The Roman primacy in the first millennium

Without interfering with the official dialogue, the study group that met in Bose, with the intention of placing itself at the service of the Churches, chose to treat the question from the historical standpoint. If it is true, as was affirmed in 1976 by the then professor Joseph Ratzinger, that “with regard to the doctrine of primacy, Rome cannot seek from the East more than was formulated and practiced in the first millennium”, it is in fact essential to arrive first of all at establishing a historical dossier, rather than a theological one, on a basis shared as far as possible. For this it was fundamental to have the participation of Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant participants, all committed to a common research, which, just because it wants to be scholarly, can go beyond the respective purely confessional perspectives. Not by chance, it was decided, among other things, to aim not so much at what we may call “history of ideas”, but rather at “history of institutions”, seeking to observe, as much as it is possible on the basis of available documentation, their effective functioning within the ecclesiastical and political context of those times. Without claiming to arrive immediately at practical solutions, the work was carried out in a rigorously historical perspective, with the main preoccupation of stating the problem in methodologically correct terms. The long-term hope (the group will return to meet to work again together) is of sketching a shared “ecclesiastical semantics” because it is on a historical foundation, that is, of proposing to the Churches, as a humble offering in service to dialogue, a vocabulary and a synthesis on a common basis, an instrument of work at the disposition of all.

The small number of participants permitted the discussions to proceed in a really seminar mode, which favored a systematic, exact, and in-depth comparison, in view also of a publication, which will try to be not a simple collection of the different talks, but in fact the fruit of teamwork, in which the contribution of each will take into account the observations of the others. In this sense the days were demanding, with intensive work rhythms, a work conducted always in a fraternal climate, in which was not lacking also a convivial meeting with the community, which follows and supports this research activity with particular attention. To return to the first millennium is to appeal to an experience of Church that induces reflection on the modality of living primacy and communion among the Churches; it is an occasion to rethink the communio ecclesiae as communio ecclesiarum.