www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Possible Pallium Problem with Patriarch

The Vatican Information Service lists Metropolitan Archbishop Jan Babjak, S.J. of Presov as one of the new metropolitans to receive the pallium on the Solemnity of SS Peter and Paul at the Vatican.

Many will remember the last time a Byzantine Metropolitan was to receive the pallium (Metropolitan Judson of blessed memory) the Ecumenical Patriarch threw a hissy fit and refused to attend the Mass if a Byzantine Metropolitan received the pallium at the Mass. Metropolitan Judson graciously agreed to be presented the pallium in a private ceremony. I could be wrong but, I don't believe Metropolitan Basil received one at all.

I wonder what will happen this year when the EP finds out.

Fr. Deacon Lance

The presentation of the Pallium to Metropolitan Judson was hardly private - the Pope did it in the Sistine Chapel and all the pilgrims from the Pittsburgh Metropolia were there. Quite an honor, I'd say.

Fr. Serge

This sounds similar to when Cardinal Husar was created a Cardinal. I remember reading somewhere that he just slipped the ring in his pocket when it was presented to him.

Isn't the reception of the pallium a sign that one receives his authority for the pope? If this is the case, then I could see why the ecumenical patriarch would be upset.

Joe

Benedicite!

Normally, Eastern Catholic Churches are governed by a Patriarch. A newly elected Eastern Catholic Patriarch requests and receives "ecclesiastical communion" from the Pope, something which is marked by the concelebration of the Eucharist. However, those Eastern Catholic Metropolitans who for historical and other reasons do not currently belong to an Eastern Catholic Patriarchate (currently the Metropolitans of Addis Ababa [cnewa.org], Pittsburgh, and Pre�ov [cnewa.org]), receive the pallium as a sign of communion with the Holy See and of metropolitan authority within their Churches sui iuris. I don't see why this should be a problem per se, but of course the Ecumenical Patriarch is entitled to his opinion.

Benedicite!

Fr. Serge, if you were there in 1995, perhaps you can tell us what kind of pallium Metropolitan Judson received? Was it a Roman pallium or an Eastern omophorion? If the former, how and when would the Metropolitan use it?

Receiving the pallium in the Sistine Chapel is indeed a great honour! By the way, I believe that historically the pallium was often conferred on a new metropolitan in his own see by a papal legate, but I think receiving the pallium in Rome on June 29 is a wonderful symbol of the communion of the Catholic Churches!

This morning the Pope gave the pallium, during the Holy Mass present the Ecumenical Patriarch, also to a bishop in Eastern vestments, likely Metropolitan Archbishop Jan Babjak

Dominus

It was a run-of-the-mill Latin-style pallium. One must seriously ask what is meant by presenting such a "vestment" to one of our bishops, who is unlikely ever to wear it again, and when our bishops invariably wear the omophorion, which is historically the same thing.

Fr. Serge

You are right, Father Serge.










Dare I admit, "How silly." And why is the awarding of the Pallium done when the EP is present? To me, it just sounds so political and done in poor taste.

Benedicite!

This answers my earlier question about the type of pallium used. I agree it sounds rather pointless to bestow a Roman pallium on a Greek Catholic metropolitan if he isn't going to use it. On the other hand the metropolitan presumably already has an omophorion, so it wouldn't make much sense to give him one of those either... It seems like a reform is needed here! Any suggestions?

Benedicite!

Why not, may I ask? As far as possible every metropolitan appointed during the last twelve months receives his pallium on June 29. Not giving the pallium to the new Greek Catholic metropolitan would thus be "political", since it would only be because of the presence of the Ecumenical Patriarch.

Regardless of the issue of what type of pallium to present (see Fr. Serge's comments above) I am glad the Holy Father did not try to hide away the Greek Catholic metropolitan in what would have been a misguided attempt to please the Ecumenical Patriarch. Indeed, I am glad too that the Patriarch apparently didn't object. Hopefully this means that he doesn't share Moscow's evident distaste for Greek Catholics.

