Blessed Father and Archbishop,
You are well known at a pan-Orthodox level for Your
deep-rooted adherence to the lofty and Apostle-delivered
institution of synodicity in the administration of our
Most Holy, Undivided Orthodox Catholic Church - an
institution that You have defended courageously and with
utmost awareness during Your voluminous Pontifical
ministry.
In view of
both the upcoming regular meeting of the Sacred Corps of
the Venerable Hierarchy of our Most Holy Church at the
commencement of the month October, as well as the
convening in Cyprus of the joint international Committee
on the theological dialogue between the Orthodox and the
Roman Catholics on the subject of
«the
role of the bishop of Rome in the communion of the
Churches during the first millennium»,
it is my humble belief that the matter must be discussed
theologically by the Venerable Hierarchy of our Most
Holy Church and that the Sacred Corps place itself and
express itself clearly on it, so that our Reverend
Representative the Metropolitan of Messinia fr.
Chrysostomos - who stands out for his theological
adequacy, broad knowledge and upright judgment - be
appropriately fortified in the final form of the common
text of the said International Convention.
It is an indisputable historical truth, that the Church
during the first millennium had never recognized any
primacy of authority and power in the Bishop of Rome, at
a universal level. Supreme authority in the
worldwide Church was exercised always and only by the
Ecumenical Synods.
Accordingly, our Most Holy Church does not accept the
papal primacy the way it was perceived by the Vatican I
Synod, which had proclaimed the Bishop of Rome as
supposedly being the 'infallible expresser' of the
conscience of the Church, with the ability to oppose
even the rulings of an Ecumenical Synod, thus also
usurping with his dogmatically secured "infallibility"
through the Vatican II Synod the coveted primacy of
authority - over the entire Church, arbitrarily,
anti-Scripturally and anti-canonically - even the
position of the Life-giving and All-Holy Spirit of Truth
in the body of the Church and thus abrogating 'urbi et
orbi' the Apostle-delivered polity of the Church, as
well as the very presence and opus of the Holy Spirit
within Her.
The most
venerable Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople-New
Rome, His Beatitude Bartholomew, had on the 1st of
October 1997 said respectively from the official rostrum
of the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki - when
speaking of the heresy of the 'filioque' in regard to
the topic under examination by the joint international
committee - the following:
«...Two single words
[OODE note:
he means the "Filioque":
"and Son"] can overturn the
entire structure of the world and justify the
infallibility and the authority of one
individual on earth. The sense of freedom that Christ
freed us with, does not allow the Eastern Orthodox
Church to accept Her absolute submission to the will of
one individual, and for that reason refuses to
acknowledge the uprightness of those two words, upon
which that one individual strives to support his power.»
(Tome «HE
HATH VISITED US», Patriarchal
Visits to the Co-regnant city, 1997-1999-2000,
published by the Sacred Metropolis of
Thessaloniki 2000, page
275).
During the convening
of the joint international committee it is of course
imperative to point out the pathogenic stances of Roman
Catholicism and especially that nonexistent "office of
Peter" for the Bishop of Rome; the counterfeit and
illegitimate 'proofs' thereof ( Pseudo-Constantinian
donation, Pseudo-Isidorian rulings, Psuedo-Clementines
etc..); the supposed testimonies about the bishops of
the Church appealing to the Roman See, and the supposed
testimonies regarding roman authority on matters of the
faith and the interpretation of the Scriptures.
Bearing in mind that, in the
memorandum dated 13/1/2005 signed by Your Predecessor,
the reposed Archbishop of Athens and All Greece
Christodoulos and the co-chairman from the Orthodox of
the joint Committee for the dialogue, the Rev.
Metropolitan of Pergamon fr. John, our Most Holy Church
had clearly proclaimed through a Decision of Her
Perpetual Holy Synod dated the 12th January 2005 that:
« 1. ...
Unia
comprises an Ecclesiastic, Dogmatic and Canonical
deviation and violent extraction and excision of
faithful from the Mother Orthodox Church, and as such,
must necessarily be condemned and abolished.
2. As regards the subject range of
the Dialogue, the Church of Greece believes that the
discussion must definitely be continued on the matter of
Unia, which has in no way been exhausted, given that it
continues to exist and to operate to the detriment of
Orthodoxy....»
this
discussion can, for the sake of facilitating the course
of the Dialogue, be
conducted within the framework of ecclesiology through
the prism of the primacy; it is necessary that this
matter be discussed, also on the occasion of the
election, ordination and installation in Athens of the
new Uniate Bishop of Carcabia, Mr.Demetrios Salachas.
In closing my request to You, I remain most
obediently
the undersigned
+
SERAPHIM of Piraeus