www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News "Ecclesial Unity" of Mar Bawai's Flock

Thank you Amado for your explanation.

As you explained it, so has been my understanding as well. Mar Bawai is applying to be accepted as bishop to exercise an episcopal role in the Catholic Church. It should be a long process, unlike entering communion in that it is not a matter of salvation anymore but rather an ecclesiastic matter... and the Catholic Church should be careful when it comes to that.

One thing I just wanted to clarify. In terms of ecclesiastic purpose and as an entity, ACAD no longer exists. The parishes that we belong to now are part of the diocese to which they were admitted and are under the authorities of the bishops of those diocese {is there a plural "dioceses"?}.

Peace,
Anthony

Dear Anthony:

Yes, this is a distinctive feature of ecclesial authority in the Catholic Church.

The power to appoint/assign Bishops resides in the "Supreme Authority" in the Catholic church, who is the Pope and, in the case of Eastern Catholic Churches, the Patriarch or chief hierarch, with the consent of the Holy Synod or Council of Hierarchs.

Each particular Eastern Catholic Church, in appropraute cases, has "supreme authority" within their respective territorial jurisidiction while the Pope exercises it in the diaspora, and throughout the world for the Latin Church.

I think the rationale behind it is to preserve good order in the universal Catholic Church.

If the number of faithful is sufficient and a separate territorial jurisdiction can be carved out of the existing Chaldean diocese in the area, H.G. Mar Bawai may yet still become the bishop for most of the former ACAD faithful and for some additions from "old" Chaldean faithful who fall within that newly created diocese.

Amado

Dear Anthony,

I was wondering if you could help me with something - I found a video of a beautiful song dedicated to the Blessed Mother, but it sounds like it's in Arabic interspersed with Syriac; when you get time, could you translate the lyrics for me?

The video is here [youtube.com].

Can you tell if the singer is Assyrian-Chaldean or is he Maronite? In any case, Great voice!

Dear Michael,

Unfortunately, I don't speak Arabic. I was actually born in Iran and understand sparse amounts of Farsi. I can try to see if one of my friends can translate it for me. If I get any luck in doing that, I will post it here.

It sounds beautiful, thank you for the link. I'll be playing it quite a bit.

In Him,
Anthony

Hi,

I would like to compound the discussion a little bit.

I would agree that the episcopal ministry of Mar Bawai changed dramatically when he and his flock were received into full communion with the Catholic Church.

However, Catholic sacramental theology being what it is, Mar Bawai is a bishop and will always be a bishop. He has not been suspended, so I do not see why he cannot exercise applicable aspects of his episcopal ministry today.

Granted, since his jurisdiction disappeared, he cannot exercise any acts of jurisdiction, but a bishop is more than a presbyter with jurisdiction.

As long as he is in communion with the Catholic Church, he should be able to exercise his apostolic ministry of teacher of the faith and high priest of God's priestly people, just like any other titular bishop would do.

Shalom,
Memo

Dear Memo:

Essentially, we are in agreement.

Mar Bawai continues to possess episcopal powers and authority. He did not lose these when entering into full communion with the Catholic Church. His ordination as Bishop by the ACE is valid, as well as the ordination of the clergy who came in with him.

But Mar Bawai's exercise of his episcopal powers and authority is temporarily held in abeyance pending his formal reception by competent Church authority as provided in the CCEO and his subsequent assignment to a diocese of the Chaldean Catholic Church or, as you say, as a titular Bishop.

On the other hand, the lower clergy of the ACAD can continue to exercise their respective presbyteral or diaconal ministries without interruption.

Amado

I don't know if this has been posted in this discussion, but it was emailed to me by one of the RC deacons in the Birmingham Diocese. I thought you might find it interesting.

This recent news article has an interesting explanation by a Eastern Orthodox bishop for the Primacy of the Pope.

Assyrian Community Joins Catholic Church: A large commu�nity of Assyrian Catholics in Tur�lock , Calif. , has entered full communion with the Catholic Church by entering�en masse, with their bishop, Mar Bawai Soro, six priests, 30-plus deacons and subdeacons, and 3,000 of the lay faithful�the Chaldean Catholic Diocese of St. Peter and St. Paul .

The members of the Assyrian Church of the East (the first major Church to separate from Rome , in 431) were all received into full communion during liturgical cele�brations for the Feast of Pentecost [2008], according to an announcement of the Chaldean Catholic Church.

According to the Rorate Coeli web site: "Mar Bawai Soro has long advocated the Primacy of the See of Rome. On November 2, 2005, he presented to the Synod of Bishops of the Assyrian Church of the East (of which he was a bishop at that time) a paper entitled The Position of the Church of the East Theological Tradition on the Ques�tions of Church Unity and Full Communion in which, among other things, he stated that:

' The Church of the East attributes a prominent role to Saint Peter and a significant place for the Church of Rome in her liturgical, canonical and Patristic thoughts. There are more than 50 liturgical, canonical and Patristic citations that explicitly express such a conviction. The question before us therefore is, why there must be a primacy attributed to Saint Peter in the Church? If there is no primacy in the universal church, we shall not be able to legitimize a primacy of all the Catholicos-Patriarchs in the other apostolic churches. If the patriarchs of the apostolic churches have legitimate authority over their own respective bishops it is so because there is a principle of primacy in the universal Church. If the principle of primacy is valid for a local Church (for example, the Assyrian Church of the East), it is so because it is already valid for the universal church. If there is no Peter for the universal church there could not be Peter for the local Church. If all the apostles are equal in authority by virtue of the gift of the Spirit, and if the bishops are the successors of the Apostles, based on what then has one of these bishops (i.e., the Catholicos-Patriarchs) authority over the other bishops?

