One of the most difficult aspects of explaining the Church to Catholics, much less non-Catholics, is that there are different Rites within the Church Universal. When I tell people I was baptised and confirmed Maronite Catholic, some look blankly or confused, while others take a stab at what that means — usually asking if it is a disconnected offshoot of what they understand as Catholicism (i.e., the Latin Rite) and that I must have converted at some point.
Not at all. As John Paul The Great once said, “The Church breathes with two lungs, the Eastern Church and the Western Church.”
The Church is made up of several Rites, or Churches within the Church, the largest of which is the Latin Rite. Each Rite has a patriarch, the head of that Church. The Pope is the patriarch of the Latin Rite as well as the head of the Church Universal. A kind of first among equals.
We don’t quite need an organizational chart, but this is a topic we will write about often here, as it is underserved, and one in which Brother John and I both have some background and expertise. But the reason it comes up today is because last week Pope Benedict heeded a plea from the Middle Eastern bishops to convene them at the Vatican and announced that he is calling a special Assembly of the Synod of Eastern Bishops dedicated to the Middle East, October 10-24, 2010. The theme of the Synod will be, “The Catholic Church in the Middle East: Communion and Testimony: The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul (At 4,32).”
Pope Benedict added:
On other occasions you have asked for a more regular contact with the Bishop of Rome to enforce the communion of your churches with the successor of St.Peter and to examine together any problems of significant importance.
This proposal has been renewed even in the last Plenary Congregation for the Eastern churches and in the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.
The Eastern Patriarchs want to address four points critical to Catholics in the Middle East (from Asia News via CatholicOnline): the growth of fundamentalism and the restlessness of the Christians, the importance of Muslim-Christian dialogue, the position of the Oriental Catholic patriarch in the Universal Church, and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Kuwait and in the Gulf countries. Iraqi Bishop Louis Sako made the proposal for the special assembly of the synod for the Middle East to Pope Benedict last January.
This is an exciting development for the Church as it will bring to light certain and unique difficulties of the Church in a region dominated by Muslims, and also help Roman Catholics better understand the Church Universal. We look forward to reporting on it.
