Past Events

Quotes from OL IX Plenaries:

Archbishop Vsevolod of Scopelos – The Patriarchs of the Ancient Pentarchy (Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem) should jointly call for a worldwide Ecumencial Council of all the Apostolic Christian Churches of the world that adhere to the principle of my presentation – one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. Dare I suggest this be called an Eighth Ecumenical Council. Perhaps we should simply name it an Ecumenical Council of Christian Unity or for the Third Millennium? In any event, it's purpose would be to consider how to re-structure the Churches involved, consolidate where appropriate, de-centralize where appropriate, and combine where appropriate, trying to establish a balanced organizational structure not only in size and shape, but in authority and responsibility. In essence, we need to try and utilize the best of both worlds – counterbalancing central structure with local flexibility.

Bishop Salvatore Cordileone – “…we must understand governance in the Church not as an end itself, but at the service of the Church’s ultimate purpose which is the glory of God and the salvation of souls.  While the Church must borrow models of governance from secular society precisely because it exists in the world in the form of a visible body, it must do so in accordance with its own ends, adapting what it can but never adopting wholesale any one form of government.  After all, those who exercise governance in the Church are called “pastors,” and so they must rule their flocks not like kings of the temporal order but like shepherds, after the manner of the Good Shepherd himself who lays down his life for his flock (cf. Jn 10:11).”

Bishop Nicholas Samra – “To understand and to define the essence of the Church and its structure, it is first necessary to speak about the Holy Trinity—to search its depths and theological meaning, and to attempt to better understand the mystery of God.  We call the Church the “Body of Christ.”  We call it the “communion in the Holy Spirit.”  To get a better understanding of these words we need first to speak of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  When we get a better view of the Trinity—of course never totally understanding the mystery—we will better understand the love of God.  By recognizing and knowing the love of God we must first know it, and in order to know it we must be participants of the living godly organism which we call Church – the Body of Christ.”

Archbishop Donald Wuerl - "Two very different men, both personally touched by the question, “What think you of the Christ?” One man had dwelt daily with the Lord; the other, had not heard one parable, nor witnessed one healing miracle, nor ever been close the Lord. Both Peter and the centurion responded with an act of faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. The early Church and every believer since has been faced with the question, “What think you of the Christ?” The same Holy Spirit that touched Peter and the centurion has been given to the Church to lead us, as well, into the mystery of the identity of Jesus Christ."

Archbishop Cyril Vasil, SJ - "For a canonist, the study of the first common councils of the undivided Church and particularly that of their canonical norms is an occasion to admire the wisdom and farsightedness of the early Church Fathers who laid the solid foundations of a normative groundwork which remains effective to this day. At the same time, such a study inevitably leads to the question of the prescriptions’ stability and of the possibility, or rather, of the necessity of implementing practical modifications in them as well as the possibility of their renewal and revision."

Archimandrite Robert Taft, SJ - "To put it more concretely, councils were convoked to combat heresies, and heresies are a virus that stimlulate the production of antibodies in the life of the Church, including church councils and the liturgy. The Councils of Nicea I (325) and Constantinople I (381) on the theology of the Trinity and their impact on pneumatology and liturgical doxologies; of Ephesus (431) and the origins of the place of the Mother of God in liturgical commemorations, intercessions, and feasts; of Chalcedon (451) and its tortuous aftermath on Christology; of Nicea II (787) and the cult of icons; are all proof-positive of that."

Archbishop Cyril Vasil, SJ - "For a canonist, the study of the first common councils of the undivided Church and particularly that of their canonical norms is an occasion to admire the wisdom and farsightedness of the early Church Fathers who laid the solid foundations of a normative groundwork which remains effective to this day. At the same time, such a study inevitably leads to the question of the prescriptions’ stability and of the possibility, or rather, of the necessity of implementing practical modifications in them as well as the possibility of their renewal and revision."

Archimandrite Robert Taft, SJ - "To put it more concretely, councils were convoked to combat heresies, and heresies are a virus that stimlulate the production of antibodies in the life of the Church, including church councils and the liturgy. The Councils of Nicea I (325) and Constantinople I (381) on the theology of the Trinity and their impact on pneumatology and liturgical doxologies; of Ephesus (431) and the origins of the place of the Mother of God in liturgical commemorations, intercessions, and feasts; of Chalcedon (451) and its tortuous aftermath on Christology; of Nicea II (787) and the cult of icons; are all proof-positive of that."