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Armenian, Catholic Churches End 1,500 Year Rift
Rather
significant religious news. VATICAN CITY (Reuter) - The Roman
Catholic and Armenian Churches Friday formally buried
a theological controversy that had divided them for
1,500 years.
Pope John Paul and Karekin I, spiritual leader of the
world's some six million Armenian Christians, issued a common
declaration officially ending the controversy over the nature of
Christ.
The controversy dates back to the 6th century when the
Council of Chalcedon condemned those, including Armenian
Christians, who asserted that Christ had only a divine and not
also a human nature.
Thursday's declaration spoke of the dual nature of
Christ and said both sides agreed that past
controversies "should not continue to influence the
life and witness of the Church today."
The declaration, signed at the end of Karekin's
official visit to the Vatican, said past disputes were
due to "linguistic, cultural and political factors."
It capped renewed contacts and theological dialogue
between the two Churches in the past three decades. In
the declaration, both the Pope and Karekin said they
were committed to eventual unity between their two
Churches.
The Armenian Church is one of the so-called Ancient
Churches of the East which split away from Byzantine
Christianity before the Great Schism of 1054, which
divided the Eastern and Western Churches.
Karekin's official title is His Holiness Karekin I
Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians. He
resides in Etchmiadzin, near the Armenian capital
Yerevan.
The Armenian Church is an independent Christian Church
introduced to Armenia by the apostles Jude and Bartholomew. In
AD 301 Armenia became the first nation to adopt Christianity as
a state religion.
The Armenian Church has various patriarchates around
the world and has members in the countries of the
former Soviet Union, North and South America, the
Middle East, Europe and Asia.
REUTER