Still Deaf to Rome

Pope Paul VI seems just as eager as John XXIII to establish good relations between Roman Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity. In July he sent personal representatives to the Golden Jubilee of Moscow's Patriarch Alexei. Last month he proposed that Orthodoxy join with Rome in amicably settling their doctrinal differences, the most notable of which is Orthodoxy's rejection of papal infallibility. But so far, the Pope has failed to convince the East.

Admitting that "we are all a little deaf and dumb," Paul said: "Let us ex plain the points of doctrine that are still the object of controversy. We do not wish either to absorb or to humiliate all this great flowering of the Oriental churches, but yes, we do desire that this flowering be regrafted onto the one tree of the one church of Christ."

The Pope's speech clearly invited the Orthodox prelates to send observers to the second session of the Vatican Council, which begins Sept. 29. But Orthodoxy remains a little deaf, even though one of the observers from the World Council of Churches is Greek Orthodox, and the Patriarchate of Moscow will probably send two delegates to the second session, as it did to the first. Three weeks ago, Athenagoras I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and first among equals of the Orthodox prelates, invited the other Eastern churches to meet at Rhodes on Sept. 19 to reconsider the question of Vatican observers. But last week Archbishop Chrysostomos of Greece flatly rejected Paul's appeal, calling the Roman church "centralist and absolutist." Were the decision left up to him alone, Athenagoras might be quite willing to send a delegate. Yet for the sake of Orthodox unity, he will not send an observer unless all other Eastern churches do so.

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