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Catholic World News News Feature

Pope, Patriarch to join theological talks? December 04, 2006

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople has disclosed that he made an important, concrete proposal for Orthodox-Catholic cooperation during his November 30 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI.

Speaking to the Italian daily Avvenire after the conclusion of the Pope’s trip to Turkey, the Orthodox leader said that he could not disclose the nature of the suggestion he had made, but reported that the Pope seemed quite interested. He said that he is now “waiting for an official response.”

The AsiaNews service, citing sources in the Constantinople patriarchate, reports that the Patriarch suggested that he and the Pontiff should personally take part in the next meeting of a joint Orthodox-Catholic theological commission, to take place next year in Ravenna, Italy. The AsiaNews report suggested that Pope Benedict is inclined to accept the suggestion.

The joint theological commission was established in November 1979 by Pope John Paul II and the Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I. Its work reached an impasse, however, at a July 2000 meeting in Baltimore, when Catholic and Orthodox participants could not agree on the question of "uniatism"-- the Orthodox term for the eastern Catholic churches. The commission suspends its work.

In June 2004, Pope John Paul II issued a call for the resumption of the theological dialogue, and the new Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I agreed. Upon his election in April 2005, Pope Benedict XVI added his strong endorsement. The group met in Belgrade, in September 2006, for talks co-chaired by Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, and the Orthodox Metropolitan John Zizioulas of Pergamon.