The schism between what are now known as the Catholic and Orthodox churches is usually traced back to the mutual excommunications of Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople and Cardinal Humbert, the papal legate, in 1054. But in fact this was only a single high point in a long history of strained relations that reached its real culmination only with the Crusades and the sack of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204. Although many non-theological factors were at play in this gradual estrangement of Eastern and Western Christians, doctrinal issues were also involved. The most important of these concerned the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit (related to the addition of the filioque to the Nicene Creed by the Western church), and papal primacy.
Two major attempts at achieving reunion between the two churches took place at the second Council of Lyons in 1274 and the Council of Florence in 1438-39. But in both cases, although a formal union was promulgated, it was ultimately rejected by the general Orthodox population. Centuries of mutual isolation and hostility ensued, with each church de facto denying the ecclesial reality of the other.
The situation began to improve only in the 1960s, when important changes in attitude took place within both the Catholic and the Orthodox churches. From the Catholic perspective, the convocation of the Second Vatican Council, coupled with the presence of Orthodox observers at the Council, marked a greater openness to the Orthodox. A positive evaluation of the Eastern tradition is found in the Council documents (see Unitatis Redintegratio 14-18). From the Orthodox perspective, the third pan-Orthodox conference (Rhodes 1964) encouraged the local Orthodox churches to engage in studies preparing for an eventual dialogue with the Catholic Church.
Other events in the same decade exemplified a growing "dialogue of charity" between the two communions and increased the momentum towards a formal theological dialogue. In January 1964 Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople met for the first time, in Jerusalem. In a common declaration issued by them on 7 December 1965, the mutual excommunications of 1054 were "erased from the memory" of the church. In 1967 the Pope and the Patriarch exchanged visits in Rome and Istanbul.
This more positive atmosphere made possible the establishment of a joint commission in 1976 to prepare for an official dialogue. In 1978 it submitted a programmatic document to the authorities of both churches in which the goal of the dialogue was clearly defined as the re-establishment of full communion. It proposed a methodology according to which the dialogue would begin with the elements that unite Catholics and Orthodox and then move to the more divisive points. The commission recommended that the sacraments be considered first, especially as they relate to ecclesiology.
The official announcement of the beginning of the theological dialogue was made jointly by Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Dimitrios I in Istanbul on 30 November 1979. This new "Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church" was to include experts representing both churches in equal numbers, the Orthodox side including representatives of all 14 autocephalous and autonomous Orthodox churches. The fact that a large number of members were to be Catholic and Orthodox hierarchs revealed the importance both churches attributed to this dialogue.
The first plenary session took place on the Greek islands of Patmos and Rhodes, 29 May-4 June 1980. This was an organizational meeting that unanimously adopted the plan for dialogue set forth in the 1978 document and chose initial themes for examination. Cardinal Johannes Willebrands, president of the Vatican's Secretariat for Christian Unity, and Archbishop Stylianos of Australia (Patriarchate of Constantinople) were chosen as co-presidents. Three joint sub-commissions were established to produce studies which would then be synthesized into draft documents to be debated at plenary sessions held every two years.
The second plenary session took place in Munich, 30 June-6 July 1982. Here the first agreed text was finalized: "The Mystery of the Church and of the Eucharist in the Light of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity." It describes a common approach to the relation between the eucharist and the Trinity, the church and the eucharist, and the local church to the universal Church.
The Greek island of Crete was the site of the third plenary session, 30 May-8 June 1984. A draft document entitled "Faith, Sacraments, and the Unity of the Church" was discussed. It treated the relationship between the profession of the same faith and sacramental communion, giving particular attention to the sacraments of initiation. Because of some Orthodox reservations about Catholic practices in this matter, and some technical difficulties, it was not possible to adopt the document at that time.
The fourth plenary took place near Bari, Italy, in two separate sessions one year apart. The first session, 29 May-7 June 1986, was boycotted by several Orthodox churches because of what they understood as both Catholic support for the schismatic Macedonian Orthodox Church and continued Catholic proselytism among Orthodox Christians. Once these issues were resolved, the plenary met in a second session at Bari, 9-16 June 1987. Here the document that had been discussed at Crete was revised and approved.
