CENTRO PRO UNIONE N. 54 - Fall 1998 ISSN: 1122-0384 semi-annual Bulletin In this issue: Letter from the Director...................................................p. 2 Presentation of Rosemary Goldie’s From a Roman Window. Five Decades: The World, The Church and the Catholic Laity by Donna Orsuto...................................................p. 3 Mary in the Catholic-Assyrian Dialogue: An Assyrian Perspective by Mar Bawaï Soro.................................................p. 7 Cumulative Index of the Bulletin «Centro Pro Unione» 1 (1969) — 54 (1998) by Daniel Sylvain..................................................p. 17 Centro Pro Unione - Via S. Maria dell'Anima, 30 - 00186 Rome, Italy A Center conducted by the Franciscan Friars of the AtonementDirector's Desk During the Summer we had an excellent group of students for the Summer course which took place from June 29 to July 17. For those interested in taking advantage of our three week course we have included in this issue a flyer with all of the information regarding the course. For the course this Summer we were very pleased to have welcomed Dr. Teresa Francesca Rossi, Sister Lucy Thorson, nds and Sister Roberta Cusack, osf as part of the teaching faculty. This year is a special year for the Society of the Atonement -- it is our 100th anniversary of foundation by Father Paul Wattson and Mother Lurana White. To conclude our anniversary celebrations, the Centro Pro Unione will inaugurate an annual lecture in honor of the Founders of the Society of the Atonement. The first annual Lecture will be given on December 10th, 1998 by Enzo Bianchi, prior and founder of the Monastic Community of Bose (Italy). His lecture is entitled “Ecumenismo -- Profezia della vita religiosa”. In addition to this lecture the Friars and Sisters of the Atonement will close with a eucharistic celebration of thanksgiving at the Sisters of the Atonement's church in Rome on December 15th. His Eminence Edward Cardinal Cassidy will be principal celebrant and homilist. The festivities will conclude at the Centro Pro Unione with an exceptional musical event: a violin concert presenting N. Paganini's “Twenty-four capricci” interpreted by Pasquale Farinacci. We are most grateful to our friend Maestro Serguej Diatchenko for arranging this special event. The results of the 5 week study program we organized for the University of Uppsala is now published. Edited by Bosse Temnéus, it is entitled The Wisdom of Rome. Report from a Field Study to Rome 1998 [Uppsala: The Swedish Institute of Missionary Research (coll. “Occasional Papers in Mission Studies”, II), 1998. ISSN 1400-6545]. Speaking of publications. the acts of the International Symposium on the Petrine Ministry and the Unity of the Church we sponsored in December 1997 will be available through The Liturgical Press (Collegeville, USA). An Italian translation is published by the journal Studi Ecumenici (Venezia). Activities to be held at the Centro this autumn in addition to the first Wattson/White lecture include lectures by Bishop Mar Bawaï Soro (Assyrian Church of the East) on “Mary in the Catholic-Assyrian Dialogue: An Assyrian Perspective”, Prof. Isaiah M. Gafni (Professor of Jewish History, the Hebrew University) on “Jewish Communities in the Ancient Mediterranean World: Leadership and Authority Structures” and by Prof. Sotirios Varnalidis (Dean of theology at the University of Thessalonica) on “Il ruolo del Patriarca Ecumenico di Costantinopoli all'interno della Chiesa Ortodossa: primato della carità e della diaconia”. In this issue we are pleased to offer two texts: the presentation of Rosemary Goldie's book entitled From a Roman Window. Five Decades: The World, the Church and the Catholic Laity that was made by Prof. Donna Orsuto, Directress of the Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas and the Vincent Pallotti Institute and the lecture of Bishop Mar Bawaï Soro on the Marian Dialogue between the Catholic and Assyrian Churches. Lastly we publish a cumulative index (by author and title) of the articles and bibliographies appearing in our Bulletin «Centro Pro Unione» since the first issue. This work was done by a confrere, Bro. Dan Sylvain, sa, during the Summer and we are most grateful for his help. We have begun work on our web site and we hope to be able to send out our address in the Spring Bulletin. The site will give access to our library as well as to the full texts of the agreed statements of the bilateral and multilateral official dialogues. In addition we will have the revised edition of the Directory of ecumenical research and study centers. I cannot close this letter without conveying to our readers the sad news of the death of an Affiliate of the Friars and friend of the Centro, Don Frank Pogson Doria Pamphilj on October 2, 1998. To his wife, Donna Orietta and family, on behalf of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement and the staff of the Centro Pro Unione, we convey our sincerest condolences. James F. Puglisi, sa DirectorN. 