The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will be the first Orthodox Patriarch in just under a thousand years to attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass inaugurating the Pontificate of the Bishop of Rome. This is a gesture which recognizes the ecumenical interests of His Holiness, the Supreme Pontiff, gloriously reigning, Pope Francis. This is a great sign of hope. The Patriarch has suffered much criticism for this gesture. He is to be commended and thanked profusely.
There has been a suggestion made, in fact, for the celebration of an Ecumenical Council in which the Orthodox are very heavily represented, an Orthodox-Catholic Ecumenical Council, as it were.
This suggestion comes from someone who is intimately aware of all the circumstances, past and present, under which relations between the Orthodox and Catholics labor, someone who was delegated by the Holy See to be available to facilitate the unity of East and West, to ready himself for this dialogue between the Orthodox and the Catholic Church, someone who was suggested for this role by those leading and analyzing discussions on behalf of the Holy See. His concluding sentence to the proposal is this:
If Pope Francis has, indeed, a mandate from Christ: “Rebuild my Church”, there can be no thought of excluding the traditional means of sewing the torn seamless garment of the Church of Christ, i.e., a Council between East and West to remove scandal among Christians and reaffirm the age-old faith according to formulas for which both Eastern and Western Fathers would gladly shed their blood.
I am preparing a post on this, the article written by this great scholar, my good friend, Father Christiaan Kappes for http://holysoulshermitage.com We share many mutual friends. His article, I must say, is spectacular. I’m just now adding some formatting and illustrations. Stay tuned… HERE
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter. 
Note that the Gospel will be chanted in Greek only! excellent.
I’ve discussed things with members of the Orthodox Church in the past. If Pope Francis manages to unite the Greek Orthodox and Catholic Churches he should go down as one of the greatest Popes in Church history. But coming from conversations I had with members of the Orthodox Church I’ll eat my shirt if the Churches are united within the next 20 years.
Also, the Orthodox Church doesn’t work like the Catholic Church. If large sections of the Orthodox Church don’t want to rejoin the Catholic Church, they just won’t. The rift may be repaired a little bit more but I doubt we’ll ever be truly whole again, unfortunately-of course, all things are possible with God, so we’ll see. I hope I’m wrong.
MarcAnthony: I’ve eaten plenty of shirts. I’ll donate the salt and pepper!
Well, if it comes to that anything tastes good after you deep-fry it and coat it in butter!
Wait, what were we talking about again? Oh yeah, the council…
Huh? I’ve given much thought to this and can’t see any resolution to Filioque. So much western theology is rooted in it yet they who refuse that word would make a great sacrifice even to admit of the possibility of its truth.
I have wondered where he has been since he doesn’t post on FB anymore. This just reignites the intrigue! But as much as everyone is focused on our less than a week new Pope, let’s not forget Pope Benedict’s previous efforts at reaching out to the Orthodox. Not an easy task since there is not “one” Orthodox to deal with (Copt, Greek, Russian…)
rbsb… heh heh heh
I think it’s possible for us to come to mutual ground regarding the filioque. I mean, for one thing, the Eastern Catholics don’t use it. But for that to happen pride has to be shelved on both sides, and that isn’t easy.
Could this be what’s causing an ever increasing atmosphere of confusion, fear and trembling? Bring it on! Something I’ve always wanted to learn more about but have never gotten much farther past ‘it’s complicated’.
Call me ignorant and naive but from what I have seen from the work of Pope Benedict, we are much closer to reunion than we have been in eight centuries. Rome needs the Orthodox, and they need us; for once, I think everybody is acknowledging the problem of being divided in a world no longer friendly to Christianity. Just think what the Communist persecutions would have been like if the Holy See breathed down Stalin’s neck and speak for all Christians in the USSR. Now, I know there are old wounds re: the Ruthenian and Greek Catholic Churches during the Soviet period, but on our end I think we can move on. We had to!