Irimie Marga, In dragoste hi adevar. Dialogul teologic oficial ortodox-catolic, de la Rodos la Balamand—In Love and Truth: The Official Orthodox Catholic Theological Dialogue, From Rhodes to Balamand - Book Review

Ecumenical Review, The, July, 2003 by Klaus Augustin

Pitehti-Brahov-Bucurehti-Cluj-Napoca, 2000, 345pp.

The present publication deals with the official theological dialogue between the Orthodox churches and the Roman Catholic Church. For good reasons the author calls this dialogue "the greatest event in the history of Orthodox-Catholic relations" and "'one of the greatest events of the 20th century" (p.307). Yet it was not until the middle of the 20th century before the dialogue between these two churches began, the period before this being characterized by mutual distrust. With the beginning of the official dialogue--in November 1979 by Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Dimitrios I of Constantinople and in 1980 when the international theological commission for dialogue had its first assembly--the two churches entered into a new epoch of religious intercourse. This process is named a "dialogue of the truth", and the Romanian theologian Irimie Marga has dedicated his dissertation, now published in Romanian, to this dialogue.

Marga is a Romanian Orthodox priest and professor of canon law at the Orthodox faculty of Sibiu (Hermannstadt); he also teaches at the faculties of Cluj-Napoca (Klausenburg) and Oradea (Grosswardein). He found an authentic access to Roman Catholic theology and spirituality during his post-graduate studies at the Roman Catholic faculty of Graz (Austria), where he laid the foundations of this book, which is now titled "In Love and Truth". The work is in three parts and is prefaced by forewords by Aurel Jivi, professor of church history at Sibiu, and by the metropolitan of Transylvania, Antonie Plamadeala. The latter commends the book as "extremely praisworthy", and as "an authoritative work for all that are interested in this dialogue" (p.7).

In a very brief first part, Marga outlines the preparatory stages of the dialogue, and publishes in its entirety the common declaration of John Paul II and Dimitrios I announcing its beginning. The main part of the book traces chronologically the progress of the official dialogues. By explicating the work of the sub-commissions and committees for the dialogue, he shows that the process was often not easy. Each plenary meeting is described in impressive detail, and here we can only point to some aspects of his treatment, stressing the most important events and issues dealt with.

For example, the second plenary meeting took place in Munich, Germany, 30 June--6 July 1982, and published the first official document from the dialogue, "The Mystery of the Church and of the Eucharist in the Light of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity" (pp.55-63). This discussed both divisive and uniting topics of ecclesiology and the understanding of the eucharist. The fourth plenary meeting (held in two parts, 29 May-7 June 1986 and 9-16 June 1987 in Bari, Italy), published the joint document "Faith, Sacraments and Unity of Church" (pp.106-15) which concentrated on the question whether the churches have differences in sacramental praxis only, or also in regard to the doctrine of faith. Marga interrupts the sequence of plenary meetings to record the visit of Patriarch Dimitrios I to Rome in December 1987, citing the declaration (pp.124-26) in which both underlined their promise of 1979 to encourage the dialogue and to strengthen the cooperation between their churches. Hopes for the dialogue were also raised both by the joint praying of the creed in original version (without the filioque!) and the pope's emphasis on the necessity of a joint reflection on the papacy (cf. p.123).

The fifth plenary meeting (New Valamo, Finland, 19-27 June 1988) dealt with the topic of ministry, making plain (as Marga notes, cf. p.309) the "paradoxical" situation that 'the understanding of ministry unites our churches best but from that understanding comes the most dividing problem--the primacy and the infallibility of the pope" (p.309). Despite this "disproportion", the joint commission passed its third document "The Sacrament of Order in the Sacramental Structure of the Church, with Particular Reference to the Importance of Apostolic Succession for the Sanctification and Unity of the People of God" (pp. 133-42). The next two meetings (Freising, Germany, 615 June 1990 and Balamand, Lebanon, 17-24 June 1993) were devoted to the topic of uniatism, which had arisen due to developments following the political changes in Central and Eastern Europe and because of the new religious freedom in the former communist countries. After difficult discussions, both the declaration of Freising (pp.170-72) and the document of Balamand "Uniatism, Method of Union of the Past, and the Present Search for Full Communion" (pp.240-46) advanced the view that church unity is realizeable only in the light of communio-ecclesiology. In this area, Marga is very critical of the Eastern Catholic canon law--the CCEO--published in 1990 (pp. 190-206, cf. 310).

There is a very detailed discussion of the resolutions of the seventh plenary meeting at Balamand which--although they did not ultimately succeed--are an important milestone for the dialogue between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic churches. After an analysis of the purpose of the document, Marga goes into the historical and ecclesiological evaluation of the problems and the practical rules (pp.246-64) and then addresses the reception of the document by the dialogue partners. The author does not conceal the difficulties, and shows the different possible ways of dealing with the text. In this context, the reference to the local dialogues is very important (pp.277ff.). The holding of the eighth (and up to now last) plenary meeting (Baltimore, USA, July 2000) came too late for the publication but this does not detract from the current relevance of the book.