An Historic Event

The original purpose of this weblog was to speak of recent events from the point of view of an Eastern Christian. I would like this week to return to that original purpose. This last Saturday, I saw history being made. As usual, most of the usual suspects from the fifth, er, fourth column were absent. Fortunately, EWTN was there to present, and hopefully, to record the event.

The event of which I speak took place in Rome, at St. Peter's, in the Sistine Chapel. There, at the invitation of His Holiness, Benedict XVI, His All-Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholemew I addressed the assembled Synod of Roman Catholic Bishops. (The text of that address may be found here. In the event that I am able to find a YouTube or other video link, I will certainly put it up here.) As His All-Holiness remarked in His address, this was the first time in history that an Ecumenical Patriarch had been invited to address such a Synod. That alone would be saying something.

But there were three things that happened at His All-Holiness' address that have not happened in more than a millenium.

The first thing was that His All-Holiness, instead of simply reciting the Creed or a prayer together with His Holiness the Pope of Rome, initiated a prayer, in which He invoked the aid of the Holy Spirit to bless and to help the Synod of Bishops. That simply has not happened since the Schism of East and West.

The second thing was that His All-Holiness, in His written speech, addressed the assembled (Latin) bishops as "My brothers in Christ". Unless I am gravely mistaken, that has not happened since the Seventh Ecumenical Council, the last such council in which East and West spoke with one voice.

But the third thing that happened, which was not in the written speech, was that at that speech's end, His All-Holiness referred to His Holiness, Benedict XVI, as "My elder brother in Christ."

While I severely doubt that the Orthodox Churches would ever accept either Papal Infallibility or Jurisdiction as those terms are held among Roman Catholics, this would appear, at least to me, to be a first step between East and West in working toward an Orthodox understanding of papal primacy in synodicity. For more as regards this concept, I would suggest that the reader look here.

Whatever the ultimate result, history was made on that Saturday. I was happy that I was able to witness it.