Pope Francis

Post by Zenit News Agency.

Post by Zenit News Agency.

Post by Zenit News Agency.

Zenit riding on the coattails of Opus Dei...

Post by Zenit News Agency.

More on Pentin-Kasper

Card. Kasper denies he gave interview. Journalist posts recording of interview.

The audio and transcript.

I'm not surprised Zenit would back down; what Roman Catholic media outlet isn't ultramontane in its sympathies? (You could say that it is just showing some respect to a bishop of the Church, but I think there is more behind Zenit's decision than this...)

Synodality and the Primate

Post by Orthodox Christian Network.

Modern Shepherding

Can't offend the Holy Spirit...

Post by Zenit News Agency.

Edit.

Post by Zenit News Agency.

Zenit: Pope to Tawadros: We Have Learned to Better Understand One Another

Post by Zenit News Agency.

The Pope's New Catechetical Cycle: The Holy Spirit

Post by Zenit News Agency.

Post by Zenit News Agency.

Zenit: Focolare Youth in Rio Will Teach Peers About Blessed Chiara
Also Leading Interreligious Dialogue Project

Zenit: Pope's Reflection on Vatican II

Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4

Book Collects Ratzinger 'Communio' Articles

Zenit: Vatican Approves Blessing for Child in the Womb

Iraq: Our land Is a Land of Abraham
Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil Speaks About His Suffering Church

Zenit: Theological Commission to Continue Social Doctrine Study
Also Considering Monotheism and Theological Method

English Catholics to Pray for Queen
Bishops Approve Text for Her 60th Anniversary

Obligation of the Liturgy of the Hours
And More on "For Many"

Zenit: Orthodox-Catholic Commission Studies Primacy of Peter

Orthodox-Catholic Commission Studies Primacy of Peter


Concludes 11th Plenary Session in Paphos



By Jesús Colina

PAPHOS, Cyprus, OCT. 23, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The International Mixed Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church has progressed in its reflection on the role of the bishop of Rome.

The commission issued a joint communiqué reporting on its progress at the end of its 11th plenary session, ended today in Paphos. The document in question is titled "The Role of the Bishop of Rome in the Communion of the Church in the First Millennium."

The document is based on a draft prepared by an Orthodox-Catholic committee, which met in Crete last year. At present, the commission is reflecting on the role of the Bishop of Rome in the communion of the Church in the first millennium -- before the Great Schism of 1054.

The current work of the commission responds to the appeal made by Pope John Paul II in his 1995 encyclical "Ut Unum Sint" on the "ecumenical commitment," in which he proposed "finding a way to exercise the primacy that, without giving up in any way what is essential to its mission, opens to a new situation."

This is possible, he added, as "for a millennium Christians were united by the fraternal communion of faith and sacramental life, the See of Rome being, by common consent, the moderator when disagreements arose among them on matters of faith or discipline."

John Paul II himself invited both sides to seek "naturally together, the ways with which this ministry can carry out a service of faith and love recognized by one another."

Still working

"During this plenary meeting, the Commission analyzed with great care and amended the draft of the Mixed Coordination Committee, and decided to complete its work on the text next year, calling a new meeting of the Mixed Commission," the communiqué reported.

The meeting was attended by 20 Catholic members; all Orthodox Churches were represented, with the exception of the Patriarchate of Bulgaria.

The commission worked under the guidance of two co-presidents: the Catholic representative was Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity; and the Orthodox representative was Metropolitan Ioannis Zizioulas of Pergamum.

On Saturday, the co-presidents and other participants, among whom was Argentine Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, were received in the presidential palace by Demitris Christofias, president of Cyprus, who placed his hope "in this important dialogue for a world still divided."

The president "expressed his best wishes for progress in communion between the two Churches in the future," the communiqué reported.

Protests of radical Orthodox opposed to dialogue with the Catholic Church interrupted the work of the weeklong meeting. The country's police arrested four citizens and two monks of the monastery of Stavrovunio, confirmed Amen.gr.

