The Love of the Beautiful: November 2009

Monday, November 23, 2009

Concerning the Patriarchate and the Papacy

"It is not a question of honor, of privileges, of concessions. The patriarchal institution is a specific entity unique in Eastern ecclesiology. With all respect due to the Petrine ministry, the Patriarchal ministry is equal to it, "servatis servandis", in Eastern ecclesiology. Until this is taken into consideration by the Roman ecclesiology, no progress will be made in ecumenical dialogue. Furthermore, the Patriarchal ministry is not a Roman creation, it is not the fruit of privileges, conceded or granted by Rome."- His Beatitude Gregory III, Patriarch of Antioch for the Greek-Melkites

http://www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_20_x-ordinaria-2001/02_inglese/b10_02.html

Zoghby Initiative

I believe everything which Eastern Orthodoxy teaches.
I am in communion with the Bishop of Rome as the first among the bishops, according to the limits recognized by the Holy Fathers of the East during the first millennium, before the separation.

" We must fight to insure that Latinism and Catholicism are no longer synonymous, that Catholicism remains open to every culture, every spirit, and every form of organization compatible with the unity of faith and of love. At the same time, by our example, we must force the Orthodox Church to recognize that a union [...] with the See of Peter can be achieved without their being compelled to give up Orthodoxy" -His Beatitude Maximos IV, Patriarch of Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem of the Melkites

"It is true that we have been latinized. And this is the great merit of Metropolitan Sheptytsky at the beginning of the 20th century: that he tried to reverse this process. Personally, I consider myself a follower of Metropolitan Sheptytsky, together with many others who would like to get rid of all that has illegally entered into our spiritual, theological, liturgical, canonical heritage. We were told: If you want to be a real Catholic, you have to be Latin. And they pushed us into it. And it is only with Metropolitan Sheptytsky that we could say: Dear brothers from Rome, one can be Catholic without being Latin. And we were attacked on two fronts, Catholic-Latin and Orthodox-Byzantine. And we said: No, dear brothers, one can be Ukrainian, one can be Byzantine, one can be at the same time Catholic. These different elements do not contradict one another. So this is why neither the Latin Church nor the Orthodox Church is very happy with us. "- His Beatitude Lubomyr Husar, Patriarch of Kviv-Halych

"In other words, Rome must not require more from the East with respect to the doctrine of primacy than had been formulated and was lived in the first millennium." - former Cardinal Ratzinger