(NLM) - It was announced yesterday on the Bulletin of the Holy See (see here) that the Holy Father has erected the Eritrean Catholic Church to sui juris status as a Metropolitan Church, separating its territory from that of the Archeparchy of Addis Ababa (the capital of Ethiopia). The 23rd sui juris Church, which follows the Alexandrian liturgical tradition, will comprise four eparchies, covering the entire territory of the nation of Eritrea: the Archeparchy of Asmara, seat of the new Metropolitan and the national capital, and the Eparchies of Barentu, Keren and Segheneity. The Pope has nominated as the first Metropolitan His Excellency Mons. Menghesteab Tesfamariam, who has served hitherto as the Eparch of Asmara. In 1995, the Latin Rite Apostolic Vicariate of Eritrea was abolished, and so the Latin Rite Catholics of Eritrea are also under the spiritual jurisdiction of the new Metropolitan and his suffragans.
The Pope has also created a fourth eparchy of the Ethiopian Catholic Church, that of Bahir Dar - Dessie, the territory of which is also removed from the Archeparchy of Addis Ababa.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
A new sui iuris Catholic Church - The Eritreans
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This is certainly interesting, but does the Roman Church really understand the "second-tier" of primacy, namely, that of the regional level, as spelled out in the Ravenna Document? The Bishop of Rome, no longer called the Patriarch of the West, is creating a particular Eastern Church and he is the one nominating its first metropolitan. Where's all the synodality that Francis keeps talking about?
ReplyDeleteIt's mere lip service, but I assume that you already knew that & your question was simply a rhetorical one. No?
DeleteIs he nominating the first Metropolitan, or merely recognizing the current Eparch of Asmara (which is now the Metropolitan See) as the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Eritrean Church. The Bulletin uses the language of nomination but it also typically is posting about Latin sees, this may be a case of poor word choice as anything else.
DeleteMenghesteab Tesfamariam was the bishop of Asmara (appointed 25 June 2001); he has now been elevated as the Metropolitan Archbishop of Asmara.
DeleteJust for clarity on the relationship between the Pope of Rome and non-Patriarchal sui juris sees (like the new Eritrean Church): "Canon 155 - §1. A metropolitan Church sui iuris is presided over by a metropolitan of a determined see who is appointed by the Roman Pontiff and assisted by a council of hierarchs according to the norm of law. §2. It is solely the right of the supreme authority of the Church to erect, modify, suppress and define the territorial boundaries of metropolitan Churches sui iuris."
Keep in mind, too, that there are also lesser Eastern Catholic Churches sui iuris (nine in fact), neither patriarchal or metropolitan or archiepiscopal, which: "Canon 175 - These Churches immediately depend on the Apostolic See." One of those, the Italo-Albanian Church, as we saw a few weeks ago, was not included amongst those Eastern Churches that were "freed" from the Vatican-imposed clerical celibacy...because it's still under the direct authority of the Roman See.
I find this puzzling because the Ethiopian and the Eritrean Churches both use the same liturgy in the same language (Ge'ez). Why should they be different sui juiris churches? Just because they're in different countries doesn't seem like a good reason. Especially since in the diaspora they're likely to find themselves sharing clergy and parishes.
ReplyDeleteBy that logic, shouldn't the Greek Patriarchate unite with the Constantinople Patriarchate?
DeleteIt makes sense in the context of Eritrea's political climate. The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church is being meddled with by the government and the Ethiopian Catholic Church could be in danger of being seen as a foreign entity. Giving the Eritrean part of the church autocephaly might help keep the government's hands away.
Just the opposite. The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church is entirely controlled by the current regime - the previous patriarch, Patriarch Anthony, rejected the regime's interference and was forcibly deposed and replaced by Patriarch Dioscorus, all at the government's direction.
DeleteThat's what I said, except it seems more dire than I understood it to be. Everyone knows that the Eritrean Orthodox Church is being interfered with or being controlled by the government. For the Alexandrian Catholics to survive, they changed their name to "Eritreans" and have been granted autocephaly from the Ethiopians (considering the nations of Eritrea and Ethiopia are bitter enemies, this is probably a wise move).
DeleteIt is a curious fact that the Eastern Catholic churches usually have more independence from the secular governments than the Orthodox ones do. In the communist era this resulted in the governments attempting to exterminate the Catholic churches (Romania and Bulgaria are prime examples).
I fail to see how placing the central authority of the Ethiopian Rite Catholic Church in Eritrea actually in that country will make it less subject to interference from the regime - if anything just the opposite will result - but here's to hoping you're right!
DeleteIn other Eastern Catholic news involving interference from Rome, on January 16: "Il Papa ha nominato S.E. Mons. Nicholas James Samra, Vescovo di Newton dei Greco-Melkiti, Amministratore Apostolico sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis dell’Eparchia di Nuestra Señora del Paraíso en México dei Greco-Melkiti." That is, Bishop Samra, the Melkite Bishop of Newton (which encompasses the whole USA) has been made also the apostolic administrator (locum tenens) of the Melkite eparchy of Mexico. And he was made such not by the Melkite patriarch but by the Pope of Rome.
ReplyDelete