The Orthodox representatives called the protests "totally unjustifiable and unacceptable, as they present false information which creates confusion," the communiqué stated. "All the Orthodox members of the commission re-affirmed that the dialogue continues with the decision of all the Orthodox Churches and advances with fidelity to the truth and to the Tradition of the Church."

The mixed commission was established by John Paul II and Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I in Istanbul on Nov. 30, 1979, on the feast of St. Andrew (Patron of the Church of Constantinople).

Zenit: Awaiting Benedict XVI's 3rd Encyclical

Awaiting Benedict XVI's 3rd Encyclical

Comments of Bishop Crepaldi on Church

VERONA, Italy, FEB. 1, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a statement written by Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and president of the Cardinal Van Thuân International Observatory, ahead of the publication of Benedict XVI's third encyclical, to be titled "Caritas in Veritate." The encyclical will likely be published in April.

The statement was published this week on the observatory's Web site.

* * *

What does it mean to say the social doctrine of the Church is timely?

We all await the heralded third encyclical of Benedict XVI, which will evoke the publication of "Populorum Progressio" by Paul VI 20 years ago, and will be entitled "Caritas in Veritate."

Our time is therefore a propitious time for us to ponder the sense of the "timeliness" of the social doctrine of the Church (SDC). The Holy Father is going to publish a new social encyclical precisely in order for a teaching dating back centuries to continue to be ever timely, alive and at work in history. What, therefore, is the source of this "timeliness"? On what basis can we say the social doctrine is "timely"?

We know the social doctrine of the Church has a permanent value and a changing value at one and the same time. In paragraphs 2, 3 and 5 of "Centesimus Annus" John Paul II asserted his wish to "re-read" "Rerum Novarum" by looking "back," looking "around" and looking "to the future." These three expressions indicate the historicity of the Church's social doctrine, which is always an updating of tradition in order to render it once again fecund and hence timely and present.

The three moments of yesterday, today and tomorrow indicate the change and the simultaneous permanence of the selfsame truth in the sense that the SDC is historical, and not just "history," insofar as it is the announcement of Christ, who is the same yesterday, today and forever. The "permanent" features of the social doctrine of the Church also stem from apostolic tradition as an essential component of the "depositum fidei" and as a point of observation -- or "theological place" as theologians say -- to look upon the world and history.

Not only does SDC have its own tradition, which began back in 1891 with "Rerum Novarum," but it also falls within the mainstream of the living tradition of the Church from which it draws nourishment. One of the reasons explaining a certain degree of slowness or even delays in the awareness of Christians with respect to assuming personal and collective responsibility for SDC may be seen in that fact it is not considered part of ecclesial tradition.

On the basis of what has been said above it could be surmised that the updating of SDC stems from changes and developments in the course of history, which constitute challenges for humanity. This is undoubtedly true. Since "the Church's social teaching is born of the encounter of the Gospel message and of its demands […]with the problems emanating from the life of society" ("Libertatis Conscientia," 72) it may be argued that it "develops in accordance with the changing circumstances of history" (ibid) and "is subject to the necessary and opportune adaptations suggested by the unceasing flow of the events which are the setting of the life of people and society" ("Sollicitudo Rei Socialis," 3). This is true, as I said, but it has to be understood in a theological sense, not a sociological one. The "timeliness" of an encyclical does not merely depend on the new social problems or issues it addresses. Were this the case, establishing the timeliness of Benedict XVI's upcoming social encyclical would merely be a question of listing the social issues it tackles and then checking which and how many of them were not touched upon in previous encyclicals. That, however, is not the way it is, for the simple reason that a social encyclical is not a sociological investigation.

It therefore becomes clear that the "timeliness" of SDC stems not only from the new facts humanity has to deal with, but from the Gospel itself, which, insofar as Word incarnate, is always new. New facts and developments in history can act as a stimulus for a re-reading of everlasting truth, because everlasting truth is essentially open to such an endeavor. Were this not true, each encyclical would speak only to the men and women of its time.

Present in the Church's social doctrine is an inexhaustible and irreducible element of prophecy bestowed upon it by the Gospel. Christ is ever timely, and let us not forget that the social doctrine of the Church is "announcement of Christ."

Rt. Rev. Giampaolo Crepaldi
President of the Observatory