Short Hiatus

This blog will be closed (no new posts, or comments) until Pascha. A blessed Great and Holy Week to all!

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Augustine on Diversity in Unity

… I desire you therefore, in the first place, to hold fast this as the fundamental principle in the present discussion, that our Lord Jesus Christ has appointed to us a “light yoke” and an “easy burden,” as He declares in the Gospel (Matthew 11:30): in accordance with which He has bound His people under [...]

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The Pope on Irenaeus and Tradition

True Christian faith is taught by the bishops of the Church, in particular the bishop of Rome, in other words the Pope: it is public and unique, not intellectual in it’s nature in so far as it is inspired by the Holy Spirit and destined for all people.  The principles of the Apostolic tradition and [...]

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Hope against hope

Rome must reckon … with the probable continuance and even accentuation, within Orthodoxy, of a vigorous ecclesiastical nationalism, and, from her viewpoint, little seems more depressing … Until those attitudes are purified, and replaced by an inter-nationalism, a catholicity, better befitting the pattern of the Christian koinonia, there can be no place within Orthodoxy for [...]

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Blessed Leonid Fedorov, Hieromartyr

Here’s a brief but fascinating account of the life of Blessed Leonid Fedorov, hieromartyr and advocate for Christian unity (from Saint Joseph de Clairval Abbey, Flavigny). Another account can be found here (from the Australian Catholic periodical AD 2000). An akathist hymn and a supplicatory canon have been written, so that the faithful may invoke [...]

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Thou art Kepho

Thanks to the miracle of Google Books, I found the following fascinating volume:
The Traditions of the Syriac Church of Antioch Concerning the Primacy and Prerogatives of Saint Peter and of His Successors the Roman Pontiff, by the Most Reverend Cyril Behnam Benni (London: Burns, Oates & Co, 1871).

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Cardinal Kasper on the First Vatican Council (3)

See Part I and Part II.

3. We come now to a third hermeneutical principle: the historical interpretation. As is the case for all dogmas, so also for the First Vatican Council it is fundamental to make a distinction between the unchangeable binding content and the changeable historical forms. This principle was clearly expressed by the [...]

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