It would appear, from this report in the National Catholic Register, that the Russian Orthodox Church may be very close to full reunification with Rome. This strikes me as surprising. I was under the impression that attitudes across the iron curtain were not so rosy toward His Holiness, in particular. It does appear that there are still a few issues along those lines:
“There remains the question of papal primacy,” Archbishop Pezzi [Metropolitan Archbishop of the Mother of God Archdiocese in Moscow] acknowledged, “and this will be a concern at the next meeting of the Catholic-Orthodox Commission. But to me, it doesn’t seem impossible to reach an agreement.”
Interesting. It makes me wonder how serious he is, and whether or not this is just political rhetoric. A re-unification with the Church of Russia would be a mighty victory for the Roman Catholic church. There are murmurings of a mass movement of Bishops and lay-folk from the Church of England back to Rome, also. Combine this with the massive return of Protestants in the US to the Mother Church (myself included in that number), and it would appear that perhaps the mighty Reformation has outlived itself. I believe it will only be a matter of time until Mother Church is once again reunited with all of her lost children. Perhaps we’re now seeing the beginnings of that.
