ASIA/LEBANON - An international theological colloquium to revive the ecumenical vocation of the Melkite Church

Beirut (Fides Agency ) - As the Melkite Greek Catholic Church celebrates the 300th anniversary of the restoration of full communion with the Church of Rome (1724-2024), a high-level international theological colloquium aims to discuss the ecumenical value and vocation of this ecclesial communion and the other Eastern Catholic Churches, at a time when geopolitical conflicts are also affecting sister Churches of the same tradition, such as the Churches of Orthodoxy.
The colloquium organized by the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate began on the afternoon of 24 June with a short address by Melkite Patriarch Youssef Absi and will end on Wednesday 26 June. The proceedings of the colloquium entitled "The Greek Melkite Catholic Church, the Union with Rome and New Perspectives" will take place at the "Center Liqaa" in Raboueh (Beirut).
According to the text presenting the colloquium, the union of the Greek Melkite Catholic Church with Rome represents a turning point in its history: "Antiochian, Calcedonian, of Byzantine tradition and Arab culture, open to the civilizations of Eastern and Western Europe, its affiliation with Catholicism is due to numerous factors that have shaped its own identity over time".
The Second Vatican Council provided the Greek Melkite Church with a "unique opportunity to recall, within the Catholic Church, the richness of Eastern Christianity, the sense of catholicity, the urgency of unity, and to define and define the role of the Eastern Catholic Churches."
The ongoing Colloquium in Lebanon vindicates for the Melkite ecclesial structure the role of "bridging Church" and emphasizes its leading role in the field of ecumenism, which is well represented by the initiatives of the Melkite bishops and patriarchs to restore full communion with their Orthodox brothers in the Patriarchate of Antioch. In the joint study days, reference is made to the famous project of the "Zhogby" initiative, named after the great Melkite Archbishop Elias Zoghby (1912-2008), who repeatedly sought ways after the Second Vatican Council to restore full communion with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and wished that such an initiative would pave the way to full communion between the Catholic Church and all Orthodox Churches of the Byzantine tradition.

Among the most qualified talks scheduled at the Raboueh Colloquium are those by Archimandrite Elisée Marzi, from Université Saint-Joseph, on "The Melkite Church as an Ecclesiological Laboratory," and Father Gaby Hachem, theologian from Université Saint-Esprit in Kaslik, on "The Melkite Patriarchate at the Second Vatican Council and in the Synodal Process." (GV) (Fides Agency 25/6/2024)

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