Bridge-Builder between East and West: André Scrima and the Ecumenical Turn in Orthodox-Catholic Relationships

Following a tradition inaugurated after Vatican II, a delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) travels each year to Rome for the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul. The mem- bers of the delegation, headed by a high-ranking bishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, are welcomed in an official audience by the Pope and meet after- wards with the representatives of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. On June 29, they attend the celebration of the Eucharist presided over by the Pope in St Peter’s Cathedral in honor of the two Apostles. On November 30, a similar delegation is sent each year to the Ecumenical Patriarchate by the Pope to join the feast of the Apostle Andrew, who by tradition is considered the founder of the Church of Constantinople. The delegation is received at the Phanar by the Ecumenical Patriarch and invited to the liturgy celebrated in St Georges’ Cathedral in memory of Apostle Andrew. The exchange of del- egations shows the fraternal relationships existing nowadays between the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople, whose leaders committed themselves in the 1960s to the recovery of the visible unity between Orthodoxy and Catholicism, which was progressively broken at the beginning of the sec- ond millennium. The date of 1054 is regarded as the conventional year of the schism between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. However, their separation was a much longer process that started before the eleventh century and continued in the centuries that followed, despite early attempts at reconciliation, especially in the thirteenth (Council of Lyon, 1274) and four- teenth centuries (Council of Ferrara-Florence 1438–1439). Front Cover Table of Contents Introduction 1. The Formative Years in Romania (1925–1956): The Burning Bush Group 1.1 Family Background and Intellectual Journey 1.2 The Burning Bush Group 1.3 Conclusion 2. The Flourishing of an Ecumenist: In the Service of Orthodox-Catholic Unity (1956–1964) 2.1 Paris and Geneva 2.2 India and Lebanon 2.3 Early Ecumenical Activities (1958–1960) 2.3.1 The Istina Center 2.3.2 The Rhodes Incident 2.3.3 First Meeting with the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras 2.4 Intensification of Ecumenical Work (1960–1962) 2.4.1 The Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity 2.4.2 Orthodox Observers at the Council: A Delicate Ecumenical Moment 2.5 A New Beginning (1963–1964) 2.5.1 Millennium Celebrations on Mount Athos 2.5.2 The Meeting in Jerusalem 2.6 Conclusion 3. André Scrima at Vatican II: Personal Representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras (1964–1965) 3.1 A Special Status at the Council 3.1.1 The Third Session of Vatican II 3.1.1.1 Hopes for A Visit of Patriarch Athenagoras to Rome 3.1.1.2 De Ecclesia (September€15, 1964) 3.1.1.3 De Revelatione (October 2–5, 1964) 3.1.1.4 De Oecumenismo (October€1964) 3.1.1.5 De Ecclesiis Orientalibus (October–November 1964) 3.2 The Final Session of the Council 3.2.1 Conciliar Debates 3.2.1.1 De Libertate Religiosa (September€1965) 3.2.1.2 Schema XIII (September–October 1965) 3.2.1.3 De Revelatione (October€1965) 3.2.2 The Lifting of the Anathemas of 1054 3.2.3 Receiving the Second Vatican Council 3.2.3.1 A Critical Assessment of Lumen Gentium 3.2.3.2 Engaging Gaudium et Spes 3.2.3.3 Reading Dei Verbum 3.2.4 The Exchange of Visits between Patriarch Athenagoras and Pope Paul VI 3.2.5 The Aftermath (1967–2000) 3.3 Conclusion 4. The Mother of God as Mediatrix: André Scrima’s Contribution to the Mariological Chapter of Lumen Gentium 4.1 Mary as Mediatrix in the Western Tradition 4.2 André Scrima on€Mary as Mediatrix in Orthodox Christianity 4.3 Mediatrix in the Final Version of Lumen Gentium VIII (November€21, 1964) 4.4 Conclusion Final Conclusion Bibliography Back Cover This monograph unfolds the story of the ecumenical turn in Orthodox-Catholic relationships in the 1960s, with special focus on one of its chief architects: André Scrima (1925-2000). Therefore, the central objective of the monograph is to reconstruct Scrima's active involvement in the events that marked an epochal shift in Orthodox-Catholic relationships in the context of the Second Vatican Council. In doing so, the monograph argues that his work in the service of reconciliation between the Church of Constantinople and the Church of Rome was instrumental to the positive change that occurred in Orthodox-Catholic relationships in the 1960s, which influenced the course of interaction between the two major Christian traditions in the decades that followed and continues to do so even today.