COMMENTARY: A Church is not a rite... (05/10/98)

COMMENTARY

A Church is not a rite...

Following are excerpts from a May 3 editorial in Eastern Catholic Life, the official newspaper of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic, N.J., written in response to a letter issued on March 4 by the Vatican Secretariat of State to the office of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Nuncio to Poland authorizing, among other things, the mandatory return of married Ukrainian Greek-Catholic priests in Poland to Ukraine.

... Recently, in a letter from the Vatican's Office of the Secretariat of State ... a particular Eastern Catholic Church was referred to as a rite and was then required to submit to a list of mandates. The distinction between the words rite and Church cannot be overemphasized, and misuse of those terms requires elucidation.

The distinction between the words rite and Church is an important one. In the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, a particular term is used to describe the Eastern Catholic Churches: it is "Church sui juris," or self-governing church. More precisely, the Code of Canons, in Canon 27, defines Church sui juris as follows: A group of Christian faithful united by a hierarchy according to the norm of law that the supreme authority of the Church expressly or tacitly recognizes ...

In the same Code of Canons, Canon 28 defines rite as: the liturgical, theological, spiritual and disciplinary patrimony, culture and circumstances of history of a distinct people, by which its own manner of living the faith is manifested in each Church sui juris. ...

The Code of Canons goes on to state that the rites referred to in the code arise from the Alexandrian, Antiochene, Armenian, Chaldean and Constantinopolitan (Byzantine) traditions. Each Church sui juris follows one of these rites. ... rite refers to the way in which one expresses one's faith, while Church refers to the Christian community united to its duly presiding hierarch.

... the letter from the Office of the Vatican Secretariat of State needs to be examined closely ... Repeatedly, the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church is referred to as the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic rite. ... To blur the meaning of the two distinct words, or to use the words interchangeably is not only incorrect but also dangerously compromises the possibility of maintaining a clear perception, understanding and appreciation of a community of people united by a common tradition. This is of particular concern when the distinction between church and rite is blurred on the highest level.

To refer to the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, or any Eastern Catholic Church, simply as a rite of the Catholic Church implies a minimizing of their status from a Church to a type of subdivision of the Roman Catholic Church. The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, as well as the Melkite Greek-Catholic Church, the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, the Romanian Greek Catholic Church, etc. all are fully Churches and not merely rites (or rituals) ... each is in communion with the other Eastern Catholic Churches and, in turn, in communion with the Church of Rome. They are not merely sub-communities of a larger structure that must submit to the changes imposed on it. ...

The letter which directs the married priests of the Catholic Church of the Byzantine-Ukrainian Rite to return to Ukraine would seem to submit the Greek-Catholic Church in Poland to the Roman Catholic Bishops Conference in Poland on a matter of an internal disciplinary nature. And the suggestion that any resulting shortage of Greek Catholic priests in Poland be satisfied with Roman Catholic biritual priests betrays, in the very least, a lamentable discourtesy to the Greek Catholic Church, as well as a misreading of canon law and church history.

...the heritage which admits married men to the sacrament of Holy Orders is the patrimony (tradition) of all the Churches of the East. It is a common thread in history for them from the time of the apostles ... Moreover, with the Greek-Catholic Eparchy of Przemysl [Peremyshl] having a history which dates back to 1085 A.D., it is curious how the discipline of clerical celibacy can be referred to as a constant tradition that cannot be changed except with consultation of the Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops in Poland.

The document of Vatican II, Orientalum Ecclesiarum, and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches clearly designate the Eastern Catholic communities as Churches not merely rites. ... because the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church is a particular and self-governing Church the mandate in the letter would seem to be incredulous.

We support Bishop [Lubomyr] Husar who decried the substitution of Roman Catholic biritual priests for married Greek-Catholic priests as not at all respectful, and we affirm what he said in behalf of Cardinal Myroslav Lubachivsky, head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, that the letter is odd . ...