Phoblem and Appeal

PHOBLEM AND APPEAL Presupposition l0r the beginning and the success the Dialogue between the Orthodox and the Rotnan Catholic Churches. Prof. CHRYSOSTOMOS - GERASSIME ZAPHIRIS MetropoJitan of Peristerion Those who are invo1ved and concerned with the Ecumeni- ca1 Movement and the rapprochement between the Orthodox and the Roman Catho1ic Churches c1ose1y followed with live1y interest and much satisfaction the meeting the Joint Orthodox- Roman Catho1ic Co- ordinating Subcommission which met Rome 1ast March (29 March- 1 April). This meeting between representatives of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches had been decided by the FuIl Orthodox Technica1 Commission Dia10gue with the Roman Catholics at its 1ast meeting he1d at the Patriarcha1 Centre Geneva (14- 18 November 1977)1 order to prepare the Theo1ogica1 Dia10gue with the Roman Catholic Church. 1. The establishment of the «Inter-Orthodox Technical Commission of Theo- logians dates back to the seven - year period following the lifting of the anathemata between Rome and Constantinople, when the Ecumenical Patriarchate addressed its 697 Encyclical and Patriarchal Letter of November 1974 to the local Or· thodox Churches. this Encyclical, which is of inva1uable historical significance, the Ecumenical Patriarchate speaks about «the need to a special Inter- Orthodox Tec!lnical Commission of Theologians which would undertake for the mo- ment the task of g'athering and evaluating the conclusions reached by the Local Orthodox Churches their individual study of the bi-lateral dialogue between Or- thodox and Roman Catholics, and of setting a common Pan-Orthodox courSe and understanding the matter». Following the acceptance of the proposal of the Ecumenical Patriarchate by the Loca1 Orthodox Churches, Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrios addressed a special message to His Holiness, Pope Paul VI, WhiC!l he informs the of the Eastern Orthodox C!lurch's decision to «advance the sacred matter of the ties with Rome and to progress from the Dialogue of Love to the preparation of the Theolo- gica1 Dialo{i'Ue with hf;Jr. Th1.!s following Pa,n-Ortll0dox deliberation we have ar· Prob!em and an Appea! 857 Both the Orthodox and Roman Catholic sides stressed the cessity and the benefits to be derived from the imminent Theological Dialogue ( of love truth) between the two Churches. Moreover, both sides displayed and discerned each other a spirit of brotherhood, mutual understanding and good will, and a desire to discuss depth and breadth the theological differences existing between the two Churches. Following the meeting of the Joint Coordinating Subcommission, which set the initial framework of subjects and method within which the dialogue to be carried the two Churches began to prepare systematically for a Theological Dialogue which to be not lengthy but also difficult and many-sided. As can easily discern, this dialogue to be the most essential and the greatest-from both an ecclesiastico-historical and an ecclesiological veiw-point-ever to delve into, and create issues for, the theologies of both Churches and their representatives and theologians. This holds true not for the Roman Catholic Church but also for the Orthodox which already for a considerable length of time has been engaged dialogue with the Anglicans, Old-Catholics and other Protestant Churches. The dialogue with the Church of Rome, however, presents the following peculiarity: both Churches, the value and importance of Sacred Tradition as being parallel to that of Holy Scripture, and within this dimension of Tradition, especially as constituting the teaching and entire life of the Church of the first eight centuries, find themselves very close to each other. they find themselves farther apart from each other than they are from, let us say, the Angli- cans and certain other Protestant Churches. Many Orthodox Theolo- gians, starting out from the psychological factors, emphatically main- tain that the Theological Dialogue between Orthodoxy and Protestan- tism fIor example easier certain respects than that between Ortho- doxy and Roman Catholicism-despite ·the fact that the Roman Catho- Church closer to Orthodoxy than Protestantism general, especially as regards its teaching. Thus there a theological affinity, but at the same time also a historico-psychological distance which must be taken into serious deration. rived at the Pan-Orthodox decision to estab!ish a specia! Inter-Orthodox Technica! Commission order to prepare the dia!ogue tlle part of the Ortll0dox (see skepsis, Issue 1976 130/2 42). 