Important meeting of Catholic and Orthodox Churches

09 July 2000 09:29

Thanks to Javier Lopez for forwarding this news of an important meeting between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches which begins today, Sunday July 9.

There is an excellent web site providing news and information about this meeting at: http://www.archbalt.org/communications/Orthodox/Home.htm

VIII Plenary Session of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church – July 9-19, 2000

A plenary session of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches has been scheduled for July 9-19, 2000, at Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Cardinal Keeler, who is a member of the Commission, is acting as host. The Emmitsburg meeting of the Commission will be especially critical in determining whether the theological differences between Catholics and Orthodox can be narrowed in the near future. The Emmitsburg meeting was previously scheduled for June 1999 but was postponed because of the war in Kosovo. During the last decade, there were only two plenary sessions of the Commission — Freising, Germany (1990) and Balamand, Lebanon (1993). These two sessions were devoted solely to the issue of ”uniatism” and the Eastern Catholic Churches. Six of the Orthodox Churches did not attend the Balamand session. There has not been a plenary session devoted to general theological dialogue since the 1988 meeting in Finland.

George Weigel in his recent biography of Pope John Paul II states that the failure of the Catholic-Orthodox dialogue in the 1990s ”may well rank as the single greatest disappointment of John Paul’s pontificate.” The Emmitsburg meeting has at least the potential of changing the Pope’s ”greatest disappointment” into a beacon of hope for the new millennium. If a major breakthrough is to occur at the Emmitsburg session, much prayer will certainly be needed.

One of the most famous Orthodox icons in North America is the Sitka icon of the Mother of God located in the historic St. Michael’s Orthodox Cathedral (OCA) in Sitka, Alaska. The beautiful icon is modeled after the famous Russian Kazan icon with the Christ Child standing at the side of the Mother of God. The icon is considered by many to be miraculous and is intimately connected with the early years of Orthodoxy in North America.

Cardinal Keeler has approved a plan to bring the Sitka icon to Emmitsburg for the period of the plenary session. Father Leonid Kishkovsky, ecumenical officer for the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), has been very supportive of the idea and has obtained the approval of Metropolitan Theodosius, primate of the OCA, to bring the icon from Sitka to Emmitsburg. If there is to be unity between Catholics and Orthodox, many believe that the Theotokos, who is the mother of both her Orthodox and Catholic children, may be instrumental in helping to overcome the differences between the two Churches. It is therefore appropriate to pray for her intercession. Because the Emmitsburg meeting is the first plenary session to be held in North America, it is also appropriate to use an icon of the Mother of God which is associated with the early days of Orthodoxy in North America.

A prayer team to keep vigil before the icon in Emmitsburg during the period July 9-19 is being formed and a general prayer campaign is being organized to pray, especially to the Mother of God, for the success of the Emmitsburg meeting. Special prayer services will be held in certain major cities, and a general appeal is being made for both Orthodox and Catholics to pray for the success of the meeting. In addition, persons who are not members of the prayer team are welcome to come to Emmitsburg to pray before the icon which will be housed in the O’Donnell Lecture Hall at the Seminary building.

PRAYER FOR EMMITSBURG

Most Holy Virgin and Mother of God, whose miraculous icons are venerated by both your Orthodox and Catholic children, place under your protection the work of the Joint International Commission created to restore unity between your Orthodox and Catholic Churches and beseech your Divine Son that, guided by the Holy Spirit, the path to unity may be found so that all may be one.