The Chieti Agreement Encourages Catholic-Orthodox Unity

First appeared in Crisis Magazine on October 25, 2016

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The 2016 Chieti agreement determines two important points of convergence between the Catholics and Orthodox. The foundation of synodality or conciliarity in the Church, which is understood as the gathering of bishops under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, reflects on the Trinitarian mystery and that the Holy Trinity is at its foundation. This means that the three persons of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, are at one and the same level of importance. Another fundamental agreement according to the Chieti document is how synodality and primacy are interconnected and interdependent. Primacy according to the document refers to first, protos or primus of the oikoumene—the whole inhabited earth—which embraces all local Churches. Most importantly, according to the agreement Rome is acknowledged as having universal primacy, but understood in the context of synodality as it was applied in the first Christian millennium, when Catholics and Orthodox were united.

What does the Chieti agreement say about the role of the bishop of Rome, his specific function as the bishop of the “first see,” and how this role was lived in the first millennium?

...continue reading in Crisis Magazine 

A Cardinal from the Albanian Communist Persecution

First appeared in The Catholic Thing on October 15, 2016

At the end of the Angelus and Mass for the Marian Jubilee, Pope Francis made a surprise announcement: a new consistory on November 19, the eve of the Solemnity of Christ the King and the closing of the Jubilee of Mercy. He simultaneously named seventeen new cardinals. The focus on mercy and “periphery” is evident in those choices.

...continue reading in The Catholic Thing

...or read it in Slovakian at Konzervatívny denník Postoj

The Pope in the Middle: What Benedict Thinks About John Paul II and Francis

First appeared in The Stream on October 11, 2016

In his new book The Last Testament, we see Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI as a deeply humble, reserved, contemplative and theologically brilliant man, small and fragile in stature compared to both his dynamic and brilliantly energetic predecessor and successor. What does he think about the two, St. John Paul II and Pope Francis?

...continue reading in The Stream