SUI JURIS CHURCH

KNANAYA CATHOLIC COMMUNITY

SUI JURIS CHURCH

INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL SYMPOSIUM

ECUMENISM: EASTERN PERSPECTIVES

I am very happy to speak at this inaugural session of this symposium. When Fr. Joseph Kallarangatt spoke to me about this symposium, I myself suggested Ecumenism as its topic.

From long years of my reflections, studies and experience as a member of various national and international Commissions on Ecumenism and Dialogue, I can now see a bright future for ecumenism. So in this talk I show how the prospect of having new sui iuris Churches in the Catholic Communion, which can exist and function along with others in given common territories, bespeaks an auspicious future for ecumenism. The constitutive principles of the essential structures of the Catholic Church are so liberal that any Church or ecclesial community can find itself comfortable and free in the Catholic ecclesial communion, preserving ones own essential identity and rightful autonomy with due dependence in the hierarchical communion.

The Church has essential structures on different levels of ecclesial communion. On the universal level the faithful incorporated into Christ through baptism constitutes the People of God (the Church). It subsists in the Catholic Church. The baptized are united to the Catholic Church through profession of faith, sacraments and hierarchical communion (cc.7,8).

On the basic level of communion, a community of faithful adhering to a bishop as its pastor is a particular Church (eparchy). In that basic level indeed the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church exists and is operative (c.177), of course not in its full extension, but in its minimum comprehension namely keeping the essential constitutive elements of the Church – the faith, sacraments and hierarchical communion.

On the intermediary levels of ecclesial communion, communities of faithful joined together by their own hierarchies are recognized as churches sui iuris by the supreme authority of the Church (c. 27). The main constitutive factors in the formation of a sui iuris Church are three, namely a community of faithful, a hierarchy binding the faithful together, and the recognition by the supreme authority of the Church as sui iuris Church. The first two are internal and material, and the third external and formal. As the status of sui iuris is granted by ecclesial recognition, sui iuris Church is not considered to be of divine origin, but of ecclesiastical origin, although through divine providence (LG. 23).

Rite is not a constitutive element of sui iuris Church, although in the manner of living the Christian faith a sui iuris Church will manifest a ritual heritage formed through culture and historical circumstances of its faithful (c. 28). Hence the faithful of one and the same rite may be formed into different sui iuris Churches or conversely also the faithful observing different rites may form one Church sui iuris.

All the sui iuris Churches in the Catholic communion have equal rights, dignity and obligation. However, they may differ among themselves according to the grade of the autonomy or self-rule they enjoy in the Catholic Communion or according to the limits placed on their autonomy by the supreme authority of the Church. On that basis sui iuris Churches are distinguished as patriarchal, major archiepiscopal, metropolitan sui iuris, or others of lesser autonomy.

There are now twenty-two such sui iuris Churches in the Catholic Communion. The possibilities for more new sui iuris Churches also are kept open according to the Council documents (OE. 3, 11, etc.) and canonical norms (c.57). Such new sui iuris Churches may be recognized, when ecclesial Communities not in communion make a communion with the Catholic Church, as it happened with regard to the Syro-Malankara Church. There is even the possibility of the supreme authority of the Church recognizing the regional diversities in a church sui iuris as sufficient for being recognized as different sui iuris Churches. So can there be a Patriarchal Church of Africa, or of South America, etc; all following the Latin rite. (Paper presented at the Roman Symposium by Prof. Astrid Kaptijn)

There can even be several intermediary levels in an ecclesial communion. Suppose the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, conceding spiritual authority to the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, establishes a hierarchical communion with the Petrine See of Rome; the resulting sui iuris Church will have a two-tire communion in the intermediary level, namely centered on the Malankara Catholicos and on the Patriarch of Antioch.

The ration d’etre of any sui iuris Church is the particularity of its community of faithful. Such particularity may have its origin from the culture, historical circumstances, ritual heritage, ethnicity, etc. of the peoples.

Unity and diversity, but not uniformity are essential principles that govern the ecclesial communion on all its levels. Unity in the essential constitutive elements of the church, diversity by respecting the particularities of people’s heritages. Legitimate diversity where exists or is demanded for the good of the people is to be fostered. Uniformity on the other hand may not be imposed where it is not needed. Ethnical or

regional diversities of ritual heritage in matters liturgical, spiritual theological and disciplinary may also be preserved.

Exclusive territory is not a constitutive principle of the sui iuris Church or of the particular Church. Therefore, different sui iuris Churches, or different particular Churches of the same sui iuris Church, can co-exist in a given common territory. Churches in Kerala, in Western Asia and Eastern Europe are examples.

Faithful having the same ritual heritage can belong to different sui iuris Churches on the basis of ethnical difference, for example the Ukranians and Ruthenians.

So also faithful having the same ritual heritage and belonging to the same sui iuris Church can have, on the basis of ethnical difference, different particular Churches existing in a common territory. For example, the eparchy of Kottayam co-existing with the other eparchies of the Syro-Malabar Church within its territorium proprium - or the Latin dioceses of Cochin and Alleppy having own parishes in the common territory.

A particular Church of any sui iuris Church can have parish units exclusively for the faithful of a different ritual heritage. For example the Latin Archdiocese of Bangalore having also Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara parishes. Similarly the Syro-Malabar eparchy of Kottayam has also Syro-Malankara parishes.

There is also a case of communities of different ritual heritages in a given territory being recognized as a sui iuris Church consisting of only one particular Church (eparchy); namely the eparchy of Krizevci is a sui iuris Church for the Serbs, Ruthenians, Ukranians, Slavic Macedonians and Romanians in the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

What do all these facts say? In the matter of ecclesial structures the Holy Mother Church is very liberal, generous and benevolent, ready to make accommodations for

legitimate particularities of any ecclesial community. She is willing to strengthen the identity of such communities with rightful autonomy in the hierarchical communion recognizing them as sui iuris Churches. Any Church or ecclesial community can find it easy to maintain ones own identity within such eccelsial structures of the Catholic Church, if it chooses to establish a hierarchical communion.

The Holy Mother Church is liberal, but we know, not all her children are so liberal. Some are rather restrictive and tight-fisted in granting legitimity to particularities, which make a community capable of being recognized as a sui iuris Church, or of being instituted as a particular Church. Being jealous of ones own power and position, some local authorities or even officials of the dicasteries of the Holy See, do not let the liberality of the Church flow unhindered.

In reality, all doors and windows are openable, but on the pretext of a false security, some keep them closed and locked. Let us call on the Spirit to open their minds, that they finally let the doors and windows be opened. Fresh air and light will then come in, ecumenism will flourish and the Church unity will then be a reality!

Mar Kuriakose Kunnacherry.

Paurastya Vidyapitham

Vadavathoor, Kottayam

January 28, 2002.

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