S
Surnaturel
Guest
Hello everyone. I have taken note of the sticky warning about the tendency for this topic to devolve into unChristian dialogue, so I want to preface this discussion by asking every one to be cordial.
I would like to examine the role of the papacy in an Orthodox-Catholic Church. First, as a professor, Ratzinger (now pope emeritus Benedict XVI) suggested that the centralization of power in the Latin Church could be broken up into patriarchates for large countries or continents. These patriarchs would be subject to conciliar and dogmatic decree but would have a far greater degree of autonomy. It seems to me that this project would be incredibly useful in a potential reunification. This aligns with his decision to strike ‘Patriarch of the West’ from the papal yearbook of the Orthodox since he envisioned multiple patriarchs in the West.
The pope would head a Latin synod on jurisdictional issues that pertain to these Latin patriarchs in which collegiality is practiced by vote with the pope’s vote being the ‘tie breaker’ in the event of a dead lock. The pope would continue to have full autonomy and jurisdictional primacy without resort to a synod in his own designated areas (prob all of Western Europe, for one).
A specific Patriarch Synod, then, could be called exclusively for East/West patriarchs to discuss matters of jurisdiction and morality and just as the pope, historically, was sought at times to settle such disputes under the united first millennium Church, he would now exercise this historic role as the deciding vote in a dead lock among the patriarchs.
In the tentative East/West Ecumenical Council, called and presided over , of course, by the pope as a specific exercise of his primas inter pares, will concede not to issue infallible dogmas ex Cathedra without the consent of his peers. This would not be construed as an intrinsic inability to do so, for Catholics anyways, but a concession in the service of love and unity. This display of humility and service of God to the Church would affirm the proper charism and duty of the pope as primus inter pares and head of the college.
There’s a lot more that I could add but I will refrain and just leave this comment:
Whether we, Catholics and Orthodox, like it or not it is essential for the sake of the Church that the East and West reunite. The message and mission of all Christians is called into question straightaway since our witness is to be united in Christ by love and we cannot even accomplish that as the Apostolic Church(es). The dictstorship of secularism in the West and the proliferation of atheism in the East can only be effectively combated if we stand as one visible body of Christ.
I would like to examine the role of the papacy in an Orthodox-Catholic Church. First, as a professor, Ratzinger (now pope emeritus Benedict XVI) suggested that the centralization of power in the Latin Church could be broken up into patriarchates for large countries or continents. These patriarchs would be subject to conciliar and dogmatic decree but would have a far greater degree of autonomy. It seems to me that this project would be incredibly useful in a potential reunification. This aligns with his decision to strike ‘Patriarch of the West’ from the papal yearbook of the Orthodox since he envisioned multiple patriarchs in the West.
The pope would head a Latin synod on jurisdictional issues that pertain to these Latin patriarchs in which collegiality is practiced by vote with the pope’s vote being the ‘tie breaker’ in the event of a dead lock. The pope would continue to have full autonomy and jurisdictional primacy without resort to a synod in his own designated areas (prob all of Western Europe, for one).
A specific Patriarch Synod, then, could be called exclusively for East/West patriarchs to discuss matters of jurisdiction and morality and just as the pope, historically, was sought at times to settle such disputes under the united first millennium Church, he would now exercise this historic role as the deciding vote in a dead lock among the patriarchs.
In the tentative East/West Ecumenical Council, called and presided over , of course, by the pope as a specific exercise of his primas inter pares, will concede not to issue infallible dogmas ex Cathedra without the consent of his peers. This would not be construed as an intrinsic inability to do so, for Catholics anyways, but a concession in the service of love and unity. This display of humility and service of God to the Church would affirm the proper charism and duty of the pope as primus inter pares and head of the college.
There’s a lot more that I could add but I will refrain and just leave this comment:
Whether we, Catholics and Orthodox, like it or not it is essential for the sake of the Church that the East and West reunite. The message and mission of all Christians is called into question straightaway since our witness is to be united in Christ by love and we cannot even accomplish that as the Apostolic Church(es). The dictstorship of secularism in the West and the proliferation of atheism in the East can only be effectively combated if we stand as one visible body of Christ.