54 / Fall 1998Bulletin / Centro Pro Unione 3 CCCC Centro Conferences Presentation of Rosemary Goldie’s From a Roman Window Five Decades: The World, the Church and the Catholic Laity by Donna Orsuto Professor, Institute of Spirituality, Gregorian University and Director, Lay Centre at Foyer Unitas (Conference given at the Centro Pro Unione, Wednesday, 27 May 1998) From a Roman Window isa book that needed to be written and Rosemary Goldie is probably the only person who could have done it. The “Roman window” refers to her office that looks out into the square of Santa Maria in Trastevere, but as you read this book you realize that Rosemary has not been sitting in her office for the last fifty years merely admiring the view. She has often been right in the heart of the action and thus she is in a position to offer us an “inside story” of many of the changes that occurred in the Church during these years. Personal and in some sense subjective, yet scrupulously accurate and well documented, this book offers a panorama of lay participation in the church during the last fifty years. In this presentation, I will not attempt to summarize it because I hope you will sit by your own Roman window and read it yourself. Instead, I will highlight what I consider five of the main contributions that this book makes. 1.Vatican II as both a point of arrival and departure for renewal in the life of the Church Probably the most significant contribution of this book is that it documents pre-Conciliar developments which show that the Second Vatican Council’s teaching on the laity is as much a point of arrival as a point of departure. As Rosemary notes, “...the decisive contribution of Vatican II in giving a new sense of belonging and responsibility to laity did not just happen. The impression is often given that, before the Coun- cil, lay people were all passive - called only to pray, pay and obey — and that after the Council, by some miracle, they jumped into action” 1 . From a Roman Window demonstrates how untrue that notion is. In surveying the various congresses and international meetings leading up to the Council and following it, we see “milestones marking progress” in both the quantity and quality of lay involvement in the mission of the Church (p. 3). The First World Congress of the Lay Apostolate, in 1951, illustrat- ing the diverse forms of lay activity and exploring openings for common action at a world level, gathered together women and men of different races and nations. Vittorino Veronese, a layman, was the initiator of the Congress and had a major influence on the laity up to and after Vatican II. As the Congress considered what kind of lay Christians were needed for what kind of world, the participants empha- sized that in order to embrace the political, social and cultural challenges of “a world becoming one”, lay people needed a proper formation. The conclusions of the Congress were drafted by a commission of thirty members, mainly laity, with valuable input from Gérard Philips of Louvain and Pietro Pavan who eventually became periti at the Second Vatican Council. One of the fruits of the Congress was the establishment by Pius XII of the Permanent Committee for International Congresses of the Lay Apostolate (Comitato Permanente dei Congressi Internazionali per l’Apostolato dei Laici - COPE- CIAL for short). If you have trouble remembering the title, be consoled. Even Pope John XXIII had problems with the name and once at a general audience he extended his warm blessing on “The Committee, the committee... (with a despairing gesture] ...it ends with laici” (p. 23). The purpose of COPECIAL was to prepare lay apostolate congresses at world, continental and regional level, to undertake studies and to gather documentation on the lay apostolate. The secretary of COPECIAL, Vittorino Veronese was accompanied by a group of outstanding women (I am saying this not Rosemary). The original team included Maria Vittoria Donadeo (now a member of a small oriental-rite Russian monastery here in Rome), Maria Carosi (from Italian Catholic Action), Sara Alonso (from Argentina and a member of a secular institute), and Rosemary Goldie were the original 1 Rosemary Goldie, From a Roman Window. Five Decades: The World, the Church and the Catholic Laity, Blackburn: HarperCollinsReligious, 1998, 5. ISBN 1-86371-697-1. Hereafter all page references will appear in the text.4 Bulletin / Centro Pro UnioneN. 54 / Fall 1998 team. They were eventually joined by others. When Joseph Cardijn, the founder of the Young Christian Workers, visited COPECIAL for the first time in 1952, he had hoped to find a more impressive group than just “these women” assisting Veronese, but he cooperated nevertheless, and met along with others to evaluate the First World Congress and begin planning for the Second. The process of planning the Second Congress on lay formation raised many seminal questions about the nature of the lay apostolate, it’s particular form, and the relations between the Hierarchy and the laity in different fields of the apostolate. All of these questions, raised already in 1955, would find their way eventually in the debates of the Council. During this period, Catholic laity were already living internationally and were operating