Is the End of the Orthodox Schism finally in sight after 1000 years?

Hallelujah! Will our Generation live to see the End of the Catholic-Orthodox Schism and the much hoped-for millenial old re-union/Holy Unia between East and West? Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew are on good terms and the cause of full re-union is making great progress. Below, the Churches seem to be close to an agreement on a Common Date of Pascha or Easter, the Feast of the Lord's Resurrection. Thoughts?

https://zenit.org/2022/11/16/patria...7kswLIq5dpXKllz3_8AMoq-WgzesmiNb_9P_I0kB7-Ayw

Patriarch of Constantinople: Conversations Are Underway for Catholics and Orthodox to Celebrate Easter on the Same Date

An agreement on the celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection would be one of the most important moments of the 2025 Jubilee.

NOVEMBER 16, 2022 15:46

(ZENIT News / Constantinople (Istanbul), 15.11.2022).- In an interview with a Turkish media , the Patriarch of Constantinople stated that conversations are underway between representatives of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches to come to an agreement on the common celebration of the most important date for Christians, namely, Easter.

The conversations are being held in the framework of the coming celebration of the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, which took place in 325 AD, whose dispositions continue to be binding for both Christians denominations. Patriarch Bartholomew disclosed that specialists in the scientific realm will be consulted to identify the most accurate date for the Easter celebration, given that it’s not about religious considerations but about something that has to do with astronomy, a scientific area of human knowledge. “Our objective is that in this context of the anniversary, we can find a solution in regard to Easter. The Pope has the best intentions and I think the moment has arrived, both for the Orthodox Church as well as the Catholic, to fix a common date to celebrate Christ’s Resurrection . I hope that on this occasion we will be able to come to an agreement,” said the Patriarch of Constantinople.

The 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea will also coincide with the 2025 Ordinary Jubilee of the Catholic Church, an ecclesial event of global reach, which is usually celebrated every 25 years. In this framework, an agreement on the celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection would be one of the most important moments of that Jubilee.

 

See Also:

From Aleteia:

Pope on shared Easter date with Orthodox: Pick a date and we’ll accept


AP/EAST NEWS

Kathleen N. Hattrup - published on 11/19/22

"On this point, I want to say – indeed, to repeat – what Saint Paul VI said in his day: We are ready to accept any proposal that is made together."

Both the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches have spoken about resolve to find a shared date for Easter, and it seems that this goal might be closer than ever.

This November 19, Pope Francis received in audience His Holiness Mar Awa III, Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, which has its See in Iraq.

The Pope thanked the Catholicos-Patriarch for assuring his desire to find a common date for Easter.

For Catholics, Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox.

Learn about the divergent dates here.

The Pope is among a host of religious leaders working to get this issue solved, along with Patriarch Bartholomew of the Greek Orthodox Church and Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

“On this point, I want to say – indeed, to repeat – what Saint Paul VI said in his day: We are ready to accept any proposal that is made together.”

The Holy Father added that “2025 is an important year: We will celebrate the anniversary of the first Ecumenical Council (of Nicea), yet it is also important because we will celebrate Easter on the same date.”

For Catholics, it will also be an ordinary jubilee year. Easter that year is April 20, the third Sunday of April.

With such a convergence, the Pope proposed:

So let us have the courage to put an end to this division that at times makes us laugh: “When does your Christ rise again?” The sign we should give is: One Christ for all of us. Let us be courageous and search together: I’m willing, yet not me, the Catholic Church is willing to follow what Saint Paul VI said. Agree and we will go where you say. I dare even to express a dream: That the separation with the beloved Assyrian Church of the East, the longest in the history of the Church, can also be, please God, the first to be resolved.

 

Wonderful news.

I wonder, I wonder - the agreement to unify Easter will pour forth blessings and graces -

Conchita said that the Miracle of Garbandal will coincide with, but not be connected to, a rare event in the Church. Conchita has said that this event has never before happened in her lifetime.

 

For perhaps the first time in a long time Pope Francis has done something right.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

But I am thankful for small mercies.

Praise God.

 

He also brought us the year of St Joseph 2021 which was powerful.

 

Easter April 20, 2025 will be the 50th anniversary of my baptism.

 

And the Consecration of Russia by name to the Immaculate Heart, which even Pope St. John Paul II left undone, after Ukraine's Eastern Catholic Bishops explicitly requested it: "On March 25, 2022, Pope Francis consecrated Russia to the Immaculate Heart, alongside Ukraine, with both countries mentioned for the first time, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conse...e_Immaculate_Heart_of_the_Blessed_Virgin_Mary

 

The Roman Catholic Church has wanted, prayed for, worked for etc the return of the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches for nearly a millenium.

