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THE ANCHOR-Diocese of Fall River-Thur., Dec. 29, 1977
KNOW YOUR FAITH NC NEWS
Meeting Needs
The Eastern Schism
By Msgr. Joseph Champlin
By Father Alfred McBride
St. Margaret's Church at Mattydale. on the outskirts of Syracuse, N.Y., is a typically suburban parish - massive in size, diverse in attitudes, abounding in children. Father John Roark, the pastor, leads a staff of two other priests, a full-time coordinator of religious education, a director of human development and other personnel. They work well as a team and, despite natural differences of opinion on certain approaches, basically share a Vatican II inspired orientation of parish programs. Bringing together and moving ahead 2,700-plus families represents, however, a difficult and delicate task. The bulk of parishioners undoubtedly approve the changes introduced since the Second Vatican Council. Nevertheless, a significant minority probably resent many or most of the new developments and occasionally articlilate their opposition. Only frequent staff meetings keep that extensive team at St. Margaret functioning smoothly. Members gather every two weeks for a two-hour session, and the priests also meet on the alternate weeks. Both meetings begin with recitation of a section from the Church's official prayer book. This reminds all that the Lord is present in their midst, that it is His work they are about. One wonders how large parishes can operate efficiently and peacefully without such regular staff sessions. Nevertheless, even more is needed for a community of believers to have a sense of overall direction. The weekly meetings tend to treat day-by-day details; long-range goals and objectives require a different kind of session. At St. Margaret's the staff assembles twice a year at the pastor's cottage for an all-day program, setting schedules for the months ahead, evaluating of the parish's condition and making projections Qr plans for future efforts. The meeting concludes with some recreation, a happy hour, and dinner at a local restaurant. This pray, work, play combination does draw the parish team closer together.
From that fourth century day when the power and glory of the empire shifted from Rome to Constantinople, bad blood grew between the Latin and Greek cultures. This hostility affected the respect of the eastern empire for the west, weakened the authority of Rome and set in motion a series of quarrels that resulted in a total schism in 1042. A further reason for the great divide was due to Rome's need to pick up the pieces after the fall of the west, establish some rudimentary law and order, encourage the work of the Benedictines and undertake the pacification and evangelization of western Europe north of the Alps. Projects so vast absorbed the full attention and imagination of the Roman Church for over a thousand years. Little time was left for fence mending and dialogue with the eastern wing of the Church, going its own way in theological and cultural expression. Hence, when the Pope did decide to take a hand in the affairs of the Church at Constantinople, the results were often clumsy and counterproductive. The great distances, the difficulty of communications and the major distraction of creating a Church out of tribal peoples continuously weakened Rome's position with Constantinople. In 1042, Michael Cerularius became patriarch of Constantinople. As he pondered the centuries old de facto rift with Rome, he decided to formalize the break with the Holy Sea. He closed the Latin churches and persecuted the Latin Christians Rome ignored the schism for a long while, but finally appointed its own bishop for Latin Christians residing in Constantinople. The break was symbolized in theological terms by the debate about the "filiogue clause." The eastern Church accused the west of corrupting the creed by adding "filiogue" (and the Son). This means that Rome was saying that the Holy Spirit proceeded from both the Father and the Son. The clause was not in the original creed. Rome claimed that it did not corrupt, but simply clarified the meaning of Trinitarian relations. Much more devastating, however, was the sack of Constantinople in 1204 by the Crusaders. The soldiers pillaged the city remorselessly, tearing down the magnificent tapestries in St. Sophia and ripping apart the silver inconostasis (altar screen). They mounted a prostitute on the patriarch's throne and toasted her with a rude song, desecrated sacred books and drank altar wine out of the chalices. They installed a Latin emperor on the throne of Constantinople
Additionally, to engage the 19-member parish council actively in the process of setting goals forSt. Margaret's, Father Roark arranged an overnight prograll} for them at a retreat house, ouring which they discussed the present and future of their parish and returned home having determined two goals for the next year: to build a tighter faith community and to raise the congregation's consciousness of what the term Church means.