Having been asked for suggestions I shall give one, which is simplicity itself:

Giving the "pallium" to a Greek-Catholic Metropolitan (or, God forbid, a Greek-Catholic Patriarch) symbolizes precisely that reductio in obedientiam which is the objectionable feature of the Unia (cf. Ernst Suttner). This practice in origin is simply a custom of the Roman tradition which has nothing to do with Churches of the Constantinopolitan tradition and should therefore not be applied to those Churches.

Fr. Serge

Fr. Serge,
Thank you for the observation. The place of uniates within the Latin Church often seems like a second-class or "adopted" child in a family of natural born children. The "adopted" child so wants to be accepted. And this child has been separated from his/her natural parent, thus being deprived of proper advice. The analogy is maybe lacking but our eastern-rite bishops, eparchs, and patriarchs, one would think, should respectfully decline accepting inauthentic items even if offered in genuine charity. This may be done with good intentions by Rome. Scholarship can offer the insight to the "adoptee" that this gift is inappropriate to accept.

When being trained as a counselor in a rehab center, my mentor instructed me to learn how to "accept the gift without taking the gift." Some clients wanted to give counselors gifts - which was prohibited. Trainee counselors had to convey genuine thanks to the offeror but decline accepting the gift.

A Byzantine Catholic friend, an active cantor, told me that Latin rite bishops had asked our bishops to wear mitres at liturgies being jointly celebrated. This was declined. The "crown" is the authentic element for our bishops. Should the pallium also be declined when offered, just as the mitre has been declined?

-Pustinik
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"Acquire a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved." �St. Serafim of Sarov

Except for the Melkite Patriarchs the other Eastern Catholic Patriarchs seem to still receive palliums and wear them proudly. I have seen iamges of the Maronite, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, and Chaldean patriarchs wearing them.

Fr. Deacon Lance

Benedicite!

If there are images on the web, please could you give us some links?

Benedicite!

Your comparison is very interesting and very sad if true. However, I do hope and pray this is not how most Eastern Catholics would see themselves and their relationship with Latin Catholics!

Also, I would like to point out that the Eastern Catholic Churches ("uniates") are not part of the Latin Church, but constitute Churches in their own right (sui iuris) which are in full communion with Rome.

[Linked Image]

Even to me as a Latin Catholic this does look rather odd, and I can't begin to imagine what it looks like to someone who is Eastern Orthodox. Frankly I can't see how the use of a Western-style pallium by the Romanian Greek Catholic major archbishop can be defended in light of Orientalium Ecclesiarum:


Surely the Western-style pallium is not part of the ancestral traditions of the Greek Catholics? Thus, substituting the pallium for the omophorion seems to be contrary to both the letter and the spirit of Orientalium Ecclesiarum. Thus, I have to agree with Fr. Serge that the pallium should not be given to Eastern Catholic hierarchs, or at least not to those of the Byzantine tradition.

For the sake of comparison, here is the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, without a pallium in sight

[Linked Image]

My personal opinion: The Pallium looks like a noose.

Yes, and it does seem rather schizophrenic to want to wear Metropolitan symbols of the East and West.

Thank goodness the Eastern Catholic bishops cannot wear both the Roman mitre and the Eastern crown.

Shhhh! Don't give them any ideas.

I've looked more carefully and it seems His Beatitude Lucian is only wearing the pallium and not the omophorion at all... do you agree?


Now that would be quite a sight and a classic sign of advanced schizophrenia!

Armenian Patriarch and Syro-Malankar Metropolitan (at the time) wearing pallium:
http://easterncatholichymns.homestead.com/armenian2.html

http://easterncatholichymns.homestead.com/smalkqur4.html

No. He is wearing the small omophor.

I guess there is one benefit to wearing the pallium.

An Eastern Catholic hierarch who wears a pallium will not be so easily mistaken for an Orthodox hierarch. It is supposed to be a sign of submission to the Roman See, isn't it?

