Metropolitan Hilarion: There is no talk of uniting Orthodox and Catholics

In early December, Pope Francis, at a meeting with the Archbishop of Athens and All Hellas, Jerome II, uttered words that were perceived by many as an apology to the Orthodox for the mistakes of Catholics committed in history. Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, commented on the situation, writes the website of the DECR ROC.

“No one is speaking about the unification of the two Churches, because the divisions have existed for a very long time, many contradictions have accumulated — in fact, the two Churches have been living independent lives for almost ten centuries,” said Metropolitan Hilarion. — There are differences in the understanding of the fundamental Christian dogmas, in the veneration of saints. For example, there are those persons who are revered as saints in the Orthodox Church, but are not recognized as such in the Catholic Church, but there are many Catholic saints who are not recognized by the Orthodox Church. Therefore, there is no talk of unification, but we can talk about finally ending the situation of rivalry, competition, enmity that has existed for many centuries. »

The DECR chairman recalled that the words of Pope Francis being discussed now are far from the first apology to the Orthodox by the Roman pontiffs. Such words were pronounced by his predecessors, they directly spoke of the numerous mistakes made by Catholics in relation to the Orthodox.

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