New blog: “De unione ecclesiarum”

I just came across a fascinating new blog, De Unione Ecclesiarum, written by a Greek Orthodox scholar who is working on a book about Patriarch John IX (Bekkos) of Constantinople (+1297), an early advocate of Orthodox-Catholic reunion. He explains the purpose of his blog as follows:
De unione ecclesiarum, meaning “On the Union of the Churches,” [...]

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A prayer request

From the ByzCath Forum via A Conservative Blog for Peace comes some very sad news:
Please fervently pray for Archbishop Vsevolod of Scopelos, head of the Western Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. His Eminence has recently announced that he has been diagnosed with leukemia and is [...]

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“The Fathers gave Rome the Primacy” (5)

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV
The interpretation we have sketched is, as it were, a key which unlocks the mind of the council and of Leo. The proof that it is the true key is that it can be turned, and than an intelligible meaning is thereby opened. The rival [...]

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Catholics welcome choice of new Orthodox Patriarch

Bucharest, Sep. 13, 2007 (CWNews.com) – Metropolitan Daniel of Moldavia and Bucovina has been elected the new Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The new Romanian Orthodox leader replaces Patriarch Teoctist, who died on July [...]

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“The Fathers gave Rome the Primacy” (4)

Part I | Part II | Part III
We must, therefore, interpret the hoi pateres, Patres, of the canon to mean the Apostles and their successors; the Apostles as the original donors, their successors as bearing witness to what was handed down. This is no forced interpretation, for the expression is often used in this sense, [...]

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“The Fathers gave Rome the Primacy” (3)

Part I | Part II
The most significant and important point of all is that the Pope St. Leo himself saw no attack on the Privilegia Petri in the canon. The principle on which the bishops based the canon did come under his notice; for amongst the many reasons he gave for rejecting it was this, [...]

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“The Fathers gave Rome the Primacy” (2)

Part I
The Council committed itself in precise and definite terms to the belief that the Pope was the inheritor of the privileges of St. Peter, and head of the Church by Divine right. Passing by the well-known and significant cry of the assembled Fathers on hearing the Pope’s letter to Flavian, “Peter hath spoken [...]

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“The Fathers gave Rome the Primacy” (1)

The famous xxviii. Canon of Chalcedon has been for many centuries a favourite authority among all those who, whether in the East or in England, are anxious to find support in primitive times for their rejection of the Petrine prerogatives of the Holy See. To a serious student of history, however, it seems an act [...]

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Ludwig Hertling on ‘Communio’ and the Roman Church (3)

Part I | Part II
Anyone who has dealt with the ancient sources would probably agree with our description of the communio and the position of Rome as its focal point. But the real question is still to be asked, and it is here that opinions differ sharply. Is this central position of the Roman bishops [...]

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Ludwig Hertling on ‘Communio’ and the Roman Church (2)

Part One
The fact that the Roman church held in some sense a privileged position in the early centuries is rarely contested today. In any case, it was the first see (prima sedes). Thus, the real question is what this undeniable primacy meant and how it is related to the later forms of papal primacy. So [...]

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