Current Status of The Plan
So far, neither the Catholic Church nor the Orthodox East has accepted the Zoghby initiative. Speaking for the Catholic Church, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) commented that "premature, unilateral initiatives are to be avoided, where the eventual results may not have been sufficiently considered." The Antiochian Orthodox Church was circumspect toward his initiative, declaring in October 1996 that "our Synod believes that inter-communion cannot be separated from the unity of faith. Moreover, inter-communion is the last step in the quest for unity and not the first."
However, certain Orthodox leaders praised Zoghby's candor and goals; Bishop Vsevolod Maidansky of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, for example, wrote that Zoghby "invites us all to an ecumenical metanoia, a change in our hearts from the habit of seeking even more excuses to refrain from Eucharistic Communion." Although Zoghby's proposal of double communion has not been accepted by Rome or the Orthodox Church, the initiative focused greater attention on ecumenical discussions and renewed efforts for East–West unity.
Read more about this topic: Zoghby Initiative
Famous quotes containing the words current, status and/or plan:
“For me, Romanticism is the most recent and the most current expression of beauty.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)
“Knowing how beleaguered working mothers truly are—knowing because I am one of them—I am still amazed at how one need only say “I work” to be forgiven all expectation, to be assigned almost a handicapped status that no decent human being would burden further with demands. “I work” has become the universally accepted excuse, invoked as an all-purpose explanation for bowing out, not participating, letting others down, or otherwise behaving inexcusably.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“I deplore my shortcomings, but plan to keep them.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)