[Linsinbigler]

Originally Posted by Olsen

Father Harry and SolaVerbumDei,

Here's a thought: the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Pope should jointly convene an ecumenical council whose ultimate utterance will be jointly endorsed on a wide variety of dogmatic issues with the intent of reunifying those two great segments of the Body of Christ. The Pope in anticipation of such a council would agree to take no unilateral action and the Patriarch of Constantinople would do precisely the same thing. Merely agreeing to withhold the exercise of a prerogative would sacrifice nothing regarding its legitimacy i.e. the Papal position that unilateral action could be taken. My previous dialogues with Sola, regarding magistrium would in no way impede implementing the idea. Your thoughts?

Yes, I am not sure if it would work, but is possible. The Ecumenical Patriarch does have the ability to convene any councils including Ecumenical, as does the Bishop of Rome, per Canon 28 of the 4th Ecumenical Council, giving the Ecumenical Patriarchate "Equal Prerogatives" to that of "Old Rome." What he does not have the power to do is decide in leiu of a council for the Orthodox world, but only to pronounce what has gone before synodically. But then again from the Orthodox point of view, neither does Rome. If it could be demonstrated that Rome has never done this in a fashion that is universally recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, based on that undivided Faith of the first century, it is certainly possible. So this is a possible scenario. However, what necessarily would be part of it would be the recognition of the General Councils of the Roman Catholic Church after the Great Schism as precisely that, not Ecumenical Councils in the same fashion as those of the first millenium, but rather general councils of the Roman Church, subject to the witness of that which has gone before and only that which is in complete coherence with the undivided Faith of the first millenium.