within the Church and making the Church’s presence felt in society. There were numerous Catholic International Organizations like the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organization (WUCWO) which included 36 million women from 110 organizations on five continents. Some CIO’s actually date their international life from the 1920's. The Second World Congress on “the Laity in the Crisis of the Modern World: Responsibilities and Formation”, which took place in October 1957, gathered the fruits of regional developments and the work of theologians and other experts that were to lead into Vatican II. The challenges of seculariza- tion, urbanization, and mobility in modern life required a new style of Christian living and a universal mentality expressed in acts of justice and charity. As Rosemary notes, this world view anticipated the Vatican II’s Pastoral Constitution on “The Church in the Modern World”, Gaudium et Spes. The emerging theology of the laity of this pre-Conciliar period aimed at a more positive definition of the laity, a more active role of the laity in the Church’s apostolate, and a greater sensitivity to the church in the world. Between the Second and the Third World Congress, we have the Second Vatican Council where Rosemary was one of the 13 lay women appointed as auditors by Pope Paul VI. She makes no attempt to relate the Council in full, but she does bring out salient points which involved lay people and specifi- cally women. A main point is that once the initial shock of having women present at the Council died down, they became part of the local scene and their contributions were taken seriously in the commission meetings. They were particularly involved in the discussion of Schema 13 which eventually became the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes. One element of interest for us here in this place is Goldie’s comment that the Lay Auditors’ Conciliar experience had an ecumenical dimension. This included not only one meeting at Foyer Unitas with the wives of the Delegated Observers, but also an unofficial and confidential meeting between Roman Catholic women, including some of the auditors, and women from the World Council of Churches in Vicarello, Bracciano. The initiative for this meeting came from Msgr. (now Cardi- nal) Johannes Willebrands, Secretary of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, and from Madeleine Barot, Executive Secretary of the WCC Department for Ecumenical Action. This was the beginning of much fruitful ecumenical dialogue which would become even more open, especially in light of the Conciliar decree on Ecumenism which states “that ecumenism is the responsibility of the whole people of God (5)” (p. 85). 2.The Ecumenical Dimension of the Third World Congress The second important contribution this book makes is with regard to documenting some previously unacknowledged ecumenical history. For example, the Third World Congress, which took place from 11-18 October 1967 under the title “God’s People on Man’s Journey” was not only a significant moment for the laity in the Church, but also an ecumenical event. To her credit, Rosemary has carefully documented not only the diligent planning by the small COPECIAL and CIO staffs who literally traveled all over the world to prepare for this Congress, but also its ecumenical dimension. Among the 88 ecumenical observers-consultants was Hans-Ruedi Weber who, when addressing the Congress, compared this experience with his previous one at the Second World Congress in 1957 where he was the only Protestant “disguised as a journalist” among the 2000 Catholics (he got in on a press pass through the help of the Jesuit Father Augustin Bea who eventually became the Cardinal President of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity). Weber continued, “This time, we Observer- Consultants have felt almost totally at home, so much so that we speak no more about your Congress, but about our Congress... You have now accepted us fully as participants and brothers in Christ. This time, the world has provided the agenda...” (p. 104). 3.Asking the Hard Questions The third contribution that Rosemary Goldie makes is that she challenges us to grapple with some of the hard questions and difficult issues which face the Post-Conciliar church. Years of activity in the Church and reflection at her Roman window enable her to ask hard questions. First, she leads us into the thorny problems surrounding the description of the laity and the meaning of ministry. Then, she challenges us to future research and exploration, especially with regard to Yves Congar’s pre-Conciliar insights on lay secularity and his post- Conciliar approach to a diversity of ministries within the Church as communion (p. 118). Third, in light of the Conciliar teaching on the lay apostolate, she warns that weN. 54 / Fall 1998Bulletin / Centro Pro Unione 5 should pay attention to Apostolicam actuositatem V, which spells out lessons from experience about “the importance of unity and coordination among groups, always tempted to rivalry; different relationships to the hierarchy according to the nature of different groups, the supporting roles of clergy and religious...