Vatican official concerned about Catholic-Orthodox document on church

Published: 2008-03-10

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The secretary of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said he had concerns about a recent Catholic-Orthodox document on the nature of the church. Archbishop Angelo Amato said the document of the international Catholic-Orthodox dialogue commission appeared to rely too heavily on Orthodox terminology and did not give enough emphasis to the Catholic position that the jurisdictional primacy of the pope is an essential part of the structure and nature of the church. "One cannot give a precise theological identity of the universal church without referring to the pope's primacy of jurisdiction," the archbishop said in an interview published March 8 in Avvenire, the Italian Catholic daily newspaper. "Primacy is not an optional addition, but is an essential element." The document, "Ecclesiological and Canonical Consequences of the Sacramental Nature of the Church: Ecclesial Communion, Conciliarity and Authority," was finalized by the dialogue commission when it met in October in Ravenna, Italy.

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