In the final message of the Pan-Orthodox Council, more than 200 bishops from 10 churches affirmed their full unity with one another and with four Orthodox churches that declined to attend.
Although they did not persuade all the Orthodox churches to send representatives to the council in Crete, Orthodox leaders who were present supported the idea that the council should become a regular institution and meet every seven to 10 years.
“The key priority of the council was to proclaim the unity of the Orthodox Church,” the message said. “Founded on the Eucharist and the apostolic succession of her bishops, the existing unity needs to be strengthened and to bear new fruits.”
The 14 autocephalous, self-governing Orthodox churches are not “a federation”, but one Church, the message said. Its unity is expressed through and strengthened by conciliarity, which is why participants urged a regular convocation of pan-Orthodox councils.
The Orthodox Church had tried off and on for some 50 years to organise the meeting which, in the end, was held in Crete. The Russian, Bulgarian, Antiochian and Georgian Orthodox churches did not send representatives. Each cited reasons ranging from unresolved disputes with other Orthodox churches to objections over council procedures.
Speaking to reporters, Pope Francis said the Crete council was a “positive” development for the Orthodox Church. The churches took “a step forward”, he said, “not with 100 per cent” participation, but it was still a move towards a greater expression of unity.
The four churches’ motivations for not attending were “sincere”, he said, and with time could be resolved. Although they did not go to Crete in the end, the four were part of the planning and wanted a council.
“You take the first step in the way that you can,” Pope Francis said. “Just the fact that these churches gathered in the name of Orthodoxy to look each other in the eye, to pray together and talk – maybe making some quips – that is extremely positive.”
Supreme Court strikes down Texas abortion clinic rules
The Supreme Court has struck down Texas’s widely replicated regulation of abortion clinics in the court’s biggest abortion case in nearly a quarter of a century.
The justices voted 5-3 in favour of Texas clinics that had argued the regulations were a thinly veiled attempt to make it harder for women to get an abortion.
Justice Stephen Breyer’s majority opinion for the court held that the regulations were medically unnecessary and unconstitutionally limited a woman’s right to an abortion.
Texas had argued that its 2013 law and subsequent regulations were needed to protect women’s health. The rules required doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and forced clinics to meet hospital-like standards for outpatient surgery.
Breyer wrote that “the surgical centre requirement, like the admitting privileges requirement, provides few, if any, health benefits for women, poses a substantial obstacle to women seeking abortions and constitutes an ‘undue burden’ on their constitutional right to do so.”
Nine other states have introduced this requirement.
Francis issues plea for refugees
Pope Francis invited a dozen refugees to join him on stage at his general audience last week.
He asked the refugees to stand with him on the steps of St Peter’s Basilica. The men are being cared for by a charity at the Vatican. The group sat in front of the Pontiff as he gave his address. The Pope emphasised how much the men had suffered in their homelands and said: “Please, they are our brothers. A Christian excludes no one. I ask all of you: Let everyone come.”
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