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The joint document called “Sinodality and primacy in the first
millennium: towards a common understanding in serving the unity of the
Church” has been approved by the 14th plenary meeting of the Joint
Committee for Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the
Catholic Church. It was announced by the website of the Patriarchate of
Moscow, a few hours before the end of today’s meeting in Chieti and the
publication of the final joint release. “Amendments and additions” had
to be made, the notice from Moscow says, and a “statement” of the
delegation of the Georgian Church had to be added; such statement is “in
disagreement with some sections of the document” and will be added to
the notes of the document as part of the final release adopted by the
Plenary meeting. In addition, the notice from Moscow says that the
leader of the Moscow delegation, metropolitan Hilarion, president of the
Department for External Relations, “proposed that the next stage of the
dialogue be focussed on sinodality and primacy in Eastern and Western
Churches in the second millennium”, so that “the discussion on
Uniatism”, a phenomenon that is still “a hindrance in Orthodox-Catholic
relationships”, as the metropolitan said, “an extremely hot issue”, may
be completed in this context. The Liaising Committee of the Commission
will address such choice in its 2017 meeting.
