VATICAN CITY (CNS): The Orthodox Churches are set to revive what has been a stalled theological dialogue with the Catholic Church, said the head of an Orthodox delegation on a visit to the Vatican.
“All the Orthodox Churches have now responded positively to the request of the Ecumenical Patriarchate” to appoint delegates to a mixed commission on theological dialogue, said Metropolitan John of Pergamum in a June 30 address to Pope Benedict XVI.
Metropolitan John was in Rome to represent Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople at the June 29 celebration of the feast of Sts Peter and Paul.
In a June 30 audience with Pope Benedict, Metropolitan John said the Ecumenical Patriarchate had asked the Orthodox Churches to appoint two delegates each to the mixed international Catholic-Orthodox commission that had been established in 1980.
Talks stalled, however, after a meeting in July 2000 when Catholic and Orthodox officials and theologians failed to reach agreement over questions about the place of the Eastern Catholic Churches, which the Orthodox refer to as the “uniates”.
In his address to the Orthodox delegation, Pope Benedict gave his full support for a resumption of talks and reaffirmed his “firm determination” to seek “full unity among all Christians”.
