Rome, January 1st, 2019.
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
The Catholic Church breathes with two lungs: the Eastern and the Western
Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 260
Dear Fathers, Brothers, Seminarians and Novices,
I have the pleasure of greeting you all on this joyful day in which the entire Church celebrates the first and very true Marian dogma that declares that the Virgin Mary is Mother of God: Theotokos.
The expression Theotokos, which literally means “she who has begotten God,” refers us to the august mystery by which the Virgin Mary is the “Mother of the Incarnate Word, who is God.” This truth is part of the patrimony of the Church’s one Catholic faith, both in the East and in the West.
Given that in a few days our Eastern-Rite religious – numerous members of the Byzantine and Coptic Rites – will celebrate the birth of the Incarnate Word, and that, what is more, this year we will celebrate with great joy the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Institute in Ukraine, I would like to dedicate this circular letter to the “privileged and essential place that the illustrious doctrine of the Holy Doctor Saint Thomas Aquinas holds in the work of evangelization in the Eastern-Rite territories,” a truth clearly indicated in our proper law, and which ought to mark and distinguish our missions in the places where these precious rites, true treasures of the Church, are celebrated.
The same “theological reason” that moved our superiors to send missionaries to the Slavic countries of Eastern Europe – and which is ultimately the same that moved them to send missionaries to the Middle East a little more than 25 years ago – can be reduced to a principle expressed by the metaphor: “the Catholic Church breathes with two lungs: the Eastern and the Western.”
For us it is and always will be our pride not only to have members from the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches but also to join forces with them to contribute to the evangelization of their particular Churches, because we understand that “to extend the Incarnation ‘to all men’ implies not only to extend it in man and woman, in child, youth or elderly, but also in Western and Eastern man, in any of the diversity of rites and in any of the particular Churches that make up the one Catholic Church.” Because “belonging to the Communion of the Church is never exclusively specific, but rather – due to its nature – is in itself always universal.”
May the Mother of God be pleased to use these lines to bring our most heartfelt thanks to all our Eastern-Rite religious for the immense grace to our Institute to have them as members, and for the great enrichment it has meant for all of us to be in contact with their cultures, rites and traditions.
1. Formation in la doctrine of Saint Thomas Aquinas
Our Directory of Spirituality firmly declares that “The Church of Christ is the universal community of the Lord’s disciples that extends to all times, places, races, languages and cultures. This is what ‘Catholic’ means: universal.” And it adds: “the Church is ‘Catholic’ also in her doctrine,” though there may be a variety of theological schools, different venerable liturgical rites, etc., because all this is part of the richness of the Catholicity of the Church.
We affirm with healthy pride that “we are members of one unique missionary Religious Family, but above all, we are children of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church that ‘breathes’ with two lungs: the Eastern and the Western.”
This is why our seminarians and novice of the Eastern-Rites – whichever it may be – not are not only formed in the spirituality and discipline of the sui iuris Church to whom they belong or in the practice of their own rites, since we try, as far as possible, to allow them to celebrate in their own rite, but also in the doctrine of Saint Thomas Aquinas. This is because, though it is certain that “an Oriental theology and spirituality exists, consistent with the idiosyncrasy of each people, showing that the Incarnation respects cultural differences, Eastern and Western theology cannot be opposed, nor can Eastern spirituality be opposed to the Western.”
We believe, without fear of erring, “that the great summarizer of both theologies has been Saint Thomas of Aquinas, who, as Cardinal Slipyj said, is the only one who has used both Latin Fathers and Greek Fathers as sources of Christian theology, and this abundantly. Therefore, the religious of the Institute of the Incarnate Word who work in Eastern territories have no need to fear to propose the perennial doctrine of the Angelic Doctor, under the false pretext that it is not a doctrine adapted to the Eastern mentality.”
This is why the Directory of the Eastern-Rite Branch dedicates fourteen paragraphs to highlighting the importance of the study of Saint Thomas for the formation of our Eastern Rite members, and it does so “following the profound thought of Cardinal Slipyj.” Therefore, before continuing to the main topic of this letter, I want to give you a brief biographical outline of this great Prince of the Church.
2. The greatest Ukrainian of our times
Who was this Cardinal of whom Saint John Paul II, when celebrating a Mass for the eternal repose of his soul, said, “His memory remains indelibly in the annals of civil and religious history; we will never be able to forget his ascetic and hierarchical figure, severe and solemn: above all we will not be able to forget the teaching he has given with his entire life”?
Cardinal Josef Slipyj was born in Zazdrist, province of Ternopil, Ukraine, on February 17th, 1892, into a Greek Catholic family. Prompted by his ardent priestly vocation, he entered the Greek Catholic Seminary of Lviv, enrolling in the Faculty of Theology of the university of the same city. He did not stay long, for the Metropolitan, Andryj Szeptyckyj (1865-1944), noticed his great intellectual gifts and personality, and had him sent to Innsbruck, Austria, to study philosophy and theology.
