Major Earth Breaking News For Catholic/Eastern Orthodox Relations This Week?

This Thursday could be big in the life of the Churchh. Pope Benedict is amazing me how he seems to be thwarting all the Vatican Machinary whose whole purpose is to to slow things down.

I have been watching the topic of Orthodox/Catholic relations and this Thursday could be big if rumors out of Rome are true. From a Catholic Publication in Rome(what I am putting in Italics is the translaters commentary) Thanks for the Ratzinger Forum for the translation of the Italian based Panorama magazine. I am going while watching football today hit the Orthodox and Eastern rite Catholic sites to see what theya re saying.

And so, Benedict XVI opens up to the Orthodox Churches
By IGNAZIO INGRAO
A new important step towards the reunification of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches: On November 15, a document on "collegiality and authority in the Church" will be made public. It is the result of the meetings held in Ravenna last month by the mixed international commission for dialog between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

A preliminary look at the document shows that it faces one of the most controversial issues in the ecumenical dialog: the role and authority of the Pope in a unified Church. The proposal is to adopt the organizational model of the Church in the first millennium [before the Great Schism of 1054 that led to the formation of the Orthodox Churches], in which there were five major Patriarchates (Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem), with the Bishop of Rome recognized as primus inter pares (first among equals).

However, it is not clear what the Russian Orthodox Church will have to say about this. Its delegation walked out of the Ravenna meetings to protest the inclusion of the Estonian Orthodox Church at the authorization of the patriarch of Constantinople. [Patriarch Alexei II questions the standing of the Patriarch of Constantinople who is recognized by all the other Orthodox Churches as their 'first among equals'. Alexei has maintained that Moscow, not Constantinople, deserves to be the second Rome - notwithstanding the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church was an outgrowth of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, the original Orthodox Church.] Benedict XVI is expected to discuss this issue at the plenary sessions of the College of Cardinals on November 23, the day before the general consistory. The next meeting of the mixed international theological commission will be in 2009.

The Translater puts the Russian Orthodox situation into context and gives her comments and question in Italics.

In 988, Prince Vladimir I of Kiev officially adopted Byzantine Rite Christianity — the religion of the Eastern Roman Empire — as the state religion of Kievan Rus. This date is often considered the official birthday of the Russian Orthodox Church. [But there was no Orthodox Church yet at the time, since the Schism didn't come till 1054, although there were already two Catholic Rites - the Western or Latin, and the Eastern or Byzantine.]

Thus, in 1988, the Church celebrated its millennial anniversary [under false pretenses, really, because it started out in 988 as a Catholic Church of the Eastern rite[]. It therefore traces its apostolic succession through the Patriarch of Constantinople. [So how can Alexei deny the 'seniority' of Constantinople? It is not even one of the major Patriarchates of the first millennium, for the simple reason that Moscow did not become the seat of the Russian patriarchate till the 14th century!]

The Kievan church was originally a Metropolitan Diocese of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Byzantine patriarch appointed the metropolitan who governed the Church of Rus. The Metropolitan's residence was originally located in Kiev. As Kiev was losing its political, cultural, and economical significance due to the Mongol invasion, Metropolitan Maximus moved to Vladimir [a beautiful and well-preserved medieval walled city not far from Moscow, one of the must-see places to visit in Russia] in 1299. His successors, Metropolitan Peter and Theognostus, moved the residence to Moscow by 1326.