a harbinger of better relations between Catholics and Orthodox.
He didn´t hide the difficulties felt in theological dialogue, but he urged confidence in God, who desires unity among all his children.
"Affirming the truth, we also dialogue in love, we pray and we hope for the magnificent day, blessed by God, in which spiritual communion between the Churches will be restored," said the Orthodox leader.
Ravenna has been a stopover for a cruiser that has been sailing the Adriatic Sea since Wednesday, as part of an environmental-protection initiative of the patriarch.
Aboard are religious leaders, including Cardinals Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Roger Etchegaray, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, who are reflecting on how to protect the environment, particularly the Adriatic.
On Monday, the cruiser Festos Palace is due to arrive in Venice, where Bartholomew I will sign a declaration on protecting the environment. At the same time, John Paul II will sign at the Vatican. The events will be linked by a television connection.
In his Angelus address at the Vatican, the Pope explained that the signing "is another example of that sharing of intentions, which is the prelude to a renewed and full communion."
"Ravenna and Venice challenge us with their same history, and encourage us to continue on the road toward full unity between the Christian East and West," the Pope said.
For you and your Da as well.
Aboard are religious leaders, including Cardinals Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Roger Etchegaray, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, who are reflecting on how to protect the environment, particularly the Adriatic.
This doesn't bode well.Not many were paying attention on the 4th and 5th when President Bush made a KEY concession to the left by stating that humans were responsible for greenhouse gases and global warming.
I'm not sure folks realize how critical this issue is for militant atheists (and soulless capitalists alike), both of whom will use it to premise their population reduction efforts.
One reason I traveled to Ukraine and Russia last summer was to see for myself the resurgence of faith after 80 years of militant atheist rule.
Granted, we don't for sure that the "Peace and Justice" guy and the "Environmentalist" guy are as compromised to an Agenda as, say, Monsignor (now Bishop) McHugh was on the subject of eugenics and population control ... but they're certainly suspect in my book.
Last folks I want to see hobnobbing on a slow boat to reunification with Moscow's mucketymucks.
On the part of the environment, I will reserve judgement until I actually see the document they sign. A blanket statement that we are stewards of God's earth won't upset me; a radical statement based on faulty science would definitely upset me.
Sort of like "Don't Litter -- Keep America Beautiful." That's a great message and idea, and should be promoted. But, "America needs to pay billions to clean up the earth because of so-called global warming and industry" is another thing altogether.
God bless.
When was the last time any of us Christians have even heard of the great Fr.Vincent McNabb and "Nazareth or Social Chaos?" We can't expect the left to leave any open avenue to power untrammeled. It is a Christian duty to care for the land and not befoul nature.
I think everything in this story is cause for Joy and Hope
I think everything in this story is cause for Joy and Hope ...... and Thanks. : )
One in Him, not one in philosophy. But this all plays into prophecy. The whole world will unite in a single religion. But it won't be God they are worshipping. Humor yourselves if you must..
There are various figures titled by the Orthodox "righteous" indicating that they lived after the Fall without intentional sin. (Another difference between East and West is that we very often speak of unknown and unintentional sins.) Among these are the Virgin Mary, Joachim and Anna, and (oddly, since the definition applies only after the Fall) Adam.
Without Original Sin as a kind of inheritted stain or guilt, the notion of the IC of the BVM is unnecessary. We teach that any stain of unintentional sin which the Theotokos may have borne was removed by her acceptance of the Annunciation, but that her nature is identical to the Fallen nature of Adam, and of us, as it is only by assuming our Fallen nature that Christ is able to repair that nature. The IC of the BVM seems to us a dangerous notion, particularly when coupled to the version of the Bodily Assumption of the BVM which denies her bodily death (your dogma is ambiguous, while we commemorate the Dormition of the Theotokos)--the immaculately conceived, deathless Virgin would have the pre-Lapsarian Adamic nature which is in no need of redemption, and thus would vititate one aspect of our salvation in Christ: his assumption of our nature.
We take our beliefs of original sin from two sources: scripture--primarily Romans 5:12--and from tradition.
In Romans, Paul talks about justification by Jesus Christ, and to put in evidence the fact of His being the one Saviour, he contrasts with this "Divine head" of mankind with the "human head" who caused its ruin. Paul supposes the idea that the faithful have of it from his oral instructions, and he speaks of it to make them understand the work of Redemption--he doesn't speak about it directly.
Original sin existed in Christian tradition before St. Augustine's time and is shown by the practice of the Church in the baptism of children. Catholics back up their beliefs with part of the Nicene creed, "Confiteor unum baptisma in remissiomen peccatorum."
Does the Bible forbid self-humor?
She did die, but she was not corrupted. We know that after the Crucifixion Mary was cared for by the apostle John (John 19:26-27). Early Christian writings say John went to live at Ephesus and that Mary accompanied him. There is some dispute about where she ended her life; perhaps there, perhaps back at Jerusalem. Neither those cities nor any other claimed her remains, though there are claims about possessing her (temporary) tomb. And why did no city claim the bones of Mary? Apparently because there weren't any bones to claim and people knew it.
I mention this because in the early Christian centuries relics of saints were jealously guarded, highly prized. The bones of those martyred in the Coliseum, for instance, were quickly gathered up and preserved; there are many accounts of this in the biographies of those who gave their lives for the faith. Yet here was Mary, certainly the most privileged all the saints, certainly the most saintly, but we have no record of her bodily remains being venerated anywhere.
The evidence for the of the Assumption, as understood and explained over the centuries by the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, concern not so much scriptural references (there are none that speak even indirectly to the matter of Mary's Assumption, and only a few that deal with the subject of assumptions in general), but rather the fittingness of the privilege. The speculative grounds considered include Mary's freedom from sin, her Motherhood of God, her perpetual virginity, and--the key--her participation in the salvific work of Christ. It seems most fitting that she should attain the full fruit of the Redemption, which is the glorification of the soul and body.
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