For those who are interested, I’ve linked the full text of the “Ravenna Document” that was issued by the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church.

This document signals the re-engagement of ecumenical dialog that briefly progressed under the pontificate of Pope Paul VI. Unfortunately, the fall of the Soviet Union and the presence of a Slav on the Chair of Peter put things on ice. The Ravenna Documents proves that things have thawed and relations are warming. (However, the Russian Orthodox took their ball and went home.)

I found paragraph 45 especially interesting:

45. It remains for the question of the role of the bishop of Rome in the communion of all the Churches to be studied in greater depth. What is the specific function of the bishop of the “first see” in an ecclesiology of koinonia and in view of what we have said on conciliarity and authority in the present text? How should the teaching of the first and second Vatican councils on the universal primacy be understood and lived in the light of the ecclesial practice of the first millennium? These are crucial questions for our dialogue and for our hopes of restoring full communion between us.

Full text of the “Ravenna Document” or ECCLESIAL COMMUNION, CONCILIARITY AND AUTHORITY.