VATICAN CITY, JAN 26, 2006 (VIS) - The third meeting of the joint international commission for theological dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches is due to be held at the Catholicosate of Etchmiadzin, Armenia, from January 26 to 30. Created in 2003, the commission has thus far celebrated two meetings, the first in Cairo, Egypt in 2004, and the second in Rome last year.
At the invitation of the Catholicos of all Armenia, Karekin II, the meeting will be attended by two delegations, one Catholic and one Orthodox, headed respectively by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and Metropolitan Amba Bishoy of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
According to a communique made public today, the program includes "three themes for study and dialogue, all related to the central theme of the Church as communion: bishops in the apostolic succession; the relationship between primacy and collegiality; and the working and ecclesiological importance of synods at the local and ecumenical level."
The communique also reveals that, from January 31 to February 4, Cardinal Kasper, accompanied by Fr. Jozef M. Maj S.J., an official at the oriental section of the same pontifical council, will visit Georgia.
The visit to Georgia, the first by a president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in 15 years, comes in response to an invitation to visit the local Catholic community issued by Bishop Giuseppe Pasotto, apostolic administrator of Caucasus of the Latins. The cardinal will also hold an official meeting with His Holiness Ilia II, Catholicos Patriarch of all Georgia, primate of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
In addition to delivering a talk on the subject of relations between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, on February 2, Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Cardinal Kasper will preside at a Eucharistic celebration in the presence of local faithful, later participating in an ecumenical prayer at the cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Tbilisi, Georgia. The president of the pontifical council is also due to visit an ecclesiastical academy, as well as the most important shrines and centers of monastic life of the Orthodox Church.
CON-UC/VISIT ARMENIA:GEORGIA/KASPER VIS 20060126 (370)
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