[and] the dynamic and prudent cooperation with other Christians on the basis of the ‘common heritage of the Gospel and the common duty of Christian witness’. On the basis of ‘common human values’ there can also be cooperation with ‘those who do not profess Christ’s name, but acknowledge these values’ (AA 27)” ( pp. 121-122). The complexity surrounding the emergence of new movements in the Church leads her to ask what exactly we mean by the term “ecclesial” movement and to consider carefully their relationship with the local Church. She questions the inflation of charisms within the church today. She raises these questions in the context of five decades of service in the Church and experience at an international level and I think they should be taken seriously. Involved in the Post-Conciliar commission on the Lay Apostolate (1966), Rosemary saw and experienced the inner workings that led to the creation of the Consilium de laicis (Council on the laity) in 1967. The aim of the Consilium was to work for the service and promotion of the lay apostolate, a task similar to that undertaken in earlier years by COPECIAL. As one of the two lay under-secretaries appointed, Rosemary Goldie became the first woman to have such a position in the Vatican. The wide ranging activities of the Consilium during these experimental years brought much theological insight. One of the most significant contributions of Rosemary Goldie at this time was her commitment to ecumenism, which she never tires to point out, is “the concern of the whole Church”. Sometimes dubbed as “Rosemary’s baby”, ecumenism became an integral dimension of the Consilium’s work. From a Roman Window also describes how the Consilium, after a ten year experimental period, was restructured. I will not go into that here because of lack of time, but I encourage you to read chapter 9 for more details. Her experience over the years has led her to see the value of regular Consultations with lay men and women, similar to the one organized in 1975 under the heading “Towards the Year 2000...along the Way of the Gospel” and the 1987 consultation in preparation for the Synod of Bishops on the Laity. She suggests that this sort of representative meetings “could be the best way of involving lay people in responsibility for the life and mission of the universal Church”. They would “not take the place of a department, staffed by competent lay people”, but they could be a more flexible and more open way to proceed (p. 148). 4.Laity continent by continent The fourth part of this book is valuable because it shows the breath and depth of the work of the Pontifical Council for the Laity in organizing a series of continental meetings which brought together bishops responsible for the lay apostolate, priests, religious and representative lay women and men. Held in Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Central America, and Oceania, these meetings (held from 1979-86) were important not so much for the content of the discussions but the fact that they happened and what they signified about the shared responsibility of pastors and laity of every race and culture. The ground for such consultation had already been prepared by those pioneers who had gone before. Rosemary herself had been jetting around since 1953, when she attended the First Leaders Meeting of the Apostolate in Africa. At that time she also explored the possibility of an Asian meeting for the Lay Apostolate which led her to India, Ceylon, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and even a visit down under to Australia and New Zealand. 5.Women in the Church The fifth and final view from Rosemary’s Roman Window takes a look at women in the Church. Chapter eleven entitled “I am not a feminist, but...” provides a context for her approach to women’s issues. Her understanding of women is influenced by her experience in the Grail and especially by the teaching of its Jesuit founder Jacques Van Ginneken. The example of many Grail women also influenced Rosemary’s approach to women’s issues. When speaking about women, Rosemary turns again to her ecumenical experience and describes the work of the Woman’s Ecumenical Liaison Group, which was intended to follow-up the ecumenical consultation held at Vicarello during the Council. WELG held four important meetings which dealt with three major projects. The first was intended to test the ecumenical scene through case studies of various situations. The second was a conference on the Image of Women in the Mass Media and the third was a co-sponsored meeting with SODEPAX on “Women’s Role in Peace Education”, held in Cyprus 1972. For various reasons, including tensions due to a lack of clarity, nothing more was done with WELG after June 1972. Instead, on the Catholic Side, a Commission on Women in Church and society was set up by Paul VI in response to a recommendation from the Synod of Bishops of 1971. This Study Commission which actually started work in May 1973 consisted of twelve lay women, two women religious, one member of a Secular Institute, seven ecclesiastics and three lay men. Enrico Bartoletti, formerly Archbishop of Lucca, and General Secretary of the Italian Bishops’ Conference was the president of the commission. Rosemary aptly uses the subtitle “Clouds on the Horizon” to describe the daunting task of this Study Commission’s work in the context of the radical changes6 Bulletin / Centro Pro UnioneN. 