Melkite Greek Catholic Church
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The coat of arms of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church
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The Melkite Greek Catholic Church (Arabic: كنيسة الروم الكاثوليك, Kanīsät ar-Rūm al-Kāṯūlīk) is an Eastern Rite sui juris particular Church of the Catholic Church in communion with the Pope. The church's origins lie in the Middle East, but, today, Melkite Catholics are spread throughout the world with many in the "diaspora". At present there is a worldwide membership of approximately 1.3 million.[1][2] The Melkite Church has a high degree of ethnic homogeneity but its patriarch, its episcopate, its clergy and many of its faithful, are Arabic, French & English speaking.[3]
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[edit] Meaning of church name
Melkite comes from the Syriac word malko for "imperial", which was originally a pejorative term for Middle-Eastern Christians who accepted the authority of the Council of Chalcedon (451) and the Byzantine Emperor.[4] It was given to them by anti-Chalcedonians (the Oriental Orthodox).[5]. This term is now not generally used to refer to other Chalcedonian Christian groups (see Melkite for the history of this term)
The Greek element signifies the Byzantine Rite heritage of the church: its liturgy is little different in structure from that of the Eastern Orthodox Church.[6]
The Catholic element is generally used to signify the church's acknowledgement of the authority of the Pope. However, the word can also imply participation in the world-wide church (see Catholic). According to some theologians, the Melkite Church of Antioch is the "oldest continuous Christian community in the world". [7]
In Arabic, the official language of the church [1], the church is called ar-Rūm al-Kathūlīk (Arabic: الروم الكثوليك), which literally means Greek Catholic.
[edit] History
The origins of the Melkite Catholic Church go back to the establishment of Christianity in the Middle East.[8] As Christianity began to spread, the disciples preached the Gospel throughout the region and were for the first time called “Christians” in the city of Antioch (Acts 11:26), the historical See of the Melkite Catholic Patriarchate.[9] Some Melkite families believe that a remote Jewish or pagan ancestor received the Gospel message from an Apostle or even Jesus himself.
Due to heavy emigration from the Middle East, which began with the Damascus massacres of 1860, in which most of the Christian communities were attacked, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church today is found throughout the world and no longer made up exclusively of faithful of Middle Eastern origin. This development is called "The Diaspora". Many in North and South America, Europe, and Australia have now been able to worship in this Church which is so closely connected to the countries where Jesus walked and where His Apostles preached and spread the Gospel.
The Melkite Greek Catholic Church traces its origins to the Christian communities of the Levant and Egypt. The church's leadership was vested in the three Apostolic Patriarchates of the ancient patriarchates: Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. The church's history and relation to other churches may be summarised in four defining moments.
[edit] Fallout from the Fourth Ecumenical Council
The first defining moment was the socio-political fallout in the wake of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, the Council of Chalcedon, which took place in AD 451. Fifth-century Middle-Eastern Christian society became sharply divided between those who did and those who did not accept the outcome of the council. Those who accepted the decrees of the council, the Chalcedonians, were mainly Greek-speaking city-dwellers, and were called Melkites (imperials) by the anti-Chalcedonians.[10] These latter were predominantly Syriac-Arabic or Coptic-speaking provincials.
[edit] Fusion with Arabic language and culture
The second defining event is more of a period of change than a sudden movement. The Battle of Yarmuk (636) took the Melkite homeland out of Byzantine control and placed it in the hands of the Muslim Arabs.[11] Whereas the Greek language and culture remained important, especially for the Melkites of Jerusalem, Melkite tradition became fused with the Arabic language and culture. Indeed there was Arabic Christian poetry before the arrival of Islam, but this enracination into the Arabic culture led to a degree of distancing between the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Melkite patriarchs and their people.
