Eastern Catholic Churches

A. EDWARD SIECIENSKI

Previously known as “Eastern Rite” or “Uniate” churches (terms that are now deemed either inadequate or derogatory), the Eastern Catholic Churches are the 22 autonomous churches of Alexandrian, Anti­ochian, Armenian, Assyrian, or Byzantine tradition that are in full communion with the bishop of Rome.

Historically, most (but not all) of the Eastern Catholic Churches came into being when hierarchs of local Assyrian, Eastern Orthodox, or Oriental Orthodox communities, often for very different reasons, sought to reestablish communion with the bishop of Rome. In a majority of these cases a percentage of the population refused to participate in the union, prefer­ring instead to maintain communion with an eastern patriarch. For this reason almost all of the Eastern Catholic Churches have an Assyrian, Orthodox, or Oriental Orthodox counterpart, almost identical in their litur­gies and religious practices, but separated by their respective views on communion with the see of Rome. An important exception are the Maronites, a community that existed in relative obscurity for centuries, only to be “rediscovered” by the crusaders in the 12th century. The Maronites have no counterpart among the other eastern churches, and claim never to have been out of communion with Rome.

Among the best known of these unions between an eastern church and Rome occurred at Brest-Litovsk in 1595. For various religious, cultural, and political rea­sons a large percentage of the Ukrainian Church, then living in the predominantly Catholic Kingdom of Poland-Lithuania, recognized the primacy of the pope and the orthodoxy of other western teachings (e.g., the filioque) in return for political protection and the right to retain their tra­ditional liturgy and practices. The union was approved by King Sigismund III and promulgated by Pope Clement VIII in the constitution Magnus Dominus. In the following centuries several other churches entered into communion with Rome on this model, including (but not limited to) portions of the Syrian Church in 1662, most of the Antiochene Church under Patriarch Cyril VI in 1724, and the Armenian Catholic Church in 1742.

Although there were efforts by the popes to discourage the forced Latinization of the eastern churches (particularly Benedict XIV in Etsi Pastoralis ¹⁷⁴², Demandatem ¹⁷⁴³, and Allatae Sunt ¹⁷⁵⁵), by the late 19th centurymanyofthem had increasingly become Latinized in both their beliefs and liturgical customs. However, following the release of Pope Leo XIII’s apostolic constitution Orientalium Dignitas (1894) this trend began to subside. Particularly influential in the early battle against Latin- ization was the Eastern Catholic Metropol­itan of Kiev-Halych, Andrew Sheptytsky (1865–1944). At the Second Vatican Coun­cil, at the urging of Melkite Patriarch Maximos IV Sayegh (1878–1967), the rights and dignity of the Eastern Catholic Churches were clearly reaffirmed in Orientalium Ecclesiarum (1964). Since that time, almost all of the eastern churches have made efforts to rediscover their own liturgical and spiritual heritage and remove elements of Latinization where they have occurred. In 1990 a separate Code of Canon Law was issued for the Eastern Cath­olic Churches in the hope of aiding in this process.

Following World War II, under commu­nist direction, a series of “reunion synods” were held (L’vov, 1946; Transcarpathia, 1947; Romania, 1948; Slovakia, 1950), at which several of the Eastern Catholic Churches were forcibly reincorporated into the local Orthodox churches. The Eastern Catholic church buildings in these territories were closed or given to the Orthodox, and dissenting clergy either sent to prison (e.g., Metropolitan Josyf Slipyj), killed, or forced to minister under­ground. However, following the political events of 1989, the Eastern Catholic Churches of Eastern Europe reemerged and disagreement (sometimes violent) over the ownership of seized church pro­perties occurred, especially in the Ukraine and northern Romania. The Catholic and Orthodox hierarchies were forced to post­pone their scheduled theological dialogue in order to address the issue of “Uniatism” and the possibility for a peaceful resolution to these tensions. In 1993 the Joint Interna­tional Commission issued a document (“Uniatism, Method of Union of the Past, and the Present Search for Full Com­munion,” better known as the “Balamand Statement”) rejecting Uniatism as a valid method of church union, but maintain­ing, nevertheless, the Eastern Catholic Churches’ right to exist.

The Eastern Catholic Churches include the Coptic Catholic Church; the Ethiopian Catholic Church; the Maronite Church; the Syrian Catholic Church; the Syro- Malankara Catholic Church; the Armenian Catholic Church; the Chaldean Catholic Church; the Syro-Malabar Church; the Albanian Greek Catholic Church; the Belarusian Greek Catholic Church; the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church; the Byz­antine Church of the Eparchy of Krizevci; the Greek Byzantine Catholic Church; the Hungarian Greek Catholic Church; the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church; the Macedonian Greek Catholic Church; the Melkite Greek Catholic Church; the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church; the Russian Catholic Church; the Ruthenian Catholic Church; the Slovak Greek Catholic Church; and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church SEE ALSO: Ecumenism, Orthodoxy and; Filioque; Lithuania, Orthodoxy in; Papacy; Romania, Patriarchal Orthodox Church of; Ukraine, Orthodoxy in the

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Gudziak, B. (1998) Crisis and Reform: The Kyivan Metropolitanate, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the Genesis of the Union of Brest. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Halecki, O. (1958) From Florence to Brest (1439–1596). Rome: Sacrum Poloniae Millen­nium.

Keleher, S. (1993) Passion and Resurrection: The Greek Catholic Church in Soviet Ukraine 1939–1989. L’viv: Stauropegion.

Macha, J. (1974) Ecclesiastical Unification: A Theoretical Framework Together with Case Studies from the History of Latin-Byzantine Relations. Orientalia Christiana Analecta 198. Rome: Pontifical Oriental Institute.