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Saint Andrew was never in competition with his brother, Saint Peter, for the Primacy. There is still a Patriarch in Constantinople, and when God restores to His Church the unity that is her right, that Patriarch will be Catholic, in a state of joy.
And as all the Holy Councils teach, the Bishop of Constantinople is second in honor behind the Bishop of Rome. It's not like the other Patriarchs would simply be "left by the wayside." In fact, in the Uniate Churches of the East, the Metropolitans of each rite run the local churches themselves, and as far as I know, Rome really does very little in any administrative affairs with the Eastern Catholic Churches. Plus, the Metropolitans of the Eastern Rites all have voting privileges for the election of the Pope.
If and when the reunion of East and West happens, I seriously doubt very much in the East would change at all, except for the bishops to accept Papal rulings as they come in (and fully binding teachings are fairly rare.)
I mean, look at the Uniate Churches, folks. They administer themselves, they have very little direct administration from Rome at all. Why would the Orthodox Churches coming in be any different. In fact, the biggest problem would be: what would happen to the Uniate Churches? The Orthodox have said over and over that the Uniate Churches are a hinderence to unity. Would all the Uniate Churches have to dissolve back into local "Orthodox" patriarchal rule? That could be a problem.
Daniel ---- _____________________________________________________________ Daniel S. Vieira raamthodol **at** earthlink **dot** net
"The spiritual decline of the earth is so far advanced that the nations are in danger of losing the last bit of spiritual energy that makes it possible to see the decline, and to appraise it as such." -- Martin Heidegger
"Faire et en faisant, se faire, et n'etre rien que ce qu'il se fait." -- Jean-Paul Sartre ____________________________________________________________
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