' The Church of the East possesses a theological, liturgical and canonical tradition in which she clearly values the primacy of Peter among the rest of the Apostles and their churches and the relationship Peter has with his successors in the Church of Rome. The official organ of our Church of the East, Mar Abdisho of Soba, the last theologian in our Church before its fall, based himself on such an understanding when he collected his famous Nomocanon in which he clearly states the following: �To the Great Rome [authority] was given because the two pillars are laid [in the grave] there, Peter, I say, the head of the Apostles, and Paul, the teacher of the nations. [ Rome ] is the first see and the head of the patriarchs.� (Memra 9; Risha 1) Furthermore, Abdisho asserts �. . . . And as the patriarch has authority to do all he wishes in a fitting manner in such things as are beneath his authority, so the patriarch of Rome has authority over all patriarchs, like the blessed Peter over all the community, for he who is in Rome also keeps the office of Peter in all the church. He who transgresses against these things the ecumenical synod places under anathema.� (Memra 9; Risha 8). I would like to ask here the following: who among us would dare to think that he or she is more learned than Abdisho of Soba, or that they are more sincere to the church of our forefather than Mar Abdisho himself? This is true especially since we the members of the Holy Synod have in 2004 affirmed Mar Abdisho�s List of Seven Sacraments as the official list of the Assyrian Church of the East. How much more then we ought to consider examining and receiving Abdisho�s Synodical legislation in his Nomocanon? '

"Five days later, Mar Bawai was suspended by the Holy Synod of the Assyrian Church .... Following upon his suspension, Mar Bawai and the clergy and faithful who had re�mained loyal to him formed the Assyrian Catholic Apostolic Dio�cese, then proceeded to draw ever closer to the Catholic Church through the Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate."

The Assyrian Church is not in Communion with any Orthodox Communion - neither Eastern nor Oriental. The statements are interesting and encouraging nonetheless!

1. According to the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, in addition to the Holy Father, the Patriarch and Synod of Bishops of an Eastern Catholic Church have the right to receive a Bishop of a non-Catholic Eastern Church into communion with the Catholic Church (CCEO can. 898 � 1). Clearly, this is a canonical process which takes some time.

2. Interestingly, there is a fairly recent precedent for Bishop Bawai Soro's situation. Bishop Paul Philoxinus Ayyamkulangara of the Malabar Independent Syrian Church was received into full communion with the Catholic Church on Aug. 28, 1977, and on Oct. 11 that year was assigned a titular see. For the remaining 21 years of his life he served as a Bishop of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church (cf. Annuario Pontificio 1994 or another relevant year).

3. Therefore, I think one can fully expect that the Bishop Bawai Soro will soon be assigned to a titular see, and also that he will be canonically appointed to some pastoral office either by the Holy Father or by the Synod of Bishops of the Chaldean Catholic Church. I'm watching for any news of this from the Holy See Press Office.

Interesting to note: His Grace Metropolitan Paulos Mor Philexinos was the head bishop of the MISC when he came into the Catholic Church.

Shlamalokhon

I would say that Rome should erect a separate jurisdiction for them, or an "Assyrian Diocese" within the Chaldean Patriarchate. Otherwise, as some have pointed out, Mar Bawai would loose his authority and it would be fair for him to become a bishop of a new diocese, as he was the one that promoted union with the Catholic Church.

There's also one thing: the faithful come from the Assyrian Church, they indentify themselves as Assyrians, not as Chaldeans.

ܫܵܠܡܵܐ ܐܸܠܵܘܟܼܘܿܢ

Benedicite!

Surely the whole point of the exercise is to establish communion and unity between Chaldeans and Assyrians?

I'd say the majority of "Chaldeans" refer to themselves as Assyrian as well - they claim to be religiously belonging to the 'Assyrian'-"Chaldean" Church (of the East), but are ethnically Assyrian. Even the past Patriarch of the Chaldean Church claimed to be Assyrian, and while the current Patriarch prefers to be labeled as a "Chaldean", he doesn't deny his ethnic Assyrian identity.

I recall a conversation with an older attorney in the early '90's. When asked his ethinicity, he would say "Mesopotanian" because he didn't want to s ay "Iraqi"

hawk

Shlomo Hawk,

In actuality what it is, is that most Christians from the Middle East do not wish to identified as Arabs. Even my own Church people claim to be either Phoenician or Syriac.

Many of us who are third or fourth generation call ourselves Arabs. It does not really matter to us.

Poosh BaShlomo,
Yuhannon