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Church in the WorldOrthodox divisions over Catholic dialogueRussia Jonathan Luxmoore - 24 November 2007A leading figure in Russia's Orthodox Church has accused Catholic and Orthodox negotiators of "falling into a trap" by comparing the Pope with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in a recent joint document. "The authors are not describing the modern Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches, but probably some theoretical Church established on principles from the period of ecumenical councils," said Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev of Vienna and Austria, who heads the Russian Church's representation to European institutions. "We are Orthodox Christians and we consider ourselves such in our communications with the See of Constantinople." The bishop, 41, was speaking six weeks after walking out of the Joint International Commission for Catholic-Orthodox Theological Dialogue at Ravenna. Bishop Hilarion said that without the Russian Church's participation, "it will be difficult to pretend this dialogue involves the Orthodox Church in all its entirety. I don't think all Orthodox Churches will accept the outcome of such a dialogue." The Orthodox Church is a family of "autocephalous" or self-governing Churches, with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople holding titular or honorary primacy. As the Russian Orthodox Church is the biggest Church, a meeting between Patriarch Alexei II and Pope Benedict would be the highly prized indicator of progress in Catholic-Orthodox dialogue, but the fact that the Orthodox Church is not a centralised organisation headed by a pontiff is a complicating factor. In an interview with Russia's Interfax news agency, Bishop Hilarion said the Ecumenical Patriarch lacked the same rights as the Bishop of Rome, despite being recognised as "first among equals" by the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians. The Ravenna document recognises the Pope's primacy among all world bishops, but calls for his role to be studied further in the next phase of dialogue. It was not signed by the Russian Orthodox delegation, which left the talks after objecting to the presence of an Estonian Orthodox group. |
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