Furthering the dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox
The annual week of prayer for Christian unity marks a moment to review ecumenical
achievements of the past year and look ahead to some of the highlights of the coming
months. Philippa Hitchen spoke with the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting
Christian Unity, Bishop Brian Farrell about his hopes for the Catholic-Orthodox dialogue..
LIsten:
“We are very
close to the Orthodox theologically….so the theological difference between us is almost
totally concentrated on this one question of structure, authority, primacy in the
church. In the dialogue we have reached the point where we all accept that there is
a primacy, that this belong to the bishop of Rome, but we don’t agree on how it is
to be exercised…..
One of the things that is on the horizon is the anniversary
of the Edict of Milan which changed the course of the history of the church…….so this
will be an important occasion. Catholics and Orthodox have a slightly different view
of Constantine…..there will be celebrations in many countries, in particular, yes,
in Serbia where he was born and we’re looking forward to be able to take part in these
together…….I don’t think we should make (a meeting with the Pope and the Russian Patriarch)
a definite objective of the celebrations – as you know, the preparation of such a
meeting depends not just on goodwill but also on how effective we can be in overcoming
some of the tensions that still exist between Catholics and Orthodox."