The Pontificial Council for Christian Unity today (January 26, 2010) released a statement decrying the appearance of a leaked document from a joint Catholic-Orthodox theological commission discussing different perceptions of the Petrine ministry, according to the Catholic Culture website.
The draft document -- which has been made public on Italian websites -- is only a draft, and "has been only minimally discussed," the Pontificial Council emphasized. The participants in the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue had promised to keep the talks confidential, the Vatican statement notes, expressing dismay that the draft has become public.
At a meeting in Cyprus in October, 2009, the joint theological commission discussed the role of the Bishop of Rome in the universal Church.
The draft document observes that the Western Church soon established a tradition of looking at the Bishop of Rome for leadership, while in the East -- although the primacy of Rome was accepted -- there was greater emphasis on the authority of each individual bishop with his diocese.
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