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THE ARCHEPARCHY OF KOTTAYAM
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INTERNATIONAL
THEOLOGICAL SYMPOSIUM ECUMENISM:
EASTERN PERSPECTIVES I am very happy to speak at this
inaugural session of this symposium. When Fr. Joseph Kallarangatt spoke to me
about this symposium, I myself suggested Ecumenism as its topic.
From
long years of my reflections, studies and experience as a member of various
national and international Commissions on Ecumenism and Dialogue, I can now see
a bright future for ecumenism. So in this talk I show how the prospect of having
new sui iuris Churches in the Catholic Communion, which can exist and function
along with others in given common territories, bespeaks an auspicious future for
ecumenism. The constitutive principles of the essential structures of the
Catholic Church are so liberal that any Church or ecclesial community can find
itself comfortable and free in the Catholic ecclesial communion, preserving ones
own essential identity and rightful autonomy with due dependence in the
hierarchical communion.
The
Church has essential structures on different levels of ecclesial communion. On
the universal level the faithful incorporated into Christ through baptism
constitutes the People of God (the Church). It subsists in the Catholic Church.
The baptized are united to the Catholic Church through profession of faith,
sacraments and hierarchical communion (cc.7,8).
On
the basic level of communion, a community of faithful adhering to a bishop as
its pastor is a particular Church (eparchy). In that basic level indeed the one,
holy, catholic and apostolic Church exists and is operative (c.177), of course
not in its full extension, but in its minimum comprehension namely keeping the
essential constitutive elements of the Church – the faith, sacraments and
hierarchical communion.
On the intermediary levels of ecclesial communion, communities of faithful joined together by their own hierarchies are recognized as churches sui iuris by the supreme authority of the Church (c. 27). The main constitutive factors in the formation of a sui iuris Church are three, namely a community of faithful, a hierarchy binding the faithful together, and the recognition by the supreme authority of the Church as sui iuris Church. The first two are internal and material, and the third external and formal. As the status of sui iuris is granted by ecclesial recognition, sui iuris Church is not considered to be of divine origin, but of ecclesiastical origin, although through divine providence (LG. 23).
Rite
is not a constitutive element of sui iuris Church, although in the manner of
living the Christian faith a sui iuris Church will manifest a ritual heritage
formed through culture and historical circumstances of its faithful (c. 28).
Hence the faithful of one and the same rite may be formed into different sui
iuris Churches or conversely also the faithful observing different rites may
form one Church sui iuris.
All
the sui iuris Churches in the Catholic communion have equal rights, dignity and
obligation. However, they may differ among themselves according to the grade of
the autonomy or self-rule they enjoy in the Catholic Communion or according to
the limits placed on their autonomy by the supreme authority of the Church. On
that basis sui iuris Churches are distinguished as patriarchal, major
archiepiscopal, metropolitan sui iuris, or others of lesser autonomy.
There
are now twenty-two such sui iuris Churches in the Catholic Communion. The
possibilities for more new sui iuris Churches also are kept open according to
the Council documents (OE. 3, 11, etc.) and canonical norms (c.57). Such new sui
iuris Churches may be recognized, when ecclesial Communities not in communion
make a communion with the Catholic Church, as it happened with regard to the
Syro-Malankara Church. There is even the possibility of the supreme authority of
the Church recognizing the regional diversities in a church sui iuris as
sufficient for being recognized as different sui iuris Churches. So can there be
a Patriarchal Church of Africa, or of South America, etc; all following the
Latin rite. (Paper presented at the Roman Symposium by Prof. Astrid Kaptijn)
There
can even be several intermediary levels in an ecclesial communion. Suppose the
Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, conceding spiritual authority to the Syrian
Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, establishes a hierarchical communion with the
Petrine See of Rome; the resulting sui iuris Church will have a two-tire
communion in the intermediary level, namely centered on the Malankara Catholicos
and on the Patriarch of Antioch.
The
ration d’etre of any sui iuris Church is the particularity of its community of
faithful. Such particularity may have its origin from the culture, historical
circumstances, ritual heritage, ethnicity, etc. of the peoples.
Unity
and diversity, but not uniformity are essential principles that govern the
ecclesial communion on all its levels. Unity in the essential constitutive
elements of the church, diversity by respecting the particularities of
people’s heritages. Legitimate diversity where exists or is demanded for the
good of the people is to be fostered. Uniformity on the other hand may not be
imposed where it is not needed. Ethnical or regional
diversities of ritual heritage in matters liturgical, spiritual theological and
disciplinary may also be preserved.
Exclusive
territory is not a constitutive principle of the sui iuris Church or of the
particular Church. Therefore, different sui iuris Churches, or different
particular Churches of the same sui iuris Church, can co-exist in a given common
territory. Churches in Kerala, in Western Asia and Eastern Europe are examples.
Faithful
having the same ritual heritage can belong to different sui iuris Churches on
the basis of ethnical difference, for example the Ukranians and Ruthenians.
So
also faithful having the same ritual heritage and belonging to the same sui
iuris Church can have, on the basis of ethnical difference, different particular
Churches existing in a common territory. For example, the eparchy of Kottayam
co-existing with the other eparchies of the Syro-Malabar Church within its
territorium proprium - or the Latin
dioceses of Cochin and Alleppy having own parishes in the common territory.
A
particular Church of any sui iuris Church can have parish units exclusively for
the faithful of a different ritual heritage. For example the Latin Archdiocese
of Bangalore having also Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara parishes. Similarly the
Syro-Malabar eparchy of Kottayam has also Syro-Malankara parishes.
There
is also a case of communities of different ritual heritages in a given territory
being recognized as a sui iuris Church consisting of only one particular Church
(eparchy); namely the eparchy of Krizevci is a sui iuris Church for the Serbs,
Ruthenians, Ukranians, Slavic Macedonians and Romanians in the territory of the
former Yugoslavia.
What
do all these facts say? In the matter of ecclesial structures the Holy Mother
Church is very liberal, generous and benevolent, ready to make accommodations
for legitimate
particularities of any ecclesial community. She is willing to strengthen the
identity of such communities with rightful autonomy in the hierarchical
communion recognizing them as sui iuris Churches. Any Church or ecclesial
community can find it easy to maintain ones own identity within such eccelsial
structures of the Catholic Church, if it chooses to establish a hierarchical
communion.
The
Holy Mother Church is liberal, but we know, not all her children are so liberal.
Some are rather restrictive and tight-fisted in granting legitimity to
particularities, which make a community capable of being recognized as a sui
iuris Church, or of being instituted as a particular Church.
Being jealous of ones own power and position, some local authorities or
even officials of the dicasteries of the Holy See, do not let the liberality of
the Church flow unhindered.
In
reality, all doors and windows are openable, but on the pretext of a false
security, some keep them closed and locked. Let us call on the Spirit to open
their minds, that they finally let the doors and windows be opened. Fresh air
and light will then come in, ecumenism will flourish and the Church unity will
then be a reality! Mar
Kuriakose Kunnacherry. Paurastya Vidyapitham
Vadavathoor, Kottayam January 28, 2002. |
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