An interesting article: No Joke: Animals Laugh, Too from livescience.com.
Cliff’s post: Hanky Panky On The Farm.
Marty’s post: Kicker (another great post)
Transcript of the homily of the Pope’s funeral.
Speaking of that, I am curious about the relationship between the Roman Catholic church and the Eastern Orthodox churches. The Eastern churches got a few minutes in the funeral mass, which surprised me.
I did not see the event…so this might be unrelated…
There is a set of churches called “Eastern Rite Catholic” churches. These churches recognize the primacy of the papacy, yet maintain a distinct Canon Law and hierarchy and heritage,
Orthodox churches and other “independent” churches in the East do not recognize papal primacy,
Other names for Eastern Rite churches: Eastern Catholic, or Uniate
The biggest branch is the Ukranian Eastern rite. These were in Orthodox church territories. Western Ukranian territories were once subject to the King of Poland, and in the late 1500s Ukranian bishops recognized the primacy of the Catholic church (recall that Orthodox and Catholic were once one “universal” until the 1054 “Great Schism”). Othodox traditions are maintained in Eastern Rite churches (most notably the ability of priests to marry–it is western tradition to prohibit marriage), and non-interference with Eastern Rrite traditions and Canon Law was affirmed in Vatican II.
Other Orthodox & Catholic relationship issues:
I believe there’s a plan to unite the reckoning of observances of Easter. There’s a propitious year in which both Catholic and Orthodox Easters are on the same date. I believe the Orthodox churches have agreed to change their reckoning to align with Catholic reckoning after that year. Sometime in this next decade? Obviously a big deal.
I think it’s fair to say that John Paul II did more than any other pope in history (in part through longevity) to advance Christian ecumenism and also advance relations with non-christian organized religions. Others and time will judge whether that is much or little, and how his particular brand of conservatism impaired thos efforts.
Thanks for the post — very interesting.