(ZENIT News / Rome, 14.10.2024).- A working group on relations between the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Latin Church was presented to the Synodal Assembly being held in Rome during October 2024. A text was announced there on the pastoral care of the faithful of Eastern Catholics in the diaspora.
The Report — presented to the Synodal Assembly in the Vatican by the group examining the relations between the Catholic Eastern Churches and the Latin Church –, observes the situation of numerous Catholic faithful of the Eastern Rite that have left their historical territories of origin, emigrating due to wars, and political and economic instability.
The study group, appointed by Pope Francis and made up of thirteen experts headed by Hungarian Canonist Péter Szabó, Professor of Canon Law at the Catholic University of Budapest, is working on a Document that the Pontiff will send to the Latin Bishops, on the pastoral care of Eastern Rite Catholics in their diaspora.
The theological questions in the Synthesis Report, elaborated by the Synod at the end of the first Session of October 2023, suggested listening to the “work plans “ of the ten study groups created in February by Pope Francis, which range from formation for the priesthood to listening to the cry of the poor, the exercise of a Bishop’s ministry in a Synodal perspective, and women’s participation in the life and leadership of the Church.
These small groups will present a Report to Pope Francis before June of 2025, in a work that “is not foreign to the Synodal Way and, above all, the synodal style that we are trying to assume as Church,” said Cardinal Mario Grech, the Synod’s Secretary General, who reminded the participants that they are “called to be open to a broader participation of all the People of God.”
The invitation to listen to the contributions, observations and proposals of Pastors, ecclesial leaders and all believers shows the face of the migrant Church, called to preserve her diverse richness in traditions, including the Eastern Churches of origin with faithful outside their circumscriptions. The example of the Eastern Catholic groups, primarily in the United States, invites to seek ways to care for the faithful of these groups.
The Synthesis Report, presented on October 2 in the Synod, warns of problems such as the “Latinization” of Eastern Catholics, which deprives them of their Tradition just as does priests’ substitution of the Eastern Rite in spaces of the Latin clergy, abandoning the ministry in their own Churches of origin.
A Document is sought that will facilitate understanding among Churches of different Rites, reflecting on important questions, such as: what are Latin Bishops requested to do regarding the Eastern faithful present in their dioceses’ and without their own hierarch? How to help an Eastern Pastor working to reach them? What ways of collaboration are possible and appropriate in an area where there are several Rites? What mutual knowledge exists and how can it be improved? How can canonical norms be implemented to foment the pastoral care of Eastern Catholics in the diaspora? What is the Holy See’s role in this matter?
The Document’s final draft swill be presented in the Plenary Assembly of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches, which will examine and improve it before presenting it to the Holy Father.