858 Chrysostomos-Gerassime Zaphiris order to bridge this historico-psychological «gap» - for there are those who matters more pessimistically and openly taJk of a «gap» - betweeJl the two Churches, various initiatives have been taken from time to time and various meetings have taken place between the leaders of the two Churches and between their representatives. These contacts, visits and meetings - sometimes held a theological level - between responsible representatives of these Churches have «broken the which existed for centuries between the two Churches, and some measure have broken the barrier of hostile polemics. et the historico-psychological distance which has existed between them for centuries continues to remain unbridged, even though it appears to have been reduced some way, apparently if not reality. Without a doubt, representatives of the Roman Catholic Church, whenever visiting the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the other Autocephalous Orthodox Churches, bear messages of love, hrotherhood, good will and cooperaton from the Primate of the Western Church. These messages strike a positive response the souls the Orthodox; yet without being able to take root them. Thus, judging things from a perspective of long-term duration, we say that these have not brought forth the fruits anticipated and this because the Othodox- and am here referring a,t least to the faithful of the Church of Greece- continue to display a distrust for the written or oral declarations emin- ating from the atican. They continue to be instilled with a kind of phobia and distrust for the pronouncements the Roman Catholic Church, and understandably so, because they have suffered much. And these sufferings are not simply things the past, for were they such, the Orthodox people and the younger generation could easily cast them into oblivion. the contrary, the Roman Catholic Church's entire negative policy towards the Orthodox which we have mind at this particu- lar point and which is a cause uneasiness for the Orthodox people, though having ceased the manner which it used to be carried still continues to exist a new garb and various external forms. That which has not changed the Roman Catholic Church's policy toward the Orthodox is the inner intention its outward manifesta- tions and the ultimate purpose towards which these tend over a long duration time and which WHS, is and will be the undermining 2 Orthodoxy through the Unia • 2. This is also the final conclusion the meeting the Heads and Repre- Problem and an Appeal 859 *** It is our humble that the indication good disposition and brotherhood, cooperation and unity between the two Churches very often spoken about by the leaders the Roman Catholic Church must of necessity and immediately be combined with the abolition Roman Catholic propaganda and the repeal the scandalous stallation a Uniat hierarch the midst an Orthodox pleroma. If the Unia is not done away with, then the various contacts between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches, which from time to time have taken place, and the dialogue, that of first and then that of truth (i.e. the Theological Dialogue), cannot be considered as being carried obedience to. the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned the brethl'en» Peter 1,22). Moreover, the Pan-Orthodox Conference Rhodes clearly and precisely defined those conditions under which the TheoJ ogicaJ Dia- logue between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholics could begin. The first indispensible condition set by this Conference for the beginning such a dialogue was that it be carried an equal basis». their discussions the patricipants this Conference firmJy put forth as an actual and pet'manent presupposition for the dialogue with the Roman Catholics that Church's abolition the Unia and the subjection and embodiment the so-called Uniat churches within the Church Rome and its canonical hierarchy. local Orthodox Church can either abrogate or tempo- rarily set aside this basic and fundamental Pan-Orthodox presupposition for the inception the Theological Dialogue. As a decision a Pan-Orthodox Conference it possesses a universal (catholic) ecclesio- sentatives the Orthodox Churches, 11eld Moscow 1948. Clearly, sincerely, and with a sense full as spiritual leaders, they declared that «throughout the course many centuries and up the present time, Papism, through bloody wars and acts violence every kind, has attempted pro- syletize the Orthodox and convert them Roman either directly or indirectly through the Unia, as they did for example the Romanians Transylvania 1700, the Bulgarians Turkey 1859/60 and the 240,000 Serbian A1banians and Croats during the last World War, and as they did Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Ulcraine and Byelorussia, For the bishops Rome, kings a secular state (Patromonium Sancti Petri), this has always been the supreme laW). (quoted from J. Karmiris, The Symbolic Monuments the OrtkodoxCatholic 1047-1048). 860 Chrysostomos-Gerassime Zaphiris logica1 dimenslon for the Orthodox and an ana1ogous

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