CHURCH SPLIT

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28981, 24 August 1959, Page 11

CHURCH SPLIT

Repair Move Made

(Rec. 10.30 p.m.) RHODES (Greece), August 22. The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church had agreed to hold a theological conference next year to study prospects of a reunion of the two churches, which split nine centuries ago. The agreement was reached last night when Orthodox prelates attending the central committee meeting of the World Council of Churches at Rhodes accepted a Roman Catholic proposal from Eugene Cardinal Tisserant, Dean of the College of Cardinals.

The proposal was conveyed at a secret meeting between Orthodox Church leaders—including observers from the Moscow Orthodox Patriarchate—and two Roman Catholic churchmen. Communion between the sees of Rome and Constantinople, the centre of the Eastern Church, was broken in 1054 after centuries of dispute, chiefly concerning claims by the Bishop of Rome to supremacy in matters of faith and morals over all Christian peoples. The Eastern Cnurch also refused to enforce the celibacy of the priesthood, and to insert a phrase in the Nicene Creed stating that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son as well as from the Father.