The Vatican will host a discussion inside St. Peter’s Basilica next month between a Catholic, a Protestant, and an Orthodox theologian on the primacy of Peter. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Culture, announced Oct. 20 that the Petrine primacy dialogue will take place in the basilica on Nov. 22 with the theme “On this rock, I will build my Church.” Vatican invites Protestant, Orthodox theologians to debate Petrine primacy at St. Peter’s | Catholic News Agency
Possibility #1: the Vatican is wavering on this issue and genuinely seeks dialogue to discern if they've 'missed it' for all these centuries. Nah. Possibility #2: the Vatican sees an opportunity to join with the Orthodox theologians to gang up on the hapless Protestants and convince them that the Protestant position is wrong. Yup!
These sorts of things often generate more heat than light, but I do hope for some fruitful discussion. I do think Protestants sometimes let Paul overshadow Peter in the realm of theology (and give too little weight to the Gospel of Mark -- which was probably based on the memoirs of Peter -- over the Gospel of Matthew). But the reverse is much more the case, in that the Roman Church has a really bad habit of ignoring Paul when he says something typically Pauline that rubs the Magisterium the wrong way. Anything that leads to a more fraternal relationship between orthodox Protestants, RC, and EO Christians, I am in favor of. We face the same uphill cultural battle in the coming years, so we must stand together when we can. If we can talk rather than fight, it's a positive development.