Despite the Arab conquest, the Melkites continued to exercise an important role in the Universal Church. The Melkites played a leading role in condemning the iconoclast controversy when it re-appeared in the early 9th century, and were among the first of the Eastern churches to respond to the introduction of the filioque clause in the West. .[12]
[edit] Union with See of Rome
The third defining moment were the Councils of Reunion in which the Orthodox hierarchs accepted union with the See of Rome after a long period of schism. In 1054, Patriarch Michael Kerularios and Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida had excommunicated each other, thus formalising a schism which had been developing for many years. The Melkite Patriarch Peter III of Antioch rejected the quarrel of the Latin Cardinal and the Patriarch of Constantinople . In 1965, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I "consigned these excommunications to oblivion."
However the Crusaders introduced Latin prelates into the apostolic sees of the East, and the Fourth Crusade saw the sack of the great city of Constantinople and its domination by the "Crusaders" for fifty-seven years. These developments brought the East-West quarrel home to everyone but there was no declaration of schism. Since there had never been any formal division from East-West Schism these 'converts' of the Latin missionaries simply became a pro-Western, pro-Catholic party within Eastern Orthodoxy. Throughout the 17th century Jesuits, Capuchins and Carmelites established missions with the consent of the local Orthodox bishops in the Ottoman Empire. The Dominicans had been in Iraq since the 1300s.
At the Second Council of Lyons (1274) and the Council of Florence (1439)the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Emperor accepted union with the West hoping for aid to save Constantinople from Islam. Neither of these unions lasted, though the last two emperors of Constantinople were professing Catholics; nor was any significant aid forthcoming from the warring kingdoms of a soon to be torn-apart Europe.
From 1342, Roman Catholic friars opened missions in the Middle East, particularly in Damascus and their teaching had important influence over the Melkite clergy and people. Yet, in the Melkite tradition it was the Jesuits, founded only in 1534, who were really decisive in the formation of the Catholic party in the Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch. The Jesuits were not friars but highly educated priests of the Patriarchal Chancery, which made them more acceptable.
[edit] Election of Cyril VI
The fourth defining moment was the election of Cyril VI, in 1724, by the Melkite bishops of Syria as the new Patriarch of Antioch. As Cyril was a prominent pro-Westerner, the Patriarch of Constantinople, Jeremias III, felt his authority was being questioned. Jeremias declared Cyril's election to be invalid, excommunicated him, and appointed Sylvester of Antioch, a Greek monk to the patriarchal See of Antioch. Sylvester exacerbated divisions with his heavy-handed rule of the church, and many Melkites chose to acknowledge Cyril VI as Patriarch instead. This Greek domination over the Byzantine Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch lasted until 1899.
Five years after the election of Cyril Tanas, in 1729, Pope Benedict XIII recognised Cyril as the legitimate Patriarch of Antioch and welcomed him and his followers into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.[13] From this time onwards, the Melkite Greek-Catholic Church has existed separately from and in parallel to the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch in the Middle East; the latter is not referred to as Melkite.
The Melkite Greek Catholic Church has played an important role in the leadership of Arabic Christianity. It has always been led by Arabic-speaking Christians, whereas its Orthodox counterpart had Greek patriarchs until 1899. Indeed, at the very beginning of her separate existence, around 1725, one of her most illustrious lay leaders, the savant and theologian, Abdallah Zakher of Aleppo (1684-1748) set up the first printing press in the Middle East. In 1835, Maximos III Mazloum, Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch, was recognised by the Ottoman Empire as the leader of a millet, a distinctive religious community within the Empire. Pope Gregory XVI gave Maximos III Mazloum the triple-patriarchate of Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem, a title that is still held by the leader of the Melkite Church.
In 1847Pope Pius IX (1846-1878), reinstituted the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem in the person of the young, 34 year old, zealous Giuseppe Valerga (1813-1847-1872), whom the indigenous hierarchs nicknamed "The Butcher" because of his fierce opposition to the native churches of the Holy Land. When he arrived in Jerusalem in 1847, there were 4,200 Latin Catholics and when he died in 1872, the number had doubled.
Some historians theorise[citation needed] that Valerga's attempts to advocate the proselytisation of local churches was a response to the domination of the Patriarchate by the Greek Hellene Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre. Others believe that Valerga was appointed to address the threat of Protestantism posed by the Lutheran-Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem.
