(Then) Cardinal Ratzinger on East/West unity

On a recent visit to a weblog which is new to me, I stumbled upon this important entry. It contains great news, though one hesitates to be hasty when news as good as this comes along. It has to do with the Traditional Anglican Church (TAC) ostensibly desiring reunion with the Catholic Church.

And in the spirit of the reunion of Christian bodies too long in schism with each other, I thought some of you might find interesting (then) Cardinal Ratzinger's comments on the reunion of Eastern Orthodoxy with Catholicism. I think the principles he lays out in this quote are equally applicable as regards TAC/Catholic reunion. The Catholic Church must be reasonable in her expectations of reunion with schismatic groups, all the while maintaining her earnest desire for Christian unity. Let me know what you think, if you have any thoughts.

As far as the doctrine of the primacy is concerned, Rome must not require more of the East than was formulated and lived during the first millennium. When Patriarch Athenagoras, on the occasion of the visit of the Pope to the Phanar on July 25, 1967, addressed him as 'the successor of Peter, the first in honor among us, the one who has the presidency of love,' we hear from the mouth of this great Church leader the essential content of the first millennium's statement about the primacy - and Rome must demand no more than this. Reunion could take place on this basis: that for its part the East should renounce attacking the western development of the second millennium as heretical, and should accept the Catholic Church as legitimate and orthodox in the form which it has found through this development, while, for its part, the West should acknowledge the Church of the East as orthodox and legitimate in the form which it has maintained. {This quote is found on page 209 of the book Theologische Prinzipienlehre: Bausteine zur Fundamentaltheologie (Principles of Catholic Theology: Building Stones for a Fundamental Theology). The translation from the original German is made by Fr. Francis Sullivan, SJ in his book Magisterium.}