"12. Let, therefore, the separated children draw nigh to the Apostolic See, set up in the City which Peter and Paul, the Princes of the Apostles, consecrated by their blood; to that See, We repeat, which is “the root and womb whence the Church of God springs,”[27] not with the intention and the hope that “the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth”[28] will cast aside the integrity of the faith and tolerate their errors, but, on the contrary, that they themselves submit to its teaching and government. Would that it were Our happy lot to do that which so many of Our predecessors could not, to embrace with fatherly affection those children, whose unhappy separation from Us We now bewail. Would that God our Savior, “Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,”[29] would hear us when We humbly beg that He would deign to recall all who stray to the unity of the Church! In this most important undertaking We ask and wish that others should ask the prayers of Blessed Mary the Virgin, Mother of divine grace, victorious over all heresies and Help of Christians, that She may implore for Us the speedy coming of the much hoped-for day, when all men shall hear the voice of Her divine Son, and shall be “careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”[30]

13. You, Venerable Brethren, understand how much this question is in Our mind, and We desire that Our children should also know, not only those who belong to the Catholic community, but also those who are separated from Us: if these latter humbly beg light from heaven, there is no doubt but that they will recognize the one true Church of Jesus Christ and will, at last, enter it, being united with us in perfect charity. While awaiting this event, and as a pledge of Our paternal good will, We impart most lovingly to you, Venerable Brethren, and to your clergy and people, the apostolic benediction.

Given at Rome, at Saint Peter’s, on the 6th day of January, on the Feast of the Epiphany of Jesus Christ, our Lord, in the year 1928, and the sixth year of Our Pontificate."

Pope Pius XI. From: https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius11/p11morta.htm

 

Although I don't think I would get too carried away by it all. There is a very great deal of fear, prejudice , bigotry and hatred for Catholicism and the West in Orthodox circles that would be very hard to overcome. Witness the current proxy War against Russia. The movement of the Easter Date by Catholics will be taken by many as a sign that Catholics are admitting that, 'They were wrong and we are right. ' The fear and suspicion goes well beyond religious matters. It is simply that they see the West as Imperialistic, especially in Russia.

But at least it removes an obstacle. That has to be good.

 

There is also the flip side of this action, namely that it might mean that the one world church is being established. I really don't know. It bears watching, and it bears prayers, as usual. God is still on the Throne, regardless.

 

I can envision a big resistance to moving Easter in the states especially from the Democratic ones. Our school boards like to plan that week break from Passover through Easter but with that said this is something that could happen after the Warning and the Miracle ( and possibly the Chastisement) because hopefully priorities will have changed a great deal.+

 

I was listening to a young Jesuit priest this morning who quoted St Ignatious who put forward as a first rule of Discernment that we should always think the best about someone who says something. Always to think they act or say something from the best motives. Always to think the best of the person.

That is such a kind saintly and true and very charitable way of looking at things.

But thinking about this on the other hand we have the words of Jesus that:

Matthew 7:18

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

I take it that it Jesus meant that we must place what anyone says or does in the wider context of what a person says or does and not just one individual action or comment. With this in mind I cannot say that anything Pope Francis says or does would fill me with any kind of confidence at all. Quite the contrary. Nor do I think I am being uncharitable about this.

Years and years ago there was a very,very famous Catholic Monk who wrote countless books on the spiritual life which I read and loved. However he began to study Buddhism, especially Zen Buddhism from Japan and eventually suggested that Buddhist, 'Enlightment' was equivalent of the Highest Stages of Catholic Mystical Prayer. This is basically the error we call, 'Indifferentism'. the idea that all religions are basically the same as each other.

Eventually I discovered through the grapevine that this particular monk was having an affair with a local woman in his Hermitage.

I had a discussion with my Spiritual Director about all this by chance and told him I no longer read this Monks books or paid any attention at all to his spiritual teachings.

My Spiritual Director asked me if I was not being too hard on the monk? I replied that I regarded St Teresa of Avila as my biggest and best Spiritual Teacher but that if I discovered she was having an affiar with a man in her convent whilst writing I would drop her like a hot potato. The Father laughed and said he saw my point.

What I am trying to indicate is if you loose confidence in something or someone it is very difficult, indeed impossible to regain it...and that is maybe no bad thing really.

It is a long, long, long time since I have had confidence or trust in Pope Francis or any of his goings on.

 

I think you know when a door swings closed on something or someone it is may better just to let it stay closed. Stay closed and to move on.

Jesus spoke about this too:

Matthew 10:14

If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.

 

Ditto.

 

Its so sad, but when you loose spiritual confidence in a Spiritual Teacher it is gone sailing away to who knows where, never to return.

 

Forget all that. Just think of what will be involved getting the LUTHERANS to agree to a change that happens to have papal approval! Not to mention all of the Evangelical denominations, etc. Don't expect the Russians to sign on. Long story short, the Russian Orthodox Church believes THEY are the true bearers of Christian Orthodoxy in the world, not the Greek Orthodox and certainly not the heterodox faith of Rome. Getting these two churches to agree to a change is a sure sign that the ROC should stay as far away from this.

 

A good thing is that Catholic Prophecy indicates that Orthodoxy will return from Schism and that the Jews..as foretold by Scripture will also return.

Also that three great Nations , Russia, China and England will also return.

Hopefully we will all be alive to see it.

 

Agree

 

It's like losing your faith in the Captain of the ship who is leading us in the wrong direction. Mutiny is what happens then. Or is the Captain a traitor, working for the enemy. Yes I feel he is.