Tensions between the Latin and Melkite Catholic Churches continued into the 19th century. Patriarch Gregory II Yusuf (1864–1897) was an opponent of papal infallibility at the First Vatican Council. Yusuf believed that the proclamation of papal infallibility would place great strain on relations between the Melkites and other Eastern Christian Churches.[14] He also spoke forcefully for preserving the autonomous status of the Eastern Catholic Churches and maintaining patriarchal rights; this earned him the displeasure of Pius IX.[15] The successor of Pius IX was Pope Leo XIII and in 1894 he issued the encyclical Orientalium Dignitas, reaffirming patriarchal rights and prohibiting the latinisation of the Eastern Catholic Churches..[16]
[edit] The Church in modern times
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[edit] Battles over Latin and Melkite traditions in the Church
Patriarch Maximos IV Sayegh took part in the Second Vatican Council where he championed the Eastern tradition of Christianity, and won a great deal of respect from Eastern Orthodox observers at the council as well as the approbation of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras I. His advocacy of the acceptance of artificial birth control was as remarkable as any other thing he suggested at the Council; this was stiffly refused by that same Athenagoras at the time of Pope Paul VI's encyclical "Humanae Vitae" of July 25th, 1968.
Following the Second Vatican Council the Melkites moved to restoring traditional worship. This involved both the restoration of Melkite practices such as administering the Eucharist to infants following post-baptismal chrismation as well as removal of Latin-rite elements such as communion rails and confessionals. In the pre-conciliar days, the leaders of this trend were members of "The Cairo Circle", a group of young priests centred around the Patriarchal College in Cairo. This group included Fathers George Selim Hakim, Joseph Tawil, Elias Zoghby and fromer Jesuit Oreste Kerame; they later became bishops and participated in the Second Vatican Council, and saw their efforts vindicated.
These reforms led to protests by some Melkite churches that the de-latinisation had gone too far. During the Patriarchate of Maximos IV (Sayegh), some Melkites in the United States objected to the use of the vernacular in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, a movement that was spearheaded by the future archbishop of Nazareth, Father Joseph Raya of Birmingham, Alabama. The issue garnered national news coverage after Bishop Fulton Sheen celebrated a Pontifical Divine Liturgy in English at the Melkite National convention in Birmingham in 1958, parts of which were televised on the national news.
In 1960, the issue was resolved by Pope John XXIII at the request of Patriarch Maximos IV in favour of the use of vernacular languages in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. Pope John also consecrated a Melkite priest, Father Gabriel Acacius Coussa, as a bishop, using the Byzantine Rite and the papal tiara as a crown. Bishop Coussa was almost immediately elevated to the cardinalate, but died two years later. His cause for canonisation was introduced by his religious order, the Basilians of Aleppo.
Further protests against the de-latinisation of the church occurred during the patriarchate of Maximos V Hakim (1967–2000) when some church officials who supported Latin traditions protested against allowing the ordination of married men as priests.
[edit] Attempts to unite the Melkite diaspora
The Patriarchate of Maximos V saw many advances in the worldwide presence of the Melkite Church, called "the Diaspora":[17] Eparchies (the Eastern equivalent of a diocese) were established in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Argentina and Mexico in response to the continued emptying of the Middle East of her native Christian peoples. Some historians state[citation needed] that after the revolution in Egypt in 1952, many Melkites left the Middle East due to the renewed Islamic, nativist and socialist policies of the Nasser regime. In 1950, the richest Melkite community in the world was in Egypt, in 1945 the most populous single diocese was Akko, Haifa, Nazareth and all Galilee; by 1955 that was no longer the case due to Israeli anti-Arab measures, equally targeting Christian Arabs as well as Muslim.
In 1967, a native Egyptian of Syrian-Aleppin descent, George Selim Hakim, was elected the successor of Maximos IV, and took the name Maximos V. He was to reign until he retired at the age of 92 in the Jubilee Year of 2000. He reposed on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, June 29th, 2001.
