Moscow, 19 February 2008 (Interfax):
The Moscow Patriarchate does not share the optimism of Walter Cardinal Kasper, President of the Papal Council for the Promoting of Christian Unity, concerning the consequences of the meeting in Ravenna between Orthodox and Catholics. Recently, Cardinal Kasper gave an interview to the journal Our Sunday Visitor in which he stated that there was a “real breakthrough” in Orthodox-Catholic dialogue as a result of the meeting of the joint Orthodox-Catholic theological commission last autumn in Ravenna. Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev of Vienna and Austria, the Representative of the MP to the European Institutions, stated to Interfax on Tuesday, “I do not share the optimism of Cardinal Kasper in regards to the Ravenna document, and I consider his elation premature”. He noted that the MP was absent from the meeting, as were the Bulgarian and American churches. Vladyki Hilarion noted that more than half of all Orthodox in the world belong to these bodies.
Consequently, in Vladyki Hilarion’s judgement, the document can in no way be considered an understanding between all Orthodox and all Catholics, as not all local Orthodox Churches were present. The Catholics met with representatives of only some local churches, therefore, the document cannot be considered an “Orthodox-Catholic” agreement. He noted that the cardinal’s interview “in no way implies that Orthodox-Catholic dialogue should or may result in revision of Roman Catholic teaching on the primacy of the Pope of Rome”. On the contrary, he considers that Kasper thinks once Eucharistic communication is restored “a new form of primacy would be found for the Orthodox Church”.
According to Vladyki Hilarion, Cardinal Kasper refers to the form already existing “in Eastern Churches in communion with Rome”, the so-called Uniate Churches. He considered it as just another proposal to follow the Greek-Catholic example and “join the Unia with Rome”. Vladyki Hilarion noted that the cardinal stated in the interview that the Catholic Church already had two models of primacy described in two codes of canon law, one for the Latin Church, and the other for the Eastern Churches. “In compliance with canon law, the primacy is realised differently in the Latin Church and in the Eastern Churches”, Cardinal Kasper had said.
“If this is the ‘breakthrough’ reached in the Ravenna meeting, then, I fear it shall not inspire Orthodox believers. They consider the Unia, in the form it has taken in history, as a sign of (Roman) disrespect for their principles and as a betrayal of Orthodoxy”, Vladyki Hilarion noted. He emphasised that Orthodox and Catholics did not need “another Unia”. “We need a strategic partnership that excludes any form of proselytism. Further theological dialogue is also necessary, not for the purpose of concluding a new Unia, but, to clear up those controversial points on which we find the most disagreement in Orthodox and Catholic ecclesiology”, he stated.
The delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate left one of first sessions of the commission in Ravenna as they did not previously agree to participation of the so-called “Estonian Apostolic Church”, which was (illegally) established by the Ecumenical Patriarchate on the canonical territory of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1996. As a result, without the involvement of the delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate, the participants adopted a final document defining their joint view on the nature of rule in the Ecumenical Church.
Interfax-Religion
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=22957 (in Russian)
Editor’s Note: There one has it, convincing proof of the arrogance and hubris of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. One truly cannot fault the Romans in this case. The EP pandered to them, hoping that the Vatican would support their pretensions to being the “Orthodox papacy”. The document out of Ravenna is a worthless scrap of paper. All it did was poison relations between the MP and the Vatican, and the Romans had best realise that their hopes of good relations with Moscow were weakened by this.
There has been much “happy talk” in Roman circles because of this “agreement”, and it is time for all responsible Orthodox to pour a bucket of ice-cold water on such. If you talk with people who represent only 10,000 people (the EP) and shoo away a group that is the largest bloc in world Orthodoxy (the MP, with 100 million+ faithful), you have NOT talked with world Orthodoxy, it is that simple. Vladyki Hilarion speaks the simple truth. Bully for him!
