Recently, CNEWA Canada’s Antin Sloboda and I attended a conference at the Unviersity of Toronto which examined one of the documents of Vatican II: the decree Orientalium ecclesiarum, which recognized and underlined the importance of the Eastern Catholic churches. It was published almost exactly 50 years ago, in November 1964.
As part of the conference — sponsored by The Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute — I delivered a paper looking at what has transpired over the last five decades, with special attention to CNEWA’s involvement with the Eastern churches:
While CNEWA sees itself primarily as “accompanying” the Eastern Catholic churches as a partner, many Eastern Catholic churches see themselves as accompanying their Orthodox brothers and sisters and the long, dangerous journey to peace, justice and even survival. In the long and often complicated discussions on shared communion between the Catholic and Orthodox churches in the sacramental body and blood of Christ, Eastern Catholics and Orthodox are now painfully experiencing communion in the suffering body of Christ, which is the churches in the Middle East. This communion is real and is experienced daily.
You can read that paper in full at this link.