54 / Fall 1998 on the role of women in the Church and society. The commission began its work in this period of great change and complexity. In this mixed group of women and men, it was difficult to find a language in which to dialogue. Many of the women who were voicing questions which emerged in feminist and ecumenical circles were not prepared to dialogue with theologians who used a traditional theological language. A major problem was that only one of the fifteen women was a theologian. Other organizational problems abounded as well which were even drawn to the attention of Paul VI. The final session, in January 1976, led to a dossier the commission would submit to the Holy Father. Though five members of the group produced a “Note of the Minority”, it was decided by the assembly not to include it in the dossier, but to indicate problems that remained “open”, that could not find a solution within the limits of the Commission. Unfortunately, more than ten years later in 1987, this “Minority” published this “Note” in Pro Mundi Vita. Taken out of context, the report offers a negative image of a group of women and men who had done useful work under difficult circumstances. We can be grateful to Rosemary for offering us a more balanced presentation of that Commission. In her chapter on “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, the Ordination Debate”, Rosemary brings out the positive elements of the early debate on the ordination of women. First, it obliged theologians to consider complex questions that before might have seemed unanswerable or unimportant. Second, it gave impulse to the theological commitment of women to study theology. Already in 1973, when Archbishop Bartoletti presented to the Synod of Bishops the Recommendations from the Study Commission on Women, he stressed the necessity to give intelligibility to the norm that excludes women from the ministerial priesthood. Using a quote from Avery Dulles describing this period as a decade of confusion, Rosemary argues that many Catholics in good faith became convinced that the Church could overturn her earlier practice. In light of John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis and the recent interpretation of infallibility by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, she notes: The definitive statements issued by the Holy Father and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith must not be seen as putting an end to discussion of the questions involved. They should rather be a stimulus to the search for intelligibility. Indeed, their definitive character underlines the necessity for an overall view of the Church’s ministerial activity in order to make women - religious and lay - more effectively present at all levels, up to the ordained diaconate (p. 226). Even leaving the diaconate aside, Rosemary argues that every possibility open to lay people - including women - in the 1983 code of Canon law should be put to good use. Quoting the Post-Synodal Exhortation Christifideles laici, she stresses that “the acknowledgment intheory of the active and responsible presence of women in the Church must be realized in practice” (CL 51). An attempt at intelligibility is not only a Roman Catholic challenge, but also an ecumenical one. This book offers its own non-polemical attempt at intelligibility in light of the fact that it is unlikely that the norm of women’s exclusion from ministerial priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church will be changed. Rosemary Goldie argues that even if it could be changed, it would not be an enrichment for the Church. She suggests that such a change would deprive the Church, not only of a rich diversity but, more deeply of a full expression of the symbolic meaning of the Christian priesthood, as preserved in the Catholic tradition. Some may not be able to accept all of her arguments, but this attempt at intelligibility is certainly worthy of careful consideration. Conclusion In conclusion, as we look back through Rosemary’s window, we see that the fifty years that she documents have been a period of tremendous growth and progress for the laity in the Church. Granted the growth has not always been steady (sometimes as Rosemary notes it has been two steps forward and one step backwards), often it has not even been visible, and certainly it has not been as quick as one would hope. Without a doubt, there were conflicts and misunderstandings along the way, but through it all, precisely by looking back, we see God at work in the most unpredictable ways, often writing straight with very crooked lines As we look back through Rosemary’s window, we are encouraged, in the words of Pope John Paul II “to cross in hope the threshold of the third millennium”. For many of us here, Vatican II is something