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Interesting Development

“In a recent interview with the German ecumenical journal Cyril and Methodius, Patriarch … Bartholomew I invited Eastern Catholic Churches to return to Orthodoxy without breaking unity with Rome … According to the Orthodox hierarch, the form of coexistence of the Byzantine Church and the Roman Church in the 1st century of Christianity should be used as a model of unity … At the same time, the patriarch made positive remarks about the idea of “dual unity” proposed by the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Archbishop Lubomyr (Husar).” Anyone know more about this?

Hat tip: Father Gregory at Koinonia.

UPDATE: CWN provides more detail.

3 thoughts on “Interesting Development

  1. Fascinating. What would a “return to Orthodoxy” involve? Officially reviving communion with the relevant Orthodox patriarch?

    What about the Orthodox who are not in union with Rome? So, say, in Ukraine: the Ukrainian Catholics are … Catholic-Orthodox. But the Orthodox will be … just Orthodox … ?

    Most interesting. I’m reading the original German story at Kath.net and will put a translation shortly.

  2. Actually that story is just as brief as the one you linked to. I guess one needs to figure out what this “dual unity” proposed by Cardinal Husar might look like.

  3. It’s important to keep in mind that the EP has largely honorary significance in the EO world. Moscow has the numbers, so to speak, and is pretty much the only patriarchate capable of “speaking for Orthodoxy” in any significant fashion. And Moscow will categorically reject any proposal that even resembles what the EP has suggested here.

    There’s a CNS article that elaborates a bit more on the Cardinal’s proposal.

    http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=59186

    The article makes it look like a definite non-starter with Moscow, since the status of the Ukrainian Church is at the center of the “practical” differences with Orthodoxy. Bear in ind also there is a long-running dispute between the EP and Moscow, and Moscow is likely to interpret things like this in the context of that dispute.

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