|
The tools of Latinization…
So what has caused the spread of monochrome Catholicism?
 Marie-Dominique
Chenu in his seminal work, Nature,
Man and Society in the Twelfth Century (1968),
paints a portrait of a Latin Church leading up to the Great Schism, seeking
to protect Herself from the many questions posed by the Greek Church,
by 'discouraging' the Greek language as a tool of Theological study. So
pervasive was this 'discouragement' that even the famous St. Thomas
Aquinas, although drawing on many of the Eastern Fathers in his philosophical
works, did so by studying the available translations of these Fathers
in Latin, for the great Aquinas knew no Greek, and could not read the
texts of the Greek Fathers in their original format.
As Chenu writes, Latin Theology was typified by fixed positions and a
coherence deriving from St. Augustine and all those who followed
in this Western Father's teachings — which consisted obviously of
the majority of the Western Church thinkers. Although Greek was the language
of the New Testament, lack of knowledge of Greek significantly limited
educated discussion with regard 'Negative Theology', 'Theosis',
'Married Clergy', and 'Oikonomia'. Thus it is not by chance
that those theologians of the West who were interested in Eastern theology,
such as: Peter Abelard, Thomas Aquinas, and Desiderius
Erasmus, have also been some of the greatest reformers of the Latin
Church.
No better evidence of the disparity between Eastern and Western theological
thought can be garnered than from Abelard's Sic
et Non, a text written soon after the Schism, so as to
highlight to the West that on many areas of theological debate —
great Saints have thought on many occasions, the polar opposite. The
eventual rift between East and West was to provide the West with the luxury
of claiming the East to have been in error and the reservoir of Truth
was to be held in the palm of the West. Sic
et Non, became defunct, because there no longer existed
the need to query the issue of 'Father against Father' — for Rome
had spoken — the matter had been decided. This smugness was also
reciprocated by the East to the West. As the Orthodox scholar Alexander
Schmemann tells us in The Historical Road
of Eastern Orthodoxy: "The
worst part of the separation of the churches lies in the fact that through
the centuries we find hardly any sign of suffering from it, any longing
for unification, any awareness of the abnormality, sin, and horror of
this schism in Christendom. There was almost a satisfaction with the separation,
and a desire to discover darker and darker aspects in the opposite camp…".
(Schmemann, 1977, p. 252)
St. Francis de Sales is credited with saying, that once a person
breaks a means of communication — a friendship will die. Thus well
before Cardinal Humbert stormed into Hagia Sophia, the quarrel
regarding the official language of the Catholic Church, had already well
and truly sowed the seeds for dissecting the 'Seamless garment'.
As Chenu also writes there was in the West, at time of the
Schism, a pervasive form of thought that believed that as the sun rises
in the East and sinks in the West, so in like manner, the history of the
world rose in the East and would be perfected in the West. If this was
indeed the case — the East had very little to teach the West; for
the purpose of the East was therefore as dead as history. (cf.
Chenu, 1968, pp. 186-187)
The Schism of 1054 stripped the Church of most of its
Eastern Lung…
Yet obviously the process of the latinization of the Catholic Church
took greater hold after the Schism of 1054, when the Pope became Supreme
Head of a Catholic Church stripped of most of her Eastern lung. In effect,
the schism narrowed the focus as to what it meant to be Catholic as the
diversity of rites and the sisterhood of Churches was reduced to a form
far different to that which preceded the East-West split. The primacy
of Peter then became too often confused with another term, the primacy
of Rome. Yves Congar encapsulated
the ramifications of the schism as follows: "Briefly,
the "schism" appears to us as the acceptance of a situation
by which each part of Christendom lives, behaves and judges without taking
notice of the other. We may call it geographical remoteness, provincialism,
lack of contact, a "state of reciprocal ignorance," alienation,
or by the German word "Entfremdung". The English word "estrangement"
expresses all this quite admirably. The Oriental schism came about by
a progressive estrangement: this is the conclusion to which the following
analysis seems to lead us". (Congar,
1959, p. 5)
In time, generations of Latin Catholics grew up with the perception that
the Church was centrifugally oriented toward the West, for presumably
only did that lung of the Church fully obey Christ's instruction to place
authority in St. Peter's hands. As has been mentioned, even to this day
the term, which sprung out of the Reformation, Roman Catholic Church,
is used by many interchangeably when they speak of the Catholic Church.
