This booklet was written on the spur of the moment. But momentous should seem its message, which aims at a refreshing of memory in this age of ecumenical efforts. For whatever the good intentions behind such efforts, they cannot escape either facts or logic. The fact remains that the finest representatives of Eastern orthodox theology and spirituality bore telling witness on behalf of the primacy of Peter's successors in the See of Rome. This booklet is not a précis of those testimonies but aims at presenting the vital force and logic that animates them. Maximus Confessor deserves to be remembered more by his heroic stand on behalf of papal primacy than by his speculations of cosmic dimensions. As to Saint John Chrysostom, no latter-day ultramontane could produce a more sustained endorsement of the papacy than he did. And the same is true of Pope Hormisdas' Formula, which has a factuality and logic with a compelling force for the bishops of Rome as well as for Eastern Orthodoxy. So much in brief about some major points made in this booklet and with a factuality that should seem salutary in an age that prefers fashions to hard facts and to the force of logic.

By Fr. Stanley L. Jaki

ISBN 978-1-892548-44-3  •  32 pages  •  softcover