we read about in history books and the time before the Council seems part of a pre-historic period not far removed from the Dinosaur age. Many of the younger students here were born long after the Council and for them this book opens a window into an exciting and unexplored horizon. For some, who lived through the excitement of the Council years and the post Conciliar confusion, they may take courage from looking back through Rosemary’s Roman window and seeing the developments. For all of us, we are encouraged to go forward into the next Millennium not only with tremendous hope, but also with the sort of honesty, humility and humor that is reflected in this book.N. 54 / Fall 1998Bulletin / Centro Pro Unione 7 CCCC Centro Conferences CCCC Centro Conferences Mary in the Catholic-Assyrian Dialogue: An Assyrian Perspective by Bishop Mar Bawaï Soro, Assyrian Church of the East Secretary General for the Commission of Inter-church Relations and Education Development (Conference given at the Centro Pro Unione, Monday, 26 October 1998) Introduction1 The condemnation of Nestorius and his teachings at the Council of Ephesus (431) declared a fissure in the lives of our churches for centuries. Today this seemingly insurmountable theological rupture has been overcome by the “Common Christological Declaration” of November 1994. No longer will the cries of Theotokos be used as a source of division; and now the appellation Christotokos can finally have its proper dignity. This centuries long antagonism between the Greco-Roman Church and the Church of the East grew out of a dispute which arose over the proper employment of Marian terminol- ogy, namely, “Theotokos” and “Christotokos”, in describing the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, it was an ecclesio-political dispute between the Sees of Alexandria and Constantinople that eventually manifested itself in the theologi- cal contention and personality clash between Cyril of Alexan- dria and Nestorius of Constantinople, at the Council of Ephesus (431). This dispute ignited one of the most disruptive and destructive controversies in Christendom, which spread throughout the entire Church in the Persian Empire. This horrible history indicates the importance of our subject matter and the need to treat differing views with charity and the need to seek understanding of the divergent formulations used by different peoples in different cultures and places. As we seek to address the place of Mary in the Catholic- Assyrian Dialogue this ancient dispute is but one facet of the rich Christian Apostolic Tradition that both churches represent. Realizing the paucity of western literature on the Mariological devotions, spirituality and liturgical life of the Church of the East, I shall endeavor to present a brief overview of this tradition, realizing the limits of this talk. The accentuation will be placed upon the distinct traditions of the Church of the East while also dealing with specific points of convergence and divergence with modern Catholic Mariology. Introductory General Overview In general, for the Church of the East, the implication of venerating Mary “within the limits of orthodoxy” is that no matter how or when she is venerated through her devotions, feasts and memorials, the Virgin Mother is never to be elevated above her Son, or even equated with Him (I Tim 2:5-6). The Church of the East, in and through her liturgical celebrations, proclaims God's providence as made known in the Gospel, so that the Person and works of Jesus Christ are made prominent and glorified. This emphasis is given to preserve and make clear a distinction between Mary as mediator between God and men in prayer for help and comfort, which is encouraged among the faithful, and the uniqueness of Christ's role in mediating our redemption. The forms of veneration of the Virgin and the theological language that expresses them, though frequently similar, are not always (or necessarily) the same in East and West. Yet in spite of that, the common origins of the shared apostolic heritage are demonstrated, in that we may discern a profound affinity with the contemporary understanding of Mary in the West. Today both churches could agree on honoring Mary's relationship to God, and to us, in three ways:2 1.Trinitarian Relationship: Liturgy and popular piety in both 1 This paper has been a collaborative effort. I would like to thank sincerely the Very Reverend Chorbishop M.J. Birnie (of Seattle, Washington) for the English translation of the Aramaic texts and for his overall comments. By the same token, I would like to also offer my personal gratitude to the Venerable Archdeacon Younan Y. Younan (of London, England) for verifying the relevancy and the theological authenticity of the same cited Aramaic liturgical texts from the Chaldean sources used in this paper. This conference was co-sponsored by the Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Rome Branch. 2 For the Catholic position in support of the three “ways” of honoring Mary, see LG 53; and for the Assyrian position, see the Book of “Khodra”, “Common Prayer for the Feasts of our Lady”, vol. I, Trichur, India: Mar Narsai Press, 1962, 608-609.8 Bulletin / Centro Pro UnioneN. 