An unworthy Deacon, named for the brother of God: James, striving to "work out his salvation with fear and trembling" within the Tradition (paradosis) of the Eastern Orthodox Faith. It is a strange and marvelous journey, and I am accompanied by the fourfold fruit of my fecundity. My wife, the Matushka or Diaconissa Sophia, is my beloved partner in the pursuit of Theosis, and she ranks me in every way.
"We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires," said Ratzinger, 78, who has been the Vatican's chief overseer of doctrine since 1981.
"Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism," he said, making clear that he disagrees with that view.
Me too.
Many Years to the new Pope of Rome.
...offered by Dn. James Ferrenberg, a sinner at 9:54 AM [+] +++
5 comments
"Reunion could take place in this context if...the East would cease to oppose as heretical the developments that took place in the West in the second millennium..."
So, stop calling the heresy which split us in the first place a heresy and we'll be OK? Hmm...
As Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he's also had clear things to say about the papacy and how it's not going anywhere (see here for the document and read #8, "The characteristics of exercising the primacy etc...").
Somehow I doubt that his words, though well-meaning, are feasible.
I think he was specifically talking about newer dogmas such as papal infallibility and the immaculate conception...but regardless I think you are right.
None-the-less, since the media is already busily referring to him (often in virtually the same sentence) as a divisive, controversial, "o"rthodox, conservative, hard-liner...well you just gotta like a guy the media hates.
If they knew our hierarchs, they likely hate them even more.
I read it as "pretend that God CAN change his mind, does, and makes it applicable to some subset of the whole" Clearly, we cannot remain Orthodox and accept the innovations of the wester theologians.