Tradition vs. Liberal -- Aliance between Catholic and Orthodox Church, In Order to Give Europe Back Its Soul

[London/Rome] A few days from the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in Scotland and England, the "Number two" in the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Direcoter of the "Foreign Office" of the Moscow Patriarchate, will make his visit to Great Britain.

On the 9th of September he will meet [has already met] in Lambeth Palace with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the Primate of the Anglican Communion. In a certain way "he makes straight the way of the Pope", as the Pope's meeting on the 17th of September is described by Vaticanist Sandro Magister in the Weekly L'Espresso.

Full text of the address, here.

The Vatican itself boasts prelates who raise their noses, when they are confronted with terms like "conservative" and "progressive". Not seldom one hears from them that such pigeonholes are "an old thing", which are "outdated". "I think contrarily, that the destinction is legitimate and before and now useful for both Churches to compare their main directions," writes Paolo Rodari, the Vaticanist of the daily Il Foglio and author of the recently released book "Attack Against Ratzinger, Recriminations and Scandals, Prophesies and Conspiracies Against Benedict XVI."

Metropolitan Hilarion correspondingly, gave a speech with the Anglican Primate at the concluding meeting of the Nicea Club in London, where he made an actual appraisal of Christndom in outspoken Ratzingerian mannerisms.

"All of the present forms of Christendom could be put roughly under two principle groups: in Traditional and Liberal. The difference today lies not so much between Orthodox and Catholic or between Catholics and Protestants, rather between Traditionalists and Liberals.

"Some Christian leaders, for example, say to us that the marriage between a man and a woman is no longer the only possibility when it comes to forming a family: there are other models and the Church must become "inclusive" in so far as the standards of alternative forms of relationship are recognized and how these are officially blessed.

Some attempt to overrule that human life is no longer an absolute value and that it may be ended at will in the mother's womb. From the traditional Christians, then, the progressive expects, therefore, beneath such expectations of modernity, that he reassess his own standpoint."

The Metropolitan recalled then, that it is a principle priority for the Russian Orthodox Church, a commitment to order the eternal validity of the spiritual and moral values of Christendom. It is always, says Metropolitan Hilarion, the common will of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Catholic Church, "to form an alliance in Europe, to defend the traditional values of Christendom and give Europe back its soul", against relativism and against secularism.


Article translated from katholisches.net...

Also an account of the Nicea Discussion at Virtue Online...