Moscow Patriarchate has never ratified the so-called Balamond Agreement with the Catholics
(
06.05.2006
)
Recently, in publications dedicated to the process of dialogue between the Moscow Patriarchate (MP) and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), some of the ROCOR representatives have many times pointed to a document drawn up 13 years ago in balamond (Lebanon) as to a sign of losing the purity of faith in the Russian Church.
However, according to the head of the MP’s Synodal Theological Commission, Metropolitan Philaret of Minsk and Belarus, the Balamond agreement was only a working document drawn up by an Orthodox-Catholic Commission for a theological dialogue, that was not authorised to adopt a final document on that issue. The metropolitan claims that the ROCOR accusations about a “Balamond union with the Catholics” are “based on misunderstandings”, as are also the misinterpretations from the 20th century last decade about the alleged preparation of a “union with the Monophysites.”
Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all Russia expressed his regret that the fact that this document had never been adopted, did not prevent the Catholics in their expansion toward the East and their spreading of the Union.
Informs: Interfax
