Final Report

The aim of this research-project was to make a contribution to the bilateral dialogue between the roman-catholic church and the orthodox church. This dialogue was very fruitful (first as an inofficial dialogue of love and from 1980 on as official theological dialogue of the truth). Because of the problem of the so called uniatism which was nearly forgotten over many times, this dialogue run into troubles. That phenomen was the attempt of the roman-catholic church to reunite the christian church. Christians and churches of other denominations (especially orthodox) were forced to accept the pope of Rome as their jursidictional head. Result of that attempts again were broken communities and another schisma within the church. In middleeast and easteuropean area that fact took place between the 16. and the 18. century.
The relation between the orthodox and the roman-catholic church got worse when the eastern catholic churches, which were forbidden during the communist regimes in Europe (e.g. in the Sowjetunion and in Romania), were reorganised after the fall of the communist system. Especially the orthodox were and are still afraid beeing pocket by the roman-catholic church. The tradition of the early church, accepting each other as sister churches is in danger, because for a long period the recognition of the pope of Rome as the universal head of the church was seen as the necessary condition for beeing a member of the right church and beeing saved (ecclesiology and soteriology). Nowadays this idea can be found in some official statements.
This research-project showes the discrepancy between the positive developments and the painful retrogressions in the bilateral dialogue. On the positive side there are to be mentioned the results of the theological dialogue, both on international and on regional level. Also very positive milestones are the initiatives of pope John Paul II., his travels to mainly orthodox dominated countries and his asking for forgiveniss (Athens 2001). But other facts hinder the dialogue, for example the new formation of the new catholic diocesis in Russia and some statements about the term sister churches, done by the Vatikan.
The project shows the the fundamentals of the ecclesiology of sister churches, pointing out successful results of regional theological dialogues. In this way the project is meant as a contribution to the bilateral dialogue.