[edit] Nobel Peace Prize nominations
Two successors of Patriarch Maximus V in the See of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth and all Galilee have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize: the second archbishop, Joseph Raya (1968-1974) and the fifth and present incumbent, Archbishop Elias Michael Chaccour, who is the first Palestinian to hold the See and is also the founder of the Mar Elias Educational Institutions in Ibillin, Galilee. He was ordained to the episcopacy in his own church in Ibillin and enthroned in the cathedral of Haifa in 2006.
[edit] Church traditions
The Melkite Catholic Church is in full communion with the Holy See but fully follows the traditions and customs of Byzantine Christianity[18]. The traditional language of worship is Arabic and Greek, but today, services are held in a variety of languages depending on the country where the Church is located.
[edit] Modern church dioceses
The current Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, and Alexandria and Jerusalem is Gregory III Laham. The patriarchate is based in the Syrian capital Damascus. In the Middle East, the church has dioceses in:
- Egypt — Alexandria, looked after by a protosyncellus.
- Israel — Acre and Jerusalem (a patriarchal vicariate).
- Jordan — Amman.
- Lebanon — Beirut, Baalbek, Baniyas, Beirut, Sidon, Tripoli, Tyre and Zahle.
- Syria — Aleppo, Bosra, Damascus (the patriarchate), Homs, Latakia.
Throughout the rest of the world, the church has dioceses in:
- Australia — Sydney (an eparchy).
- Brazil — São Paulo.
- Canada — Montreal.
- Mexico — Mexico City.
- United States of America — Newton (an eparchy).
- Venezuela — Caracas.
[edit] See also
- Melkite
- List of Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchs of Antioch
- Patriarch of Antioch
- Eastern Catholic Churches
- Eastern Christianity
- Gregory III Laham, current Patriarch
- Cyril Salim Bustros, current Archbishop of the United States
- Joseph Raya, late Archbishop
- Elias Chacour, current Archbishop of Galilee
- Maximos IV Sayegh, late Patriarch
- Maximos V Hakim, late Patriarch
- The Courage To Be Ourselves, pastoral letter to the Melkite Catholic Church of the United States
- Byzantine Discalced Carmelites
[edit] External links
- Eparchy of Newton, the Melkite Church in the US.
- Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate of Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem
- L'Église Melkite/The Melkite Church.
- Melkite Catholic Web Ring.
- Extensive history of the Melkite Church
- Melkite Ambassadors Young Adult Website.
[edit] References
- Descy, Serge (1993). The Melkite Church. Boston: Sophia Press.
- Dick, Iganatios (2004). Melkites: Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholics of the Patriarchates of Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem. Boston: Sophia Press.
- Faulk, Edward (2007). 101 Questions and Answers on Eastern Catholic Churches. New York: Paulist Press. ISBN 978-0-8091-4441-9.
- Raya, Joseph (1992). Byzantine Church and Culture. Allentown, NJ: Allelulia Press. ISBN 0-911726-54-3.
- Roccasalvo, Joan L. (1992). The Eastern Catholic Churches: An Introduction To Their Worship and Spirituality. Collegeville, MN.: The Liturgical Press. 0-8146-2047-7.
- Tawil, Joseph (2001). The Patriarchate of Antioch Throughout History: An Introduction. Boston: Sophia Press.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Faulk (2007), pp. 9-10
- ^ CNEWA website, retrieved November 2007. Information sourced from Annunario Pontificio 2007 edition
- ^ PATRIARCHATE - Church History
- ^ Dick (2004), p. 9
- ^ Dick (2004), p. 9
- ^ Faulk (2007), p. 5
- ^ Melkite Greek Catholic Church Information Center Unofficial History of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church / Grec Melkite Catholique
- ^ Tawil (2001), pp. 1-3
- ^ Dick (2004), pp. 13-15
- ^ Tawil (2001), p. 21
- ^ Dick (2004), p. 21
- ^ Dick (2004, p. 21
- ^
"Melchites". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company. - ^ Dick (2004), p. 64
- ^ Dick (2004), p. 64
- ^ Dick (2004), p. 64
- ^ The History of the Melkite Byzantine Church
- ^ Faulk ((2007), pp. 5-7