Changes in the Church By William E. May There is no doubt that some people have strenuously resisted changes within the Church since Vatican II. One immediately thinks of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and the movement he has initiated. Yet little good would be done were we to spend time attempting to identify those who have resisted the changes of the past decade or so. It is more profitable to reflect on the subject of change in the Church and the attitudes that ought to be taken toward it. Basically the Church cannot help changing because it is a living reality, and change is the hallmark of all living things. The crucial question has to do with the nature of change. We ourselves inescapably change, but we hope that our changes are for the better, not the worse. The same is true of the Church. But to determine whether a given chan~e is for the better or worse, it is necessary to provide some criteria; it is necessary to look into the purposefulness of the changes that are suggested. The purpose of change within the Church is to enable her to carry out the mission given her by God. It is impossible to treat that mission fully here, but some observations can be made. The Church is meant to mediate to human beings everywhere the reality of God Himself, to help us shape our lives and actions as fitting responses to His gracious invitation to choose life.
We must look upon change within the Church in this light. The reforms of Vatican II were not for the sake of novelty but to revivify, renew and reenergize the Church. . The mission of the Church, thus, is the criterion for assessing change within her. With a confidence rooted in faith, we can gladly accept changes authentically and authoritatively initiated in the Church.
Lefebvre Case By Jerry Filteau The conflict between Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, dissident Catholic traditionalist leader, and Pope Paul VI, universally recognized head of the Catholic Church, has come as close to a Church schism as any movement since the Old Catholics' schism in the 1870s. (The Old Catholics objected to Vatican Council I declarations that the Pope is infallible when he makes formal declarations on matters of faith or morals and that he has immediate authority over local churches throughout the world.) Archbishop Lefebvre, born in France in 1905, has outstanding credentials as a loyal son of the Church. As a Holy Ghost Father, he became a missionary in Africa, was subsequently made bishop, served in the Vatican diplomatic corps, was Archbishop of Dakar, Senegal, and superior general of his order. He Turn to Page Thirteen
and made a Latin bishop the patriarch. Even had relations not been eroding for over a thousand years, this brutal assault on the people of the east could hardly have been forgotten or forgiven easily. Yet, much to the credit of the participants, mutual efforts at reunion were made at two councils: Lyons in 1274 and Florence in 1438. Some good will was shown and gained, but the success was short lived. The eastern Church remained separate. But today, union between western and eastern Christianity has grown. Many Orthodox Christians have been reconciled with Rome. The 1964 photograph of Pope Paul publicly embracing the Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras signals a hopeful climate for the possible reunion of the two churches.
St. Bernard By Father John J. Castelot It has been said of St. Bernard that "he carried the 12th century on his shoulders and' he did not carry it without suffering." The suffering began early in his own search for identity and purpose in life. It would have been difficult to foresee that this shy, sensitive lad would one day counsel popes and kings and fight unflinchingly for the purity of faith and morality in the tumultuous years which marked his lifetime. A man of his extraordinary gifts could not remain hidden long. Popes and bishops sought his advice and followed it, although he pulled no punches in giving it. The disputed papal election of 1130 promp,ted him to champion the cause of Innocent II, and to do so, he traveled widely, picking up another candidate for his Cistercian Monastery of Clairvaux, Peter Paganelli of Pisa, who began by tending the fires at the monastery and ended up as Pope Eugene III. Indeed, in the midst of all his feverish and unwanted activity (he even preached a Crusade), he found time to read, contemplate, and write voluminously. There are ecstatical treatises for his monks, admonitions to popes, hundreds of marvelously moving seronms "as affecting today as when he delivered them, polemical works in which his poetic genius forges a terrible invective against the apparent enemies of the faith, stern denunciations of clerical negligence and avarice that still burn white-hot, and a vast correspondence that shows him the willing servant and counselor of clients in every rank of the life of hts time" (Philip Hughes "History of the Church").