The Decree on the Oriental Catholic Churches Implications & Impact

      The Decree on the  Oriental Catholic Churches; 
                  Implications & Imapact

                                              Archbishop  Joseph Powathil

Paper presented at International Conference : Revisiting Vatican II: 50 Years of Renewal

         (Approach is from an Indian perspective.)

1.One in Many

The Second Vatican Council wanted to clarify our notions about  the Church –its nature and its universal mission. The Church is  essentially a mystery. It is a sacramental  reality. It is  an instrumental sign of our ultimate union with God and the unity of all humankind.

Running through all the documents of the Council is the idea of Communion. Basically the Church is a communion of disciples  integrated into Christ through baptism and Eucharist. The Church is thus  the Body of Christ  with diverse members. It is not  only a communion of individuals or eparchies, but is also a communion of Individual  Churches as  LG,OE and UR point out.

OE has clearly stated  the fact that  all the Individual Churches (Rites) are equal in dignity and they have  equal rights for giving  pastoral care and doing missionary work  throughout the world.

But this is more easily said than done. For many it is  impossible to accept this idea of unity in diversity  or one in  many. That is why  the right to pastoral care of  their people and to evangelization  is  denied to the Orientals in many places. Some stick to the old idea- which is not an article of faith-of “one city, one bishop”.

2.Historical Background

The Church, born  in Jerusalem, was meant  for the whole world. The disciples were to go to the ends of the earth to preach the gospel and to build up the Church everywhere. The disciples were to be an organized  society, not a mere unorganized brotherhood. The word ‘ecclesia’ is  applicable at the local, eparchial and universal levels. The Church of  Christ can be described also as  a communion of Individual Churches.( The word ‘Rite’ applied to Churches with their own liturgy, spirituality, theology and discipline  is not tenable and  not acceptable to the Orientals). Unfortunately  the Council’s  terminology in the documents is to some extent confusing .

In apostolic and  sub apostolic times  ‘local’ Churches were common in many places. But in course of time , they  were united into  Provinces. And later,  all these provinces came under the dominant Church Centres and they  called themselves Patriarchates. However  communication with the See  of  Peter was not  always possible for  many such Churches. And further, differences arose  in matters of faith and  there were major schisms  since the 4^th century. The East/ Orient mostly remained separate from Rome. Of course,  small sections of  the Orthodox Churches  reunited  with the Catholic Church. But Western  writers often ignored these Churches  or marginalized them. Also many misunderstandings about these Catholic communities  spread in the West in course of time. For many western writers, Oriental Catholics were insignificant groups and so could not be considered as equal to the Latin Church.

The Holy See was  always inclined towards Orientals, but even here  attitudes had to  gradually evolve in properly  understanding  the Oriental  churches. Even Benedict XIV though respectful of Eastern Liturgy, considered  the Latin Church as the Mother and teacher of all Churches. But Leo XIII’s document ‘Orientalium Dignitas’ was a significant document that stressed  the equal dignity  of the Orientals. Pope Benedict XV, Pope Pious XI and Pope Pious XII  were all encouraging the  Orientals  to maintain their  own ecclesial patrimony.

Of course, the Council definitively pronounced the equal dignity of all these Churches and also spoke clearly about the  rights of the  Orientals. Meanwhile , theological developments in  the  20^th  century were  also helpful in arousing  a sense of identity among the Eastern and Oriental Churches (Greek and Syriac  Churches). In the Council itself more Orientals were present with their experts and so  could not be ignored.. Also Orthodox  observers  were present and their presence in many ways influenced the Council.

3.The Decree itself

Like all the documents  of the Council, the draft text for this Decree also  had  to undergo several revisions. In the beginning one draft was prepared for both Oriental Churches and Christian Unity together. But finally we have now two documents.

Many Oriental Fathers were unhappy about the paternalistic attitude adopted by the Latin Fathers in the  first article. There were also doubts on the need for a separate document for the Orientals  Many thought that  these matters could go into the Constitution on the Church(LG). But some of the Orientals themselves wanted to have  a separate document and this was conceded by the Council.

There were several objections to the first two articles  raised by the Orientals. For example, the statement; “The Catholic Church highly esteems  the institutions, liturgical Rites, ecclesiastical traditions and the way of Christian life” .This met with serious objection from people like Patriarch Maximus who asked  how the Latins would react if such a statement were made about the Latin Church. Further, the use of “Sedes Apostolica” only for the Roman See was also  objected to.

