Ut Unum Sint: Did the Great Schism End Today?

Pope Francis spoke today at an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops. 

I am an Orthodox Christian. And the things he said today, if they were to come to fruition, imply that the Church of Rome would become institutionally aligned with the Orthodox Churches in such a way that, in my opinion, we Orthodox would be sinning against the unity of the Church were we not to restore intercommunion with Rome. 

The Pope is saying that the Roman Catholic Church should decentralize by adopting a Synodal Model, which is how the Eastern Orthodox Churches govern themselves. Catholic or Protestant readers may not understand what exactly this means. Let me explain how it functions in the Orthodox Church.

My wife is a Romanian-American. So I will use the Romanian Orthodox Church as my example.

The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Church. This means that it is independent and self-governing. It is in communion with the other Eastern Orthodox Churches. The Romanian Orthodox Church is comprised of a number of dioceses, each with a bishop. The bishop of the largest diocese, Bucharest, holds the title of Patriarch of Romania. 

But the Patriarch of Romania is far from being the "Pope" of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The supreme governing body of the Romanian Orthodox Church is not the Patriarch, but rather the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Synod is all the bishops when they meet as a college. The Patriarch is the presiding bishop, the chair, so to speak, of that meeting. And that role certainly gives him a degree of control over the proceedings. But he has no veto over the votes. If the Synod votes in a direction he disagrees with, the Synod wins.

Pope Francis today seems to have redefined Papal primacy as having two aspects. 

Firstly, Papal primacy is primacy over the Synod of Bishops in precisely the same way that the Patriarch of Romania has primacy over the Romanian Synod. He states, quoting Vatican II, that the Bishops of the Holy Synod are "united with the Bishop of Rome by episcopal communion (cum Petro)." 

But in the context of stressing collegiality, he quotes Vatican II as implying that Papal primacy can be understood as only implying the act of presiding over the Synod, "[the Bishops] are at the same time hierarchically subjected to him as head of the college (sub Petro)." If we understand the primacy of the Pope as head of the college of Bishops (the Synod) in the Eastern Orthodox sense, it is a quantum leap away from the Ultra-Montane Vatican I formulation.

It is the second way he defines Papal primacy that is most controversial. He stated the following today:

"The Pope is not, by himself, above the Church, but he is inside it, as one baptized among those baptized."

This flies in the face of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which states that:

882: "For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered."

He goes on to say that the the Pope, "is within the College of Bishops as a Bishop among Bishops."

The traditional claim of the Popes was that the Pope was at least "Primus Inter Pares," First among Equals. Pope Francis is now saying that the Pope is "Unus Inter Pares," One among Equals.

But he goes on to point out that the Bishop of Rome does indeed have a critical role to play for the unity of the Church. He states that the Bishop of Rome is "called at the same time to guide the Church of Rome, which presides in the Love of all the Churches."

He is quoting here the Epistle of St. Ignatius of Antioch, who described the Roman Church as "presiding in love." Pope Francis quoted this the first evening he came out on that balcony as Pope.

And Pope Francis is hereby stating that it is not the Pope who has primacy. It is the Church of Rome itself. 

And its mission is the unity of the Church.

The Pope also clearly points to the fact that orienting the Church toward Collegiality is intended to result in the possibility of unity with the East. He states that he told the delegation from the Church of Constantinople that "the principle of collegiality and the service of the one who presides offer a significant contribution to the advancement of relations between our Churches."

And I'll close by saying, if he actually implements the vision he stated today, we will look back on this day as the end of the Schism.

Who's the Pope? Latin to the Rescue!!!

Apparently, there is a claim being made by various conspiracy theorists that the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI was invalid, owing to a grammatical error in the text.

Now, I was the one who spotted a mere typo in the text of the resignation. And my attention to this point was apparently noticed by people at the Vatican and the typo was officially corrected.

But the conspiracy theorists are now claiming that a grammatical error in the central sentence announcing resignation makes the resignation a nullum factum, a non-act.

Here's the text of the resignation:
Declaro me ministerio Episcopi Romae Successoris Sancti Petri, mihi per manus Cardinalium die 19 aprilis MMV commissum renuntiare.

I declare that I resign the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me through the hands of the Cardinals on April 19, 2005.

Following the infinitive renuntiare, the past participle from committo, committere, commisi, commissum should have been "commisso" in the dative, modifying ministrio, which is in the dative.

But as originally delivered by the then Pope Benedict XVI, it was not in the dative. 

If you watch and listen to his formal declaration, he clearly does pronounce the word in question as "commissum."

While the official Vatican website has corrected the error, the Vatican News Site still lists the text as originally issued and uttered.

Conspiracy theorists are claiming that Pope Benedict XVI intentionally introduced the grammatical error so that he could, if necessary, claim his resignation was invalid and emerge once again as Pope.

What the conspiracy theorists are missing is that the grammatical error is not the real issue here. Canon Law which governs the process of a Pope resigning is the key to whether the resignation was validly issued or not.

Here's the Canon in question:

Canon 332 §2: If it happens that the Roman Pontiff resigns his office, it is required for validity that the resignation is made freely and properly manifested but not that it is accepted by anyone.

Si contingat ut Romanus Pontifex muneri suo renuntiet, ad va­liditatem requiritur ut re­nuntiatio libere fiat et rite manifestetur, non vero ut a quopiam acceptetur

The  key word for validity here is rite. The dictionary definition of the word is:

"in a proper manner," "justly," "with due ceremonies"

There is nothing within the word rite that would imply that, for an act to be conducted rite, it must be free of grammatical errors.