The Orthodox monastery at Valamo, Finland, hosted the fifth plenary session, 19-27 June 1988. A third common document was adopted, entitled "The Sacrament of Order in the Sacramental Structure of the Church, with Particular Reference to the Importance of the Apostolic Succession for the Sanctification and Unity of the People of God". It was also decided at this session to establish a sub-commission to study the vexed questions of uniatism and the status of the Eastern Catholic churches. Moreover, the topic of the next document, to be discussed at the 1990 sixth plenary session in Freising, Germany, was decided upon: "Ecclesiological and Canonical Consequences of the Sacramental Structure of the Church: Conciliarity and Authority in the Church".
But between the meetings in Valamo and Freising, the cataclysmic political changes in Eastern and Central Europe added a new factor to Orthodox-Catholic relations that had a direct impact on the progress of the dialogue. The collapse of the communist regimes allowed for the reemergence of Eastern Catholic Churches in the region that had been officially liquidated by the communists and forced to merge with the local Orthodox Churches. This set the stage for confrontation as the Eastern Catholics demanded the return of churches that had been in Orthodox hands for decades, and as the Orthodox feared a resurgence of the old Catholic policy of uniatism through which Orthodox faithful had been drawn into the Catholic church, often through missionary activity, while being allowed to retain their Orthodox rituals and other practices. The situation was worsened by the fact that contemporary improvements in Catholic-Orthodox relations were virtually unknown in the region. Very disedifying conflicts between Eastern Catholics and Orthodox were taking place in western Ukraine and Romania.
When the international commission gathered in Freising in June 1990, at the request of the Orthodox side, the document prepared for discussion was set aside and the question of the origins of uniatism and the present status of the Eastern Catholic Churches was taken up instead. A brief statement was issued, and a process was set in motion for a fuller treatment of the topic at the seventh plenary session. This took place at Balamand, Lebanon, in June 1993. Here a document was issued, entitled "Uniatism, Method of Union of the Past, and the Present Search for Full Communion." The document hinges on two central points: it rejects uniatism as a method of achieving unity between Orthodox and Catholics, and affirms the right of the Eastern Catholic Churches to exist and respond to the pastoral needs of their faithful.
The document has been criticized in some Catholic and Orthodox circles, however, and has been rejected formally by the Orthodox Church of Greece and the Greek Catholic Church of Romania. Given the lack of a consensus, the Orthodox side requested that the same topic be taken up again at the eighth plenary session, which was originally scheduled to take place in 1996 in Emmitsburg, Maryland, under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. After a series of postponements, it was rescheduled for June 1999. But the NATO bombardment of Serbia earlier that year made it impossible for some of the Orthodox to travel to a NATO country, and the session was again postponed until July 9 to 19, 2000.
Thus in the 1990s the dialogue has been going through a difficult phase as the two sides struggled with an emotionally charged issue brought to the fore by unforeseen political developments. Nevertheless, as was envisaged in the 1978 document that set the course of this dialogue, progress has been made in the effort to establish a common foundation, on the basis of which the more difficult theological questions, especially the role of the church of Rome and its bishop among the local churches, can be most fruitfully discussed.
It should also be noted that the Russian Orthodox Church, while fully participating in the international Orthodox-Catholic dialogue, was engaged in separate theological conversations with the Catholic Church between 1967 and 1987. These conversations were held at irregular intervals and were largely restricted to the social teaching of the two churches. Six meetings took place, dealing with the following topics: "The Social Thought of the Roman Catholic Church" (Leningrad 1967), "The Role of the Christian in the Developing Society" (Bari 1970), "The Church in a World in Transformation" (Zagorsk 1973), "The Christian Proclamation of Salvation in a Changing World" (Trent 1975), "The Local Church and the Universal Church" (Odessa 1980), and "The Diaconal Function of the Church, Especially in the Service of Peace" (Venice 1987). Press communiqués, at times substantial, were released at the end of each session. Since 1987 official discussions on concrete issues have taken place between representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Holy See on a regular basis.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. Kilmartin, Towards Reunion: The Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, New York, Paulist, 1979 o E.J. Storman ed., Towards the Healing of Schism: The Sees of Rome and Constantinople: Public Statements and Correspondence between the Holy See and the Ecumenical Patriarchate, 1958-1984, New York, Paulist, 1987 o The texts of all the agreed statements of the international dialogue as well as the national dialogue in the United States are found in J. Borelli and J. Erickson, eds., The Quest for Unity: Orthodox and Catholics in Dialogue, Crestwood and Washington, St. Vladimir's Seminary Press and the United States Catholic Conference, 1996.