54 / Fall 1998 Churches venerate Mary in terms and concepts that are the same as, or similar to, “Handmaid of the Father”, “Mother of the Son”, and “Temple of the Holy Spirit” (Lk 1:38; Lk 1:30-35). 2.Christological Relationship: Mary is the mother of Jesus; and, both of our traditions affirm that misunderstandings about this fact have had profound negative implications for relations between our two churches since the time of the Christological controversies of the fifth century. However, this situation has been overcome with the signing of the “Common Christo- logical Declaration”. 3.Ecclesiological Relationship: According to the Gospel of John, Mary and the beloved disciple are brought together at the foot of the Cross, where Jesus defines their new relation- ship as “mother and son”. In this Scriptural context, Mary is seen to be forming, with John, the first Christian family — each seeing Christ in the other — thus, having a profound relationship to the rest of us, the Church (Jn 19:26-27). I. Who is Mary for the Church of the East? Let us now examine briefly the way the Church of the East conceptualizes Mary in her worship and the portrayal she attributes to her role in the Mystery of salvation. Regarding the spirit of devotion to the Virgin, there is little difference (except, perhaps, in emphasis) in the honor generally bestowed upon her in either the East or the West. In fact, the tradition of venerating Mary finds its origins in the Christian East, although the West has, throughout many centuries of reflec- tion, developed its own particular theological thinking about the Mother of our Lord. However, following the axiom, Lex Orandi Lex Credendi, by making use of Church of the East “Book of Prayer”, “Khodra”, particularly the liturgical anthems of the Feasts of our Lady, we will be able to gain some insight into the ways this tradition honors the Blessed Mother and the practice by which its adherents pray to her. I will now quote from the common liturgy that is celebrated in the Church of the East for three of our Lady's feasts, namely, in January, May and August, to clarify her depiction. These words are directly from the liturgy: holy and the fount of divine holy things. She is splendid and fair and the ark of spiritual mysteries. She is renowned in virtue and holy exploits, a treasury of grace and storehouse of heavenly riches. Our lady, Mary, is more exalted and sublime than [any] name. She alone, among all the daughters of Eve is the one [whom God] chose to be a ‘Temple for the Holy Spirit' and a ‘Mother for the Son of the Highest'. [Yes, indeed], she is the temple of the Holy Spirit and mother of the Son of God3. The prayers and hymns of the liturgy also venerate with the highest marks of respect Mary's intimate and active participa- tion in the mystery of the Incarnation. These festive prayers continue as follows: In her womb she bore fire; in her body she carried the Shekinah4. Within her soul the Spirit brooded, and [Mary] became, all in all, a heaven. Do not reproach me, O reader, because I have designated [Mary] a ‘heaven'. And, as I think, [Mary is] more excellent, sublime, and exalted than heaven5. Furthermore, the Church of the East Fathers never tired of extolling Mary in terms that could not be applied to any other human being6. Among their numerous glorious epithets for her, the most significant is the title “Second Heaven”. The liturgical hymn expresses it this way: “From the Second Heaven, the Ever Virgin, [Christ] shone forth temporally for our salvation”. This indicates that Mary deserves the honor of being called “Heaven”, since the eternal Lord of all, the Only Begotten Son of God, whose eternal dwelling-place is in Heaven, did, in the fullness of time (at the Incarnation), descend to the world and make the womb of the Virgin his dwelling-place, truly a “Second Heaven”. Mary is therefore named Heaven because of God's unique relationship with her, whose womb became the Sanctuary of his Son. On the matter of Mary's perpetual virginity, although there is no clear reference in the New Testament, the church Fathers, as early as the fourth century, began developing this dogma — a matter of tradition that has been received in both churches, thus engendering no disagreement. Instead, it is a firm point of convergence and source of harmony between the 3Ibid., I, 608-609. 4 Shekinah is the Hebrew concept of divine presence; it is a word that is also used in the Aramaic Syriac literature. 5 Khodra, op. cit., I, 609; 593. 