It is evidently clear that Pope Benedict XVI intended his resignation that day. Indeed, he resigned and went off to a monastery while the Cardinals conducted an election.

It was a valid act which succeeded, under Canon Law, in resigning himself from the See of Peter.

Pope Benedict XVI resigned the Papacy. I wish him many years of healthy life.

Pope Francis is now the Bishop of Rome. I wish him as well many years of healthy life and a fruitful ministry. I especially pray that his visit to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople will bring further unity to the Church of God. Amen.

A Jubilee Year in Honor of Pope ... Celestine????

On July 5, 2014, Pope Francis declared a Jubilee Year to honor and celebrate one of his predecessors of the See of Peter, Pope Celestine V.

This man served as Pope only five months in 1294 and then resigned. Canon law always provided for a bishop to resign from his post, and the Bishop of Rome was never an exception. Except it had never happened. And then it didn't happen again until Pope Benedict XVI did so in 2013.

Dante seems to imply that Pope Celestine V went to hell when he wrote:

I saw and recognized the shade of him
Who by his cowardice made the great refusal.

—Inferno III, 59–60

The Church proclaimed him a saint, but has also always refused to ever declare someone to be in hell. If Dante really meant to assert Celestine was in hell, I pray for his soul, Dante's not Celestine.

So what is Pope Francis really doing here?

He is doing nothing short of honoring the courageous move of his immediate predecessor, who created a new paradigm for the modern papacy. 

I pray that Pope Francis has many years of healthy and fruitful ministry, ever deepening the unity of the global Church. May he and Patriarch Bartholemew concelebrate the Eucharist at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre following an unexpected healing of the schism.

And may he enjoy many years of a healthy and happy retirement himself, when he passes on the office to the next generation.

Pray for us, Saint Pope Celestine V, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Francis, Bishop of Rome, Primus Inter Pares?

Pope Francis seems to have extended an olive branch to the Orthodox in his first public appearance. In his words spoken from the balcony immediately after his election, he repeatedly referred to himself as the Bishop of Rome:

• Brothers and sisters, good evening!
  You know how the duty of the Conclave is to give a bishop to Rome. It seems that my brother cardinals have gone to take him from the edge of the world... but here we are. 

Then:

• The diocesan family of Rome has your bishop: thank you! 

He proceeds to then demote Benedict XVI from Pope Emeritus to Bishop Emeritus:

• And before anything else, I'd like for us to pray for our bishop-emeritus, Benedict XVI.

Later:

• first, I ask you this favor: before the bishop blesses his people, I ask that you pray to the Lord that he might bless me.

He also refers to the evangelization of the city of Rome as one of his primary duties:

• I wish you that this journey as Church, that we begin today and on which my Cardinal-Vicar [of Rome] will help me, might be fruitful for the evangelization of this beautiful city!

But the most intriguing clue to Pope Francis' potential ecumenical overtures is his quote from St. Ignatius of Antioch:

• And now, together, let us start this road: bishop and people. This [new] path of the church of Rome, which "presides in charity" [over] all the churches. (Letter to the Romans 1)

Now, there could be debate over whether St. Ignatius, when he refers to the Church of Rome as having a "Presidency of Love" (προκαθημενη της αγαπης) really does have any thought of Primacy for that See on any level. But Pope Francis is clearly basing his Primatial Role within the Church of Rome, not his person. In other words, he is not claiming to be the Pope because he's the successor of St. Peter. He's broadcasting a potential understanding of Roman Primacy as based back on the historical status of that See.


We greet with joy the news that the Ecumenical Patriarch will be attending the installation of the new Bishop of Rome. It's a breakthrough all on its own for Church Unity.

Finally, let me say some things that may be unpopular with my Orthodox Brethren. There remains, obviously, a major disagreement regarding the status of the Bishop of Rome between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. And that disagreement led to the severing of Communion between those Churches. But there was a time when that disagreement existed and yet the Churches were still in Communion. We need to be willing, lest we commit the sin of schism against the unity of the Church, to at least go back to the time before the break. But Pope Francis seems to be telegraphing a willingness to scale Roman claims back much further than that. And I'm not saying we've yet seen or know enough to know if a breakthrough is possible. I pray that we open our hearts and minds to consider whether this is a potential ecumenical moment.

Eastern Orthodox Churches have been routinely giving Sacraments to Oriental Christians for some time now. Even though no formal healing of schism has taken place, and even though altar sharing of clergy is still forbidden, individual Christians are communed. And I'm not saying we should not. But to then be even stricter with fellow Christians with whom we share the Council of Chalcedon isn't consistent. Long before some formal accord that restores altar fellowship between Catholic and Orthodox clergy should be, perhaps, an allowance that an Orthodox priest may administer Sacraments to a Roman Catholic on a case by case basis. For instance, if an Orthodox parish member has a Catholic spouse who faithfully attends Liturgy, it would seem such a person could be authorized to receive the Sacrament.

For us to hold the Latins to a higher standard than, say, the Copts, is ecumenically disordered. It's akin to healing a relationship with your younger brother while refusing to even speak with your fraternal twin.

Update: Here's what will be proclaimed after the Gospel (in Greek) is proclaimed at the Installation Mass:

Eis Polla Ete, Despota is Greek meaning "For Many Years, Master." (Ad Multos Annos).

We proclaim this exact phrase, in Greek (whether for a Russian or Romanian hierarch, no matter, still in Greek) for any Orthodox Bishop.