Pat. Bartholomew: Tradition Is 'Not Conservative but Creative'

Source: KTO/YouTube

LOURDES — Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew told France’s Catholic bishops that authentic tradition is “not conservative but creative.” He then praised Vatican II and its architects, including French theologians Henri de Lubac and Yves Congar, according to a report from Orthodox Times.

Rejecting ethnophyletism as a heresy, he urged interreligious dialogue and youth-guided renewal.

Bartholomew also renewed calls for environmental repentance, faith-science cooperation, and “ascetic sobriety” against consumerism. 

The Ecumenical Patriarch condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “fundamentally contrary to the Gospel and to Orthodoxy,” decrying a “new alliance between throne and altar” that drags a once-pious nation into “an abyss of impiety.” 

He defended the 2019 autocephaly granted to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine as essential for freedom of conscience.

Recently, the UOJ reported on Pope Leo XVI's call for a more humble and inclusive church, stating that “no one possesses the whole truth” and that “no one is excluded” from participation in Church life."

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