I remember at the funeral of John Paul II, several of my Catholic friends asked me why the Orthodox hierarchs were helping to serve the funeral. They mistakenly thought that the Eastern Catholic Hierarchs were Orthodox.

Not all eastern rites are sui juris as Neil pointed out re: Ethiopian (Geez) rite in Washington, DC, which is under the Latin Rite diocese, probably for administrative reasons (see below). The history of the Ruthenian-rite (Rusyn-rite) in America as well as the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church also shows how this rite was viewed by Roman rite bishops (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_Toth). This has been documented sadly - thankfully we are only now starting to come out from under the cloud cast by Roman-rite hierarchs in North America. But this sense of being accepted as we are by our Latin rite brothers and sisters was formed by historical consciousness of actions taken in the past 100 years overturning some of the agreements of the unia. Time can and hopefully will heal this. Progress is being made.

-Pustinik
--------------------------------------------------------
"Acquire a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved." �St. Serafim of Sarov------------------------------------------------------
Kidane-Mehret Ethiopian (Ge'ez) Catholic
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Rite: Alexandrian

Church: Ethiopian (Ge'ez) Catholic

Eparchy/Diocese: Archdiocese of Washington (Latin)

Special Circumstances: Ritually Ethiopian Ge'ez; Pastorally Ethiopian & Eritrean

why do i suddenly think of the Pschent [en.wikipedia.org] , the double crown of Ancient Egypt - a combination of the Red Crown (Deshret) of Lower Egypt, and the White Crown (Hedjet) of Upper Egypt...

I remember thinking how wonderful it was to see the venerable octogenarian Patriarch Stephen II of Alexandria and Patriarch Gregory III of Antioch serving at Pope John Paul II's funeral, since both Alexandria and Antioch have close Petrine links. But of course I can imagine many people would think they were Orthodox, not Catholic.

However, I don't think the problem is that Eastern Catholic hierarchs look too much like Eastern Orthodox ones, but rather that the Eastern Catholic Churches are practically unknown among most Latin Catholics. (On the contrary, Vatican II wanted Eastern Catholics to return to their roots and get rid of Latinizing innovations which only serve to perpetuate the thoroughly discredited and objectionable notion of pr�stantia ritus Latini.) As for Latin Catholics who don't know the Eastern Catholic Churches, they probably wouldn't know a pallium from an omophorion anyway, so it would hardly make any difference to them what the Eastern Catholic hierarchs were wearing!

Very interesting! The pallium doesn't look so bad on the Armenian Catholic patriarch, given the huge Western-style mitre he is wearing.

As for the Syro-Malankaras, now that they have a Major Archbishop who is styled "Beatitude" and "Catholicos," I wonder if he still wears a pallium? As for the second Syro-Malankara metropolitan (of Tiruvalla), I don't suppose he gets a pallium anyway, since he is subject to the Major Archbishop.

Thanks for the clarification!

I suppose that the point is a different one - please correct me

The EC Patriarchs and Major Archbishop, if they like, can wear the pallium as the pope does: without the need to receive the pallium from anyone

While EC Metropolitans can wear the pallium only if it is given to them by the pope.

*****
Looking at the CCEO, in TITLE 6 about Metropolitan Churches and Other Churches we read:

Canon 156 1. Within three months after episcopal ordination or, if already ordained a bishop, after the enthronement, the metropolitan is bound by the obligation to petition the pallium from the Roman Pontiff, which is a sign of his metropolitan power and full communion of the metropolitan Church sui iuris with the Roman Pontiff. 2. Prior to the imposition of the pallium, the metropolitan cannot convoke the council of hierarchs or ordain bishops.

This requirement is not present in TITLE 4 about Patriarchal Churches and in TITLE 5 about Major Archiepiscopal Churches

The Pallium is solely the gift of the Pope of Rome. While not mentioned in the CCEO, it seems the Pallium is still sent to those Eastern Patriarchs and Major Archbishops who request it.

Which only strengthens the point that the Patriarchs and thoe of quasi-patriarchal rank ought to know better!

Fr. Serge