wfn.org | Orthodox - Catholic Consultation Statement on Filioque

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GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA
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For Immediate Release
October 28, 2003

AGREED STATEMENT ON FILIOQUE ADOPTED BY
NORTH AMERICAN ORTHODOX-CATHOLIC CONSULTATION

The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation concluded a
four-year study of the Filioque on October 25, when it unanimously adopted
an agreed text on this difficult question that has divided the two
communions for many centuries.	This important development took place at
the 65th meeting of the Consultation, held at St. Paul's College in
Washington, DC, under the joint chairmanship of Metropolitan Maximos of the
Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Pittsburgh and Archbishop Pilarczyk of
Cincinnati.

The original version of the Creed most Christian churches accept as the
standard expression of their faith dates from the First Council of
Constantinople, in 381, and has been used by Orthodox Christians since that
time.  Towards the end, this Creed states that the Holy Spirit "proceeds
from the Father."  The word Filioque ("and the Son") was later added to the
Latin version of this Creed used in the West, so that the phrase as most
western Christians know it reads that the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the
Father and the Son."  This modification appeared in some areas of Western
Europe as early as the 6th century but was accepted in Rome only in the
11th century.  This change in the wording of the Creed and the underlying
variations in understanding the origin and procession of the Holy Spirit
within the Trinity have long been considered a church-dividing issue
between Catholics and Orthodox.   The Consultation had been studying this
question since 1999 in the hope of eventually releasing an agreed
statement.

Entitled "The Filioque:  A Church-Dividing Issue?", the ten-thousand word
text has three major sections.	The first, "The Holy Spirit in the
Scriptures," summarizes references to the Spirit in both the Old and New
Testaments.  The more lengthy second section, "Historical Considerations,"
provides an overview of the origins of the two traditions concerning the
eternal procession of the Spirit and the slow process by which the Filioque
was added to the Creed in the West.  It also shows how this question
concerning Trinitarian theology became entwined with disputes regarding
papal jurisdiction and primacy, and reviews recent developments in the
Catholic Church which point to a greater awareness of the unique and
normative character of the original Greek version of the Creed as an
expression of the faith that unites the Orthodox East and Catholic West.
The third section, "Theological Reflections," emphasizes our limited
ability to speak of the inner life of God, points out that both sides of
the debate have often caricatured the positions of the other, and lists
areas in which the traditions agree.  It then explores the differences that
have developed regarding terminology, and identifies both theological and
ecclesiological divergences that have arisen over the centuries.

In a final section, the Consultation makes eight recommendations to the
members and bishops of the two churches.  It recommends that they "enter
into a new and earnest dialogue concerning the origin and person of the
Holy Spirit."  It also proposes that in the future both Catholics and
Orthodox "refrain from labeling as heretical the traditions of the other
side" on this subject, and that the theologians of both traditions make a
clearer distinction between the divinity of the Spirit, and the manner of
the Spirit's origin, "which still awaits full and final ecumenical
resolution."  The text also urges theologians to distinguish, as far as
possible, the theological issues concerning the origin of the Holy Spirit
from ecclesiological issues, and suggests that attention be paid in the
future to the status of councils of both our churches that took place after
the seven ecumenical councils of the first millennium.	And finally, in
view of the fact that the Vatican has affirmed the "normative and
irrevocable dogmatic value of the Creed of 381" in its original Greek
version, the Consultation recommends that the Catholic Church use the same
text (without the Filioque) "in making translations of that Creed for
catechetical and liturgical use," and declare that the anathema pronounced
by the Second Council of Lyons against those who deny that the Spirit
proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son is no longer applicable.

At this meeting the members also took time to review major developments in
the lives of their churches.  Among the items discussed were the seminar on
Petrine Ministry that was held in the Vatican in May; the granting of
autonomous status to the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North
America; the Orientale Lumen Conference held in Washington, DC, last June;
the recent Patriarchal Assembly of the Maronite Catholic Church; the
presence of a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Rome in late
June for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul headed by Archbishop Demetrios of
America; the seminar sponsored by Pro Oriente on the union of Transylvanian
Orthodox with Rome in Cluj, Romania, last July; the Faith and Order
response to Ut Unum Sint; statements by the two churches on same-sex
marriages; and the recent meeting of the Joint Committee of Orthodox and
Catholic Bishops in Baltimore.

The 66th meeting of the Consultation is scheduled to take place from June 1
to 3, 2004, at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline,
Massachusetts, and the 67th meeting from October 21 to 23, 2004.

The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation is sponsored
jointly by the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the
Americas (SCOBA), the Bishops* Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious
Affairs of the USCCB, and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Since its establishment in 1965, the Consultation has now issued 22 agreed
statements on various topics. All these texts are now available on the
website of the US Catholic Conference at:
http://www.usccb.org/seia/dialogues.htm

In addition to the two co-chairmen, the Orthodox members of the
Consultation include Father Thomas FitzGerald (Secretary), Archbishop Peter
of New York, Father Nicholas Apostola, Prof. Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Father
James Dutko, Prof. Paul Meyendorff, Father Alexander Golitzin, Father
Emmanuel Gratsias, Dr. Robert Haddad, Father Paul Schnierla, Father Robert
Stephanopoulos, and Bishop Dimitrios of Xanthos, General Secretary of SCOBA
(staff). The additional Catholic members are Father Brian Daley, SJ
(secretary), Msgr. Frederick McManus, Prof. Thomas Bird, Father Peter
Galadza, Msgr. John D. Faris, Father John Galvin, Sister Jean Goulet, CSC,
Father Sidney Griffith, ST, Father John Long, SJ, Father David Petras,
Prof. Robin Darling Young, and Father Ronald Roberson, CSP (staff).

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