Papal primacy in the service of the unity of the Church – one Orthodox theological perspective (comments and notes)
Nicu Dumitrașcu
Abstract
The Second Vatican Council, the biggest event in the modern history of Christianity, triggered a process of opening and reforming of the Catholic Church in an unprecedented scale. For three years the issues of major concern have been discussed in detail, both with purely theological and ecclesiastical nature, and also pastoral or missionary implications. One of the concerns of the Council was also the revitalization of the fraternal relations between Catholics and non-Catholics. This article examines one of the most important theological themes, which unfortunately, remained also after the conciliar or post conciliar discussions, an obstacle to a real dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox, to restore Christian unity: papal primacy, that the Orthodox sees it as a human invention, without biblical and patristic solid bases, the term appeared after 1054, as a general feature of the religious policy of the Roman leadership. The Orthodox Church believes in the possibility of restoring Christian unity, but can not admit the general intercommunion without prior achievement of the unity in faith. Therefore, it expects a decision from the Catholic Church to abandon the claim of primacy and papal infallibility, or a restatement in accordance with the tradition of the first Christian centuries, and also, a redefinition of the relationship between the bishop of Rome and the Catholic Bishops College, in the spirit of a real and effective synodality.
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Duchowny prawosławny, obecnie profesor Wydziału Teologii Prawoslawnej “Episcop Dr. Vasile Coman” Universytetu w Oradea w Rumanii. Wykładał w Chorwacji, Belgii i Libanie. Jest zaangażowany w pracę wielu międzynarodową w gremiach ekumenicznych. Jest czlonkiem komitetów naukowych wielu czasopism oraz bierze udział w konferencjach międzynarodowych. Jest autorem licznych artykułów w obszarze patrologii, misjologii oraz ekumenizmu w takich czasopismach, jak “Acta Theologica”, “Studia Monastica”, “Ecumenical Review”, “Theology Today”, “Dialog: A Journal of Theology” itp. Ostatnia pozycja książkowa nosi tytuł Christian Family and Contemporary Society (Bloomsbury T&T Clark: London 2014). W przygotowaniu jest publikacja The Ecumenical legacy of the Cappadocians (Palgrave Macmillan: New York 2105). Adres do korespondencji: nicud_ird@yahoo.com
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