So would you say that portion I quoted is the actual Melkite position on the validality of the Ecumenical councils?
I suggest you take a look at Bishop Elya’s Q&A:
melkite.org/bishopQA.htm
Question T-2 and T-3.
The Melkite Church has taken a lead role in working toward the rapprochement between the Orthodox and Catholic Church - which is a good and, IMHO, holy (albeit difficult) thing to do. One of the great difficulties to be addressed is what to do about the post-schism councils. All Catholics (and the Orthodox) deeply involved in this endeavor recognize the knotty problem of the councils. Bishop Elya is very careful in the way he both strongly supports the post-schism councils and papal pronouncements while acknowledging - like Cardinal Kasper - the special place for the first 7 Councils. Nothing of dogma is denied - indeed the opposite takes place: Bishop Elya, and the Melkite Church, strongly Catholic support dogma. There is a recognition that some matters deal only with the Latin Church and are not dogma.
That a children’s primer does not address the nuances of this complex issue - tied to reunification - is neither a surprise nor very troubling to me. Perhaps the wording could be better? The fact remains that the Melkite Church is fully Catholic accepting all Catholic dogma including the role of the Pope. What’s troubling is that too many Catholics, East and West, fail to see the complexity of both reunification and the areas where certain dogmas really don’t go so as to leave open legitimate areas for theological exploration from both an Eastern and Western mindset, history, philosophy and languages. In no way do I believe anyone - certainly not the Melkite Church - is looking to deny any dogma. What I see going on is a reexamination by the Catholic and Orthodox Church of what really separates them to see if there really is a denial of dogma or merely different understanding of non-dogmatical matters, or even different expressions of the same dogma which are not contradictory but are complementary or supplementary. Indeed, in this arena in many cases one has to consider the political situation, lack of contacts, civil rivalries and personal peccadilloes of the churchmen involved to understand what took place and what was really said.
I say thank God for the Melkite Church and its Bishops as they work on this issue. They are working with Rome - not against her.
Perhaps Bishop Zoghby got a little out on a limb, but even then Rome has worked that through, too. No one, Orthodox or Catholic can, will or should deny dogma - but where we can reconcile our understanding of TRUTH in this world of different languages, philosophies, theologies and expressions of TRUTH in light of our history - then we need to do so in hopeful and loving faith in the guidance of the Holy Spirit so as to move toward reunification.