John Meyendorff states clearly that the Protestant Reformation was in
no way a protest against the Eastern Churches, "but
against a Roman and Latin Christendom which itself had gone out-of-balance
after the schism with the East". (Meyendorff,
1983, p. 12) Thus to many Eastern Christians — the Protestant
Reformation is considered a 'domestic problem' for the Latin Church, because
outside of the disastrous impact it had on the Latin Church, Eastern Christians
were not directly effected. The indirect effect
on the Eastern Churches was of course the development of 'Fortress Rome'
and the 'politics' of monochrome Catholicism.
Such an introverted form of Catholicism, eventually led to John XXIII
calling Vatican II. The four key areas focused upon by this Council were:
the Church's teaching
about itself, the
Church's renewal, the Church's
unity with other Christians, particularly the Orthodox and
the Church's relationship with the contemporary
world. That the Council was to emphasize the relationship with
the Eastern Church was stimulated by the experience of John XXIII
in Bulgaria. Prior to his election as Pope, Roncalli had explained in
a 1954 lecture how the Eastern Catholic Churches had led him to a new
appreciation of the Catholic Church — one broader than he had previously
understood. Roncalli recounted his first visit to an Eastern Catholic
Divine Liturgy in the following manner: "At
the start I found it difficult to join in their prayers and worship, but
suddenly I understood that this compenetration of hearts and voices was
a great door by which one could reach these Slav brothers who were so
open-minded, upright and sincere in their feelings. As I joined with them
in singing their grieving lamentations, which were the echo of centuries
of political and religious slavery, I began to feel myself more catholic,
more truly universal." (Hebblethwaite,
1984, p. 120)
John XXIII's love for the Eastern Catholics and the Orthodox…
The degree of love that John XXIII showed for his Eastern Catholic and
Orthodox brethren, cannot be understated. It was the roly-poly Pope who
not only was the catalyst for Vatican II, but who also nominated the Ukrainian
eparch, Josaphat Kuntsevych (feast day November 12) as patron Saint
of the Council. It was also the jovial Roncalli who as Pope negotiated
with Kennedy and Khruschev at the height of the Cold War for the last
surviving hierarch of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Josip Cardinal
Slipyj to be released from a Siberian slave labour camp after 17 years
of imprisonment. Hebblethwaite captures this event in his biography of
John XXIII, the Pope having stated that he wished to delay the opening
of Vatican II pending Slipyj's release: "So
John saw Slipyj's liberation as something momentous: it was an answer
to prayer, a sign of the times, an epiphany … They met that same
evening. John advanced with arms out-stretched to embrace him, but Slipyj
fell to his knees and insisted on kissing the papal feet. John lifted
him up and gave him the kiss of peace. 'Thank you, holy Father', said
Slipyj, 'for all you have done to pull me out of the well'. What is there
to say when one has been suddenly transported from a log-cabin in Siberia
to the Vatican? They went to John's private chapel and recited the Magnificat
together. Truly, it seemed, 'he that is mighty has done great things'.
Then they had a conversation lasting an hour and twenty minutes. John
wanted to know about the labour camps — Slipyj had brought along
his prison uniform — and about other priests and bishops to be found
there. Slipyj gave him a map of the Soviet Union with all the camps marked
— a guide to what Alexander Solzhenitsyn was soon to call 'the Gulag
Archipelago'. John kept it beside him till he died. He wrote in the margin:
'The heart is closer to those who are further away; prayer hastens to
seek out those who have the greatest need to feel understood and loved'".
(Hebblethwaite, 1984, p. 477)
Historically the Latin Church has also been stimulated by a desire to
impart universality through uniformity. Yves Cardinal Congar wrote
that the Church of the West begins with the whole and considers the particular
churches as being part of this whole. Conversely he perceived that in
the East "the ecclesiological significance
of the local Church, centered on the mystery and the sacrament…".