6 For a similar concept in Catholic theology, see LG 66. Mary is singled out and set above all humanity, keeping in mind that Jesus Christ was human, but also God.N. 54 / Fall 1998Bulletin / Centro Pro Unione 9 two sides of dialogue7. Moreover, it can be used as a demonstration of the universality of a doctrine as being held in all places by all people for all times. For the Assyrian Church, the mysteries of Mary's virginal conception of Jesus and her perpetual virginity are taken in their literal sense, both theologically and pastorally, in order to avoid a mere symbolic approach to describing God's interven- tion in human history. The church affirms that, as guided by the Holy Spirit, the catholic and apostolic Church has, since its early formation, understood Mary's role in God's providence, and did so in such a way that conclusions about her virginity were read out of the Scriptures and interpreted in accord with the living tradition. So, in the Catholic-Assyrian dialogue, both of these teachings have been considered as points of conver- gence rather than divergence, since both traditions utilize biblical texts and receive the common tradition of the early Church upon which they base their acceptance. This accep- tance is without any hesitation; for they have been affirmed, and are manifested in liturgical texts and in the writings of private theologians. The New Testament texts like Matthew 1:16-25 and Luke 1:26-38 clearly show that Mary's perpetual virginity was due to the total dedication of her life to the will of the Father and to the mission of her Son8. In this fashion, Mary becomes for the Church of the East, as for all Christians, a figure of great spiritual significance, both as a model Christian believer to the secular world, and as an example of holiness for those of the faithful who desire to consecrate their lives to virginity and celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom9. In summary, the faith of the Church of the East in the blessed Mother is inspired by the conviction that she was the unique vehicle through whom the Father chose the Incarnation to take place. A broad synthesis of this church's liturgical and theological sources would immediately make available to us the intimate kinship between the Son of God and his Mother, which in part will lead us to discern two further miraculous occurrences. (i) That God's grace must have preserved Mary, in a unique way, from any possibility or actuality of sin throughout her earthly life. (ii) At the end of her earthly life (at her death), the sinless Mary, in the totality of her being, through the redemptive act of her Son, realized the fruits of renewed instantaneously, just as believers will realize them at the Second Coming of Christ. This broad overview presents us with a concise founda- tional understanding of Mariology as viewed by the Church of the East. There are still further considerations to be enter- tained, specifically regarding points for dialogue, which from the surface appear as divergent teachings. Our analysis will treat three specific areas. The first area will focus upon the issues of Theotokos and Christotokos by presenting the differences and the resolution achieved by signing the Com- mon Christological Declaration in 1994. This resolution can serve as a model for the other points in the agenda of dialogue. The second area will focus upon the dogmatic declaration of the Immaculate Conception. Finally the third area will treat the dogmatic declaration of the Assumption. II. The Dialogue on Mary Theotokos/Christotokos: divergent views as model for discus- sion So now, let us look at a synopsis of the various factors involved in the Theotokos/Christotokos controversy. Theologi- cally, both the Catholic Church and the Church of the East have insisted upon acknowledging the two natures, divine and 7 The seventh century theologian, Mar Babai the Great, in his Memras, “On the Union”, stated the received tradition in the Church of Persia thus: “... he went out by the power of the Godhead which was united in him from within the womb through the bound and virginal gates of natural protection, while those natural seals, the keepers of holiness, were not destroyed, forever confirming by a token the testimony of chastity for ever”, Babai the Great, Liber de unione, ed. A. Vaschalde, Louvain: L. Durbecq (coll. “Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Scriptores syri”, 79-80) 1953 [1st ed. 1915], 188. 8 The text of Mt 1:25, however, is significant in the fulfillment of the Old Testament's ancient prophecy in Is 7:14. 9 Unlike the Latin tradition, the Church of the East's liturgical literature does not have any significant mention of Joseph, the husband of Mary. This might well be due to this church's wish to emphasize Mary's virginity before and after the birth of her Son. The Latin tradition, as influenced by St. Augustine, would agree strongly with the Assyrian Church's position but without excluding Joseph from the familial context of Mary and Jesus, for it attributes to him the role of guardian over Mary and Jesus, as the Father's instrument to protect His Son during his early years on this earth. St. Augustine states the following: “Every good of marriage was fulfilled in the parents of Christ: offspring, loyalty, and the sacrament. We recognize the offspring in our Lord Jesus Christ himself; loyalty, in that no adultery occurred; and the indissolubility because of no divorce. Only conjugal intercourse did not take place”, De nupt. et concup. XI, 13, in PL 44, 421, cited in Michael O'Carroll, Theotokos: A Theological Encyclopedia of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Dublin: Dominican, 1982, 234.Next >