And one other thing.
One often hears references to the holy monks of Mount Athos, the deep spirituality of the Eastern Fathers, the solemnity of the Divine Liturgy compared with the Novus Ordo of the Catholic mass, etc., etc. To be fair, there is much validity in these comments.
And yet, for all this talk of sanctity, one does not see Caerularius acting in humility, turning the other cheek, willing to be wronged, etc.
And let’s say, for the sake of this discussion, that Catholics have been 100% at fault in all of their interactions with the Orthodox.
Okay. How many times did Jesus tell us to forgive? Seven? Does Eastern spirituality include forgiving others in more than just theoretical terms?
The staggering amount of minutiae over canons, councils, and crusades that is constantly cited in these threads suggests to me that some will never let this stuff go. It’s almost as if these events just happened last month and that their parents and grandparents were among the casualties of the sacking of Constantinople last week.
Folks, it was 1,000 years ago. :sad_yes:
The Joint Declaration reads in part:
- One cannot pretend that these events were not what they were during this very troubled period of history. Today, however, they have been judged more fairly and serenely. Thus it is important to recognize the excesses which accompanied them and later led to consequences which, insofar as we can judge, went much further than their authors had intended and foreseen. They had directed their censures against the persons concerned and not the Churches. These censures were not intended to break ecclesiastical communion between the Sees of Rome and Constantinople.
Excesses. Unforeseen consequences. On both sides.
I’m 100% certain that Catholics think its way past time to put this all behind us.
When will our Eastern brothers ***choose ***to do the same?
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