Very interesting Papal observations from Rocco Palmo,Whispers in the Loggia, Holy Land, Home Stretch -- it wouldnt be a stretch to call yesterday the most daring and ambitious moment of Francis 14-month pontificate. While the stunning peace initiative was the example thats topping global headlines, the other came in the Popes speech alongside Patriarch Bartholomew in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, when the 265th Successor of Peter sought to reiterate my hope... for a continued dialogue with all our brothers and sisters in Christ, aimed at finding a means of exercising the specific ministry of the Bishop of Rome which, in fidelity to his mission, can be open to a new situation and can be, in the present context, a service of love and of communion acknowledged by all. Put bluntly, that means a reform of the papacy – a goal toward which Papa Bergoglio has already garnered very positive attention in the Eastern churches, above all through his wish to realize a Synodal form of governance. On another key front, the Orthodox sensed something big was afoot when, from the moment of his election, Francis depicted his mandate in the terms of the early Eastern doctor St Ignatius of Antioch, who wrote of the Roman See as presiding in charity among the churches, as opposed to the modern entity whose occupant holds what canon law terms full, immediate, universal and ordinary jurisdiction over the Catholic world. While Benedict XVI sought to make inroads with the Orthodox by dropping the title Patriarch of the West and keeping close ties among the Easts various branches as his top ecumenical priority, a rethinking of papal governance wasnt in the cards... at least, until his resignation recast the sense of the office. Of course, whether Francis can succeed where his predecessor didnt would still require something close to the miraculous – after all, the millennium of the Great Schism is but 30 years away. That said, if the Pope keeps prodding Catholicism toward a devolved Petrine ministry in the service of Christian unity, Francis might just find an internal ally as formidable as itd be astonishing: his critics among church conservatives, whove suddenly soured on a maximal definition of papal power after championing it for nearly four decades.“
Posted on: Mon, 26 May 2014 20:46:13 +0000