But  articles 3 and 4 stressed the equality of the different Churches and their rights in giving pastoral care to their faithful and the right  to preach  the gospel everywhere. These articles also stressed the need to preserve the traditional heritages of the Churches. Article 4 especially indicated that there could be different hierarchies in the same territory. Article 5 exhorted the Orientals to preserve their precious heritages and to make changes only for the organic development of their traditions. The Orientals also have to learn  more about their own traditions and try to maintain them wherever they are.

The Council was aware of the role that the Oriental Catholic Churches could play in the ecumenical movement because of the closeness they have with Orthodox liturgical and spiritual traditions. Of course the Orthodox accuses the so called ‘Uniate Churches’ of proselytism. This hostility   could be a hurdle on the path towards Christian Unity.

4.The Impact of the Decree

The impact of any Church document depends on how well it is explained and made acceptable to the people. Often discontentment arose in the past became of the lack of proper conscientaisation. Such a conscientaisation with regard to Council documents did not take place in many  countries  and so problems  still remain in the relationship  between East and West.

As we stated above ‘Communio’ is the basic idea running through all the documents of the Vatican Council. But the fact is that this communion consists of a unity in diversity. Many even now cannot look beyond uniformity in the Church. In fact the idea of Church as communion was lost sight of in the early years of the post- Conciliar period. It was Cardinal Ratzinger’s intervention in the 1985 Extra ordinary Assembly of the synod of bishops that gave a new impetus to the idea.

The Council was an important land mark in the recent history of the Church. “Orientalium Dignitas” of Pope Leo XIII was a significant step forward, but it was soon forgotten. But the Council documents cannot be so ignored, also because  the Oriental Churches took the Decrees seriously and demanded their rights in the post –Conciliar period.

5.Indian Scene

It was not easy to implement the  declarations and  instructions of the Decree, especially  in India.(We are limiting ourselves to  the situation in India) The Syro Malabar bishops had already raised the  issue at the Council itself. Johannes M. Hoeck,  in his article in the  Vorgrimler Commentary on the  Council documents , specifically  referred to this ““The real reason why the right to preach the gospel, that is, the right to engage in missionary activity, is especially mentioned among the rights and obligations  of  all the  Individual churches, is to be traced to  the situation in  India where the Malabar church, which has a large surplus of  priests, was  until recently only permitted to convert   people to the Latin Rite” (Hoeck. in  Vorgrimler, 1966 page 318)

 Soon after the Council, a  post Concilar Committee of the Syro Malabar Church asked for a reorganization of the CBCI( Catholic Bishops Conference of India)on a ‘federal basis’. It was shocking to many Church leaders. At  the “Church in India seminar” in 1969 the issue of one Rite for India  came to the fore. Some  pleaded for  an Indian Rite  and an Indian Mass- all these questions  were raised to  weaken  the cause of  Individual Oriental Churches in India. There was  tough resistance to  this ‘One Rite’ idea in the Kerala Regional Seminar,  where a demand of this sort was  outright rejected.  At the   All India Seminar; finally a compromise  resolution was passed and averted a serious crisis  at the Seminar. At the Patna Consultation on Evangelization (1973) the question of Individual Churches was completely ignored.

From  1974 onwards there was regular discussions on  the rights of the Individual  Churches at the  CBCI General Body Meetings. An Inter-Ritual Committee was set up to carry out the dialogue during the period  between  the Plenary Meetings. Finally this  issue was raised at the Extra Ordinary Synod of Bishops in 1985 and also in the subsequent  synod meetings. In 1987, Pope John Paul II took the  historic decision to set up a  Syro Malabar eparchy  (Kalyan) in the Bombay –Poona Regions. The CBCI also was to be reorganized . He also   exhorted  the bishops to give catechesis on Individual Churches in all the dioceses. Thus the door was opened to establish Oriental dioceses  outside the so called ‘proper territory’. The diocese of Chicago was established a few years later for the whole of the United States. Recently the diocese of Faridabad was established in the northern region including Delhi. Thus the right to pastoral care is  being realized outside Kerala. However there are still more regions where this right is not being acknowledged. But the Holy See seems  to be firm in doing justice to the Orientals, at least “step by step”.

On the whole, OE has had a good impact on the Church in India. Of course the mind set has to change in more places for  a full implementation of the Decree. OE and UR besides LG  need still to be properly understood by all so as to make  full implementation a reality. Only thus  will unity  in diversity will really  flourish in the Catholic Communion.