“The meeting with the Holy Father confirms the mutual respect and desire of the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches in Europe to continue the work in unison to witness together to the Gospel of Christ and promote awareness of and respect for the values of which Christianity is the bearer in a Europe marked by secularisation and in search of its identity”. Cardinal Péter Erdö, archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and president of Ccee, comments on the meeting held in the Vatican today between Pope Benedict XVI and a joint delegation of Catholic bishops and Orthodox Metropolitans who had attended the second European Catholic-Orthodox Forum about “Church-State Relations” in Rhodes last October. The Pontiff was presented with a special edition of the Acta of the Rhodes meeting. Such Forum, the participants explained, does not intend to replace the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church which has been in place since 1980. “The aim of this opportunity for dialogue”, said Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima from the Ecumenical Patriarchate, “is not to discuss theological issues which are treated at other levels. Our task rather is to concentrate on anthropological issues of crucial importance for the present and future of humanity”.
The purpose of the European Catholic-Orthodox Forum, the Metropolitan Gennadios of Sassima explained, after the audience with the Pope, “is to help define common positions on social and moral questions. By engaging in this exchange, we help each other realise just how close our moral and social doctrines are. At the same time, we make the world aware of our concerns”. The Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk attended also the audience and brought to Pope Benedict XVI the greetings of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. A third Forum will take place in Lisbon from 5 to 8 June 2012.

© www.agensir.it - november 23th 2011