Pope calls for agreement on a single date for Christians to celebrate Easter [AN]

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From related news here: asianews.it/index.php?art=34500&l=en

“The Catholic Church has been willing since Paul VI to set a date and give up the first solstice after the full moon in March" by which Easter is established.–seems like Francis is willing to give up the Catholic dating of Easter.
 
Maybe no one cares, other than missal publishers and calendar makers.
 
I do not have a strong opinion about this one way or another, but it seems the Western method links the date closer to Passover. If we wish to keep it movable, that would be the logical thing to do. On the other hand, if we abandon the link to Passover to celebrate as the Eastern Churches do, why not abandon it all together and go to a more fixed Sunday, like the first Sunday after the Equinox?
 
pnewton said:
On the other hand, if we abandon the link to Passover to celebrate as the Eastern Churches do, why not abandon it all together and go to a more fixed Sunday, like the first Sunday after the Equinox?
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Good luck on getting the Eastern Orthodox to agree with that.
 
If this happened, dollars to donuts most Protestant sects would ignore it. The Christian world would still be split on the subject, though I suppose Catholic-Orthodox unity is more important than Catholic-Protestant unity.
 
Tarpeian_Rock said:
How can the Julian and Gregorian calendars be reconciled to accomplish this?
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Actually, the particular calendar is meaningless. The Council of Nicaea started that the date of Easter would be the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Verbal equinox. W we hi while the churches each use Mar 21 as the date of the vernal equinox, it is really an astronomical event that can be scientifically determined.

So we can all follow Nicaea perfectly, the only caveat is that, since the verbsk equinox is a precise moment, we would need to agree on a common meridian to determine if that event occurs on a Sunday or not.
 
Tomdstone said:
The E. Orthodox will agree to a unified single date for Easter as long as it is calculated according to their system.
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There is little to commend such a stance, but then, not everyone is a Pope Francis. This Patriarch will agree to nothing. He has no authority to agree that Catholics can do what they want an is stubborn an inflexible on the date. His stance is a testimony to the wisdom of Christ in establishing a central person on Earth carry on the Petrine ministry.
 
This would be cool. It would continue to show the West’s willingness to work for unification.

I love Barthalomew but let’s see how the other Orthodox respond.
 
ringil said:
This would be cool. It would continue to show the West’s willingness to work for unification.
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Please don’t take this the wrong way but whatever happened to unity through diversification? 🙂
 
ProVobis said:
Please don’t take this the wrong way but whatever happened to unity through diversification? 🙂
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Regarding rites this can be a good thing. Authority is a different matter.

I do have a sense- being a Catholic it could be biased- that the Church works much harder towards unity than the Orthodox- especially the Russian Orthodox who seem to show no interest in the idea at all.
 
ringil said:
I do have a sense- being a Catholic it could be biased- that the Church works much harder towards unity than the Orthodox- especially the Russian Orthodox who seem to show no interest in the idea at all.
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I don’t think that is true. I don’t see the Catholic Church budging from its requirements for unity with the E. Orthodox.
 
ringil said:
Regarding rites this can be a good thing. Authority is a different matter.

I do have a sense- being a Catholic it could be biased- that the Church works much harder towards unity than the Orthodox- especially the Russian Orthodox who seem to show no interest in the idea at all.
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Judging by the comments made on both sides, definitely. I understand that bias exists with us, but the evidence is there in the actual statements. You and I did not make that up.

I would be open for evidence from any Orthodox (or anyone for that matter) where the Holy Father responded so definitively to a gesture made by one of the Patriarchs.
 
ringil said:
I do have a sense- being a Catholic it could be biased- that the Church works much harder towards unity than the Orthodox- especially the Russian Orthodox who seem to show no interest in the idea at all.
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Maybe so but isn’t ecumenism a more viable objective?
 
Brendan said:
Actually, the particular calendar is meaningless. The Council of Nicaea started that the date of Easter would be the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Verbal equinox. W we hi while the churches each use Mar 21 as the date of the vernal equinox, it is really an astronomical event that can be scientifically determined.

So we can all follow Nicaea perfectly, the only caveat is that, since the verbsk equinox is a precise moment, we would need to agree on a common meridian to determine if that event occurs on a Sunday or not.
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Wait… I’m confused… :ehh:

So that means the Catholic and Orthodox Churches HAD agreed on a single date for Easter; it’s just that each of them use different calendars?

Wait… I thought the Gregorian calendar was organized because the Julian calendar wasn’t keeping up with the Spring Equinox… Please explain…
 
CatholicWhovian said:
Wait… I thought the Gregorian calendar was organized because the Julian calendar wasn’t keeping up with the Spring Equinox… Please explain…
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To some extent. More specifically Pope Gregory corrected the leap year determination. Over the course of centuries it was determined that having a leap year once every four years wasn’t quite accurate so that calendar needed to be adjusted by a few days.

If this is changed, of course, Catholics will follow the new calendar, but it doesn’t mean the rest of the world will like it.
 
ringil said:
I do have a sense- being a Catholic it could be biased- that the Church works much harder towards unity than the Orthodox- especially the Russian Orthodox who seem to show no interest in the idea at all.
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I think this is true for two reasons:
  1. The Catholic Church sees the Orthodox as true churches, while the Orthodox as a general rule do not feel the reverse. It’s like us and the Anglicans. I think the Anglicans work slightly harder toward unity with the Catholic Church than vice versa.
  2. The Orthodox are fragmented. So one or another church may be more inclined toward unity with Catholicism, but they are not steering the ship. They have to wait for those less-inclined to accept this (which never happens). It is much more important to Orthodox churches that they be in communion with each other than with the Catholic Church.
 
Potter said:
If this happened, dollars to donuts most Protestant sects would ignore it.
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I don’t think this is true. Most Protestant denominations are not invested in the method of choosing Easter. Those that are tend also to be those more inclined to ecumenism. So if the Anglicans and the Methodists and the Lutherans will go along with the Catholics and Orthodox on a unified date for Easter, I don’t see most Baptists or Assemblies of God making a stink about their lunar calculation being more accurate.
 
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