- Feb 5, 2002
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“The light of the East has illumined the universal Church, from the moment when ‘a rising sun’ appeared above us (Luke 1:78): Jesus Christ, our Lord, whom all Christians invoke as the Redeemer of man and the hope of the world.” —Pope St. John Paul II, Orientale Lumen
The Second Vatican Council was a very good moment for the Eastern Catholic Churches. The promulgation of Orientalium Ecclesiarum put the Christian East again in the spotlight as a “tradition that has been handed down from the Apostles through the Fathers and that forms part of the divinely revealed and undivided heritage of the universal Church.”
Before the Council, the Churches of the East were often treated poorly in the Catholic Church. Various Latinizations, and often outright persecution by local Latin-Rite hierarchs, made us feel like “second-class citizens.”
Vatican II set about correcting that attitude by highlighting the venerable and ancient Eastern tradition. Pope St. John Paul II furthered that theme in his apostolic letter Orientale Lumen. In it, the Pope sought to highlight various positive aspects of the expression of the Faith found in the East for the edification of the entire Church. Since then, although there is still a long way to go in terms of the East illuminating the West (as John Paul II desired), things are markedly better in our communion. We are, as John Paul II was fond of saying, “Breathing with both lungs, East and West,” a bit better.
Continued below.
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The Second Vatican Council was a very good moment for the Eastern Catholic Churches. The promulgation of Orientalium Ecclesiarum put the Christian East again in the spotlight as a “tradition that has been handed down from the Apostles through the Fathers and that forms part of the divinely revealed and undivided heritage of the universal Church.”
Before the Council, the Churches of the East were often treated poorly in the Catholic Church. Various Latinizations, and often outright persecution by local Latin-Rite hierarchs, made us feel like “second-class citizens.”
Vatican II set about correcting that attitude by highlighting the venerable and ancient Eastern tradition. Pope St. John Paul II furthered that theme in his apostolic letter Orientale Lumen. In it, the Pope sought to highlight various positive aspects of the expression of the Faith found in the East for the edification of the entire Church. Since then, although there is still a long way to go in terms of the East illuminating the West (as John Paul II desired), things are markedly better in our communion. We are, as John Paul II was fond of saying, “Breathing with both lungs, East and West,” a bit better.
Continued below.
Are We on the Verge of an Eastern Catholic Moment?
The Eastern Churches will have much to contribute to the Synod and Synodality and the National Eucharistic Revival