(Congar, 1959, p. 14) Moreover Congar embellishes
his argument by stating that in the West, the Papacy of the Middle Ages
resembled the unitarian model of government: "According
to this idea, terrestrial government and the terrestrial order of things
imitate celestial government and the celestial order of things; therefore,
there can be on earth but one order, one truth, one justice, one power,
of which the custodian is the image and representative of God; to one
God in Heaven, one sole monarch corresponds on earth, by right at least."
(Congar, 1959, 16)
Evidently such varying perceptions of Church were to come into conflict.
The most horrific example between the Eastern and Western Churches being
the well-documented and infamous behaviour of the West during the
Fourth Crusade in Constantinople: "Latinization
was a natural result of the Crusades wherever the Latins were able to
assert themselves. It is clear that at this period, which saw the development
of ecclesiastical power, of canon law, and of Scholastic philosophy, the
lack of an historical sense and of curiosity towards others and other
worlds gave Western Christianity that self-confidence which comprised
its strength. On the other hand, it deprived the Latins of the feeling
of legitimate diversity in the matter of rite, of ecclesiastical organization,
of canonical tradition, and even of doctrine." (Congar,
1959, p. 25)
Tunnel vision…
The Latin Church has also assisted the manufacturing of tunnel vision
by the imposition of sanctions, which have had to this day a lasting impact
on the psyche of its members. The threat of mortal sin attached to attending
a non-Catholic service in the past, was promulgated from the pulpit and
echoed around the kitchen table. Present day
devout Roman Rite Catholics, although perceiving themselves to be cosmopolitan
in attitude, must first shrug off some of the 'faith of their fathers'
so as not to be so apprehensive or threatened by differences within the
Church Universal. Fear of failing the Church, or losing one's salvation
by delving into matters, which did not concern them as members of the
Latin Church, has had lasting effects. Whereas Eastern Catholics are indeed
Catholic, their liturgical differences can, and do frighten Roman Rite
Catholics for the very reason outlined. This fear was fanned
by words such as those issued by Pope Pius XI where he warned Catholic
faithful: "So, Venerable Brethren, it is
clear why this Apostolic See has never allowed its subjects to take part
in the assemblies of non-Catholics; for the union of Christians can only
be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of
those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left
it." (Pius XI, 1928, §10)
A good deal of the criticism as to why the Latin Church does not understand
the presence nor importance of the Eastern Churches should be leveled
at some members within the Latin Church hierarchy, who have in particular
cases greatly exacerbated the problem. I exclude the Pontiff from criticism
here, as in his role as Supreme Head of the Universal Church, the degree
of charity and respect which has exuded within the many Papal letters
and encyclicals in the modern era is testament enough of the sincerity
of commitment to the principle of unity in diversity. As but one example,
Pius XII reminds the Universal Church: "From
all this it is evident that our predecessors have always shown the same
fatherly love to the Ruthenians as to the Catholics of the Latin rite.
They have also considered it most important to defend the rights and privileges
of their hierarchy. When many Latins asserted that the Ruthenian rite
was of inferior standing, and some Latin bishops even declared that the
Ruthenian prelates did not enjoy full Episcopal rights and functions but
were subject to them, this Apostolic See rejected these unjust and fanciful
opinions." (Pius XII, 1945, §29)
However, there has been indeed a decided lack
of comprehension of papal teachings among certain members of the Latin
Church hierarchy with regard the Eastern Catholic Churches.
TO
PART IV>>>
ARTICLE
NAVIGATION: PART I | PART II | PART III | PART IV | PART V
|
 Andrew
Thomas Kania is a visiting scholar at Oxford University where
he is completing a book on Dag Hammerskold. He has taken 12 months
leave of absence from his position as Director of Spirituality at
Aquinas College, Manning in Western Australia to complete this book.
Prior to this appointment at Aquinas Dr. Kania was a lecturer for
the School of Religious Education at the University of Notre Dame
Australia as well as for the Catholic Institute of Western Australia
at Edith Cowan and Curtin Universities. Dr. Kania belongs to the
Ukrainian Church and is interested in ecumenical issues as well
as contemporary problems facing religious educators.
|
©2007
Dr Andrew Thomas Kania
[Andrew Kania's Archive]
|
Email
this page to a friend
Print
friendly view
Post
your feedback in our forum
