Catholic, Orthodox reps welcome papal visit to Turkey (America, churches)

[Scott1]

Catholic, Orthodox reps welcome papal visit to Turkey


11/3/2006
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) – At a meeting in Washington, North American Catholic and Orthodox representatives welcomed the upcoming papal visit to the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Turkey and urged the Turkish government to end restrictions on the patriarchate.
As part of his trip to Turkey, Pope Benedict XVI plans to meet with Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in Istanbul Nov. 29-30. Istanbul was formerly called Constantinople, and before that Byzantium. The patriarchate there has a historic role as the center of unity of the Orthodox churches.
The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation met Oct. 26-28 at St. Paul's College in Washington. In a statement written during the meeting and released Nov. 1, the consultation members noted that there have been several meetings of pope and ecumenical patriarch since the historic meeting of Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras in Jerusalem in 1964.
"These meetings have both expressed and deepened the renewed relationship between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church," they said.
They said the approaching visit also provides an opportunity "to express our concern regarding the situation in which the patriarchate finds itself today."
"The Ecumenical Patriarchate today is subject to severe restrictions placed upon it by the Turkish government," they said. They cited limitations imposed in 1923 and 1970 on the election of a new patriarch, who must be a Turkish citizen, the government-imposed closure of the patriarchal seminary since 1971, and the government's confiscation of a number of the patriarchate's churches and properties.
"Even today the Turkish state does not recognize the historic role that the patriarch plays among Orthodox Christians outside Turkey," they said. They said the papal visit "will highlight once again the crucial role" of the ecumenical patriarch in the broader Christian world.
The consultation in Washington, the 71st in a series going back to 1965, focused on Catholic and Orthodox understandings of governance and leadership in the church.
Participants also exchanged news about recent events in the lives of their churches and heard a report on the September meeting of the international Catholic-Orthodox dialogue, which revived that dialogue after a six-year interruption.
The 72nd session of the North American consultation is to take place June 4-6, 2007, at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, N.Y.
The consultation is co-sponsored by the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas, the Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Co-chairmen are Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Maximos of Pittsburgh and Catholic Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk of Cincinnati.

[James the Persian]

Great news. It's good not only to see that the RCC is joining our calls for the persecution in Turkey to end (I use the word persecution deliberately because that is what it is even if it is very mild by historical standards), but then I would guess that the sort of problems we have in Turkey are also shared by the RCs there. I'm also impressed to se that the Patriarchate is correctly described as the Orthodox centre of unity rather than the EP being described as head of the Orthodox Church. It's not often that you see that in a western publication of any sort.

James