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JOINT INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION
FOR THE THEOLOGICAL DIALOGUE BETWEEN
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

 

COORDINATING COMMITTEE

Ariccia, Italy, 10-15 June 1991

 

The Orthodox and Catholic members of the Coordinating Committee of the International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church met from 10 to 15 June 1991 at the "Casa Divin Maestro” in Ariccia, Italy, where they were warmly received.

The main task of this committee was to synthesize the three documents prepared by three sub-commissions during the previous year. The first meeting was in Rome in December 1990, the second also in Rome in March 1991, and the third in Vienna, Austria, in April 1991. The resulting text is entitled, "Uniatism, Former Method of Union, and the Present Search for Full Communion”. It examines the problem, which has a very complex historical background, of the present situation of the Eastern Churches in communion with Rome. There have been new developments in this regard following the political events which have profoundly changed the situation in Eastern and Central Europe. Indeed, new freedom has now been made available to all the Churches in that region. The complexity of the question no longer arises only

from the imbroglio of the underlying theological problems, but also from the very concrete reality of the present situation. The task assigned to the coordinating committee, therefore, was to examine this question with a certain urgency in order to allow the dialogue between the two Churches to continue in serenity, and to prepare for full communion between the two Churches.

The document prepared at Ariccia will be examined at the next Plenary Session of the Commission, which is planned for 17 to 26 June 1992. The document is made up of two parts. In the first part, an attempt is made to describe the elements of the situation in question. In the second, suggestions are offered both to the faithful of the two Churches and to their leaders.

The document is based on the ecclesiological shifts which occurred after the Panorthodox Conferences and the Second Vatican Council. Indeed, we have moved from a situation in which each Church claimed to be the only means of salvation to the conviction that the two are sister Churches. This shift opened the way for a dialogue of charity, truth and sincerity.

The meeting was presided over by His Eminence Stylianos, the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Australia, and by Cardinal-designate Edward Idris Cassidy, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. It took place in an atmosphere of deep fraternal love. The participants left the meeting with hope in the future of the dialogue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Information Service 78 (1991/III-IV) 204-205]