Here’s a report in rather confusing English from Interfax: “Bishop Hilarion requests the Theologian Commission to examine the ambiguous document adopted at the Orthodox-Catholic conference in Ravenna.”
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Cathedra Unitatis 
Man, I would love a better translation of that article.
“The document has got a whole series of doubted conclusions and assertions that are not beard by historical truth,” – Bishop Hilarion stated in the interview to Interfax.
That seems pretty clear. Obviously the document didn’t have a beard- an obvious faux pas.
Evagrius,
Are we to believe that Bishop Hilarion is renewing the medieval Byzantine complaints about Latin beard-shaving? (Yes, I’m supposed to be on a blog fast right now, but I couldn’t resist). 😉
evagrius–I needed that chuckle. 🙂 Thanks.
The Tablet’s website came out today with a slightly more intelligible accoount of what Bp. Hilarion was saying. The URL is http://www.thetablet.co.uk/articles/10667/. The text of the article is as follows:
Orthodox divisions over Catholic dialogue
Jonathan Luxmoore
A leading figure in Russia’s Orthodox Church has accused Catholic and Orthodox negotiators of “falling into a trap” by comparing the Pope with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in a recent joint document.
“The authors are not describing the modern Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches, but probably some theoretical Church established on principles from the period of ecumenical councils,” said Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev of Vienna and Austria, who heads the Russian Church’s representation to European institutions. “We are Orthodox Christians and we consider ourselves such in our communications with the See of Constantinople.”
The bishop, 41, was speaking six weeks after walking out of the Joint International Commission for Catholic-Orthodox Theological Dialogue at Ravenna. Bishop Hilarion said that without the Russian Church’s participation, “it will be difficult to pretend this dialogue involves the Orthodox Church in all its entirety. I don’t think all Orthodox Churches will accept the outcome of such a dialogue.”
The Orthodox Church is a family of “autocephalous” or self-governing Churches, with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople holding titular or honorary primacy. As the Russian Orthodox Church is the biggest Church, a meeting between Patriarch Alexei II and Pope Benedict would be the highly prized indicator of progress in Catholic-Orthodox dialogue, but the fact that the Orthodox Church is not a centralised organisation headed by a pontiff is a complicating factor.
In an interview with Russia’s Interfax news agency, Bishop Hilarion said the Ecumenical Patriarch lacked the same rights as the Bishop of Rome, despite being recognised as “first among equals” by the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians. The Ravenna document recognises the Pope’s primacy among all world bishops, but calls for his role to be studied further in the next phase of dialogue. It was not signed by the Russian Orthodox delegation, which left the talks after objecting to the presence of an Estonian Orthodox group.
“I don’t think all Orthodox Churches will accept the outcome of such a dialogue….”
How do I say “you can say that again” in Old Church Slavonic? 😉