Another remark regarding the readiness of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to unite with the Catholic Church and recognize the primacy of the Pope.
Surprisingly, even among the believers of the ROC and the UOC there are those who still do not believe that Patriarch Bartholomew is going to do this.
Therefore, we consider it necessary to recall some facts.
Back in November 2007, Patriarch Bartholomew announced his readiness “to accept the primacy of Rome in the form in which it was interpreted and applied… in the first millennium”:
“If we, with the help of God, come to an agreement with the Catholic Church as to the meaning of the term “primacy” as it was in the first millennium, then the Ecumenical Patriarch will not have difficulty recognizing the primacy of the Roman Throne and taking the second place – what he borrowed before the split.”
At the same time, his reservations that the primacy of Rome was “honorable”, etc., should not be misleading, since the statement was made in the context of the adoption of the so-called. “Ravenna Document” (in October of the same year), in which the primacy of the Roman pontiff in the first millennium was presented not just “honorary”, but with specific privileges and powers. It’s just that Patriarch Bartholomew understands the meaning of the “primacy of honor” in a completely different way than, for example, the Russian Orthodox Church, the UOC or a number of other Local Churches.
In addition, Patriarch Bartholomew said that after the split in 1054, the Constantinople Thone was given the first place. And given how he interprets this primacy, it becomes impossible to deny that he speaks specifically about the “primacy of power” or “primacy without equals,” as Archbishop Elpidophoros put it.
Following the logic of Bartholomew, if the primacy is returned to the Roman Church, it will be the same primacy that the Phanar claims now within the Orthodox world, referring to the 28th rule of the Chalcedonian Ecumenical Council. Perhaps, in comparison with the classical version of Roman papacy, this will be its light version, but the fact remains: the Phanar is trying to subordinate the Orthodox world to the Pope in one format or another. And this, by definition, can be called a union or its initial stage.
After all, Catholics, apparently, are not going to abandon their doctrine of the papacy and are unlikely to sign any documents of this kind. In this context, the so-called “unification” will be absolutely one-sided. Catholics lose absolutely nothing and do not concede, while acquiring certain powers and recognition from the Phanar and its satellites. Obviously counting on the further assimilation of at least a part of the Local Orthodox Churches in order to finally impose their power and eliminate the principle of conciliarity in their relation.
