Father Lazarus Abboud
The Catholic Church has not forgotten the primacy of the Apostle Peter, and Pope Francis was able to bring Rome back to the forefront of the world, which looks to it as the speaker and the voice of the Christian world, especially with the existence of the idea of the Christian West and the Islamic East. The signing of the Document on Human Fraternity with the Sheikh of Al-Azhar and his call for a day of reflection and prayer for the sake of Lebanon — the first of these two steps on the level of the religious world, and the second on the level of the Christian world to resolve a political dilemma in Lebanon — highlighted the Pope as the one who leads the Christian world to conduct a dialogue with the other, on the level of the world. Thus Dr. Muhammad Al-Sammak (1) says: “The 2019 Document on Human Fraternity between Pope Francis and the Imam Sheikh Ahmad Al-Tayyib brings Islamic – Christian relations into a new phase of openness, trust, mutual respect, and common cooperation.
And Mr. Harith Al-Shihab (2) says: This visit brought together the two poles, the Christian and the Muslim, Pope Francis and the Sheikh of Al-Azhar Ahmad Al-Tayyib, in the meeting of “human fraternity,” and this is what confirms and consolidates the idea of East and West on the one hand, and on the other hand that the Pope is the sole Christian pole.
It is striking that the first meeting between Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmad Al-Tayyib, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, was in May 2016, just before the convening of the Great Orthodox Council in June 2016, around which the divisions appeared before it even began. This step comes in the midst of a clear, real division in the Orthodox world, for each apostolic see works in isolation from the other, and many churches have severed communion between one another, such as Russia and Constantinople, and Antioch and Jerusalem. This reality and this division, which affected the convening of the Great Council (whatever the justifications and their validity), which had been in preparation for a century, and whose two declared aims were: to manifest the Orthodox unity and to launch a comprehensive Orthodox witness to the contemporary world (3). The Orthodox themselves thus became incapable of conducting a dialogue with one another, and the non-Christian worlds became incapable of conducting a dialogue with the Orthodox — with whom, then, do we speak, and to whom do we talk? For a dialogue with the Greek Church is not bound to by the Russian Church, for example, while any agreement made with Rome means that you have made an agreement with every Catholic in the world, in any place.
The second step is the day of prayer and reflection that Pope Francis called for, for the sake of Lebanon. The head of the Catholic Center for Information Father Abdo Abu Kassem says: the first part of it is devoted to the meeting of His Holiness with the Christian spiritual leaders for reflection, contemplation, and discussion of the general situation in the country, and each of the patriarchs and heads of the Christian churches will carry in his hand a paper in which he presents the concerns and problems and his vision for solutions, and Pope Francis will have a closing word (4). This closing word will summarize the entire meeting and what the meeting with the spiritual leaders produced.
We are not in the course of examining the primacy of Rome and its persistent, diligent attempt to always be at the forefront of the Christian world, which it has succeeded in doing in steps too numerous to count. But has not the time come for the Orthodox worlds to return and think of their one voice, and to gather together as the apostles did with one soul? Rome was able to speak in the name of those who belong to it from different denominations (Latin, Syriac, Coptic…), each with its own heritage, thought, and theology differing from the others, and its own differing national affiliation, while we do not have most of those difficulties, for the Orthodox in the world are united by one theology, one heritage, and one tradition. And while there exist ecumenical conciliar canons that cannot be changed, such as the primacy according to the diptychs and the hierarchy of the apostolic sees — that is, in other words, the primacy of the See of Constantinople cannot change except by an ecumenical council, even if only ten Orthodox remained belonging to it — therefore a new primacy cannot be produced, but rather a new mechanism of work within the ancient ecumenical canons. And until that time (the convening of an ecumenical council), everyone must take a step back and devise a plan of action that makes their voice one and binding upon all, and strive not to walk the path of division and the severing of communion between one another, which leads to the severing of their relationship with the non-Christian world, which will prefer dialogue with Rome alone, making it revive the idea of the primacy of the Apostle Peter — but this time on the level of the world. The continued division of the Orthodox in this manner threatens the danger of their disappearance from the world stage and the local arenas after a time.
References
1. Symposium on the Document on Human Fraternity at the Catholic Center, http://nna-leb.gov.lb/ar/show-news/392293/nna-leb.gov.lb/ar
2. The previous reference.
3. Father Antoine Melki: The Great Orthodox Council, https://www.orthodoxlegacy.org/?p=2120