He was ordained a priest on December 8th, 1917 and the next year he graduated as a Doctor in Theology. He also studied in three Pontifical Institutes in Rome. When he returned definitively to Ukraine, he became a professor in the Greek Catholic Metropolitan Seminary of Lviv.
On November 1st, 1944, he was consecrated Archbishop of Lviv. But the next year, on April 11th, 1945, he was imprisoned, because the USSR government had declared the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church illegal and attempted once and for all to prohibit and liquidate it. He spent the next twenty-eight years imprisoned in Siberia – and not only there, because they transferred him many times – suffering and offering all for the unity of the Church.
He was freed thanks to the intercession of Saint John XXIII on January 12th, 1963, which made it possible for him to participate in the Second Vatican Council. On December 23rd of this same year, the Pope granted him the title of Major Archbishop of Lviv. In this moment a truly glorious period began for the Cardinal. He immediately founded the Ukrainian Catholic University of Pope Saint Clement (1963), restarted the activities of the “Ukrainian Theological Scientific Society” and the publication of the Bohoslovia magazine. Two years later Saint Paul VI made him a cardinal.
During this second and definitive stay in the Eternal City, Cardinal Slipyj devoted himself to the reorganization of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic hierarchy and to the conservation of the spiritual and cultural patrimony of the Ukrainian people scattered all over the world. He visited the Ukrainian immigrant communities on his numerous trips, leaving us a luminous example of missionary and pastoral zeal. A quick illustration: in 1968 he devoted four months to his first pastoral visit to numerous Ukrainian communities in Canada, the United States, and several countries in South America. He even went to Argentina, where the government received him as an honored guest and produced a commemorative postal stamp for the occasion. Prompted by his missionary zeal, he also crossed the Pacific to assist the Greek Catholics in Australia and New Zealand. In 1981, he was named a member of the “Saint Thomas” Pontifical Academy for his work of spreading Aquinas’ thought in Ukrainian intellectual circles.
He died on September 7th, 1984 at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Rome, at the age of 93.
We can say of him that he “was a passionate scholar, a priest and a bishop who luminously guided his dispersed and frightened flock. He was without a doubt the greatest Ukrainian of our times. He was a confessor of Christ who suffered prisons, tortures, hunger, cold, ridicule, degradations and humiliations. He was a great cardinal, a true prince of the Church, whose name gave glory to the Sacred College. He used to say, ‘There where my Church is, there I must be to defend it.’”
This great Ukrainian wrote about ten academic works of a Thomistic nature. Among them we can mention: De valore S. Thomae Aquinatis pro Unione eiusque influxu in theologiam orientalem (1921) – abundantly and explicitly cited in our Directory of the Oriental Branch ; Saint Thomas and Eastern theology (1924); Saint Thomas Aquinas and Scholasticism (1925); Saint Thomas and the philosophical and theological science in the East (1969), Essay on the History of Medieval Scholastic Philosophy (1974), etc.
Speaking of his work, Saint Thomas Aquinas and Scholasticism, he explained, “For the 600th Jubilee Year of the Canonization [of Saint Thomas], during the 1922-1924 academic years, I introduced a class on Saint Thomas for our theology students. It seemed very necessary to me, since we still have a very antiquated view of the Medieval, and of the Scholastic, in particular, and also because, in general, hardly any attention was paid to him in the most recent investigations in this field. It was easy for me to teach this, since recently, for two years (1920-1922), I had studied Medieval Theology in Rome.
3. Why should the Eastern world study Saint Thomas?
Our proper right responds to this question using Cardinal Slipyj’s masterly study and analysis. It is he who guides us, providing us with the motives for which we “want to highlight the Angelic Doctor’s importance for evangelization and for the work of ecumenism, especially with the Orthodox Churches.” Let us look at some of his own words:
- Because “the works of Saint Thomas tempered the coldness and ice of the separation of the Churches and gave suitable and sure arms to the defenders of Union. The Orientals have appropriated many of his arguments (on the procession of the Holy Spirit and the doctrine of the Sacraments). In Aquinas’ works, the profundity of Western Theology was ostensively shown to the Orientals and their declining production was revived. I think that I am not far from the truth when I declare that the more profoundly Eastern theologians know the works of Saint Thomas, the more firmly they adhere to the union of the Churches.”
- Because “the heart and mind of Aquinas was sincerely and keenly concerned about the union of the Churches, to the point that his treatises Against the errors of the Greeks, On the Reasons of the Faith against the Saracens, Greeks and Armenians, to the Cantor of Antioch, Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, Disputed Questions on Truth and on the Power of God, the Summa contra Gentiles and the Summa Theologiae copiously abound with controversial issues between East and West. Even before his holy death, obeying an order from the Pope, Saint Thomas did not hesitate to take the road to Lyon in order to work for union, even though he felt that his body denied him the necessary support for this desire of his soul.”
- Because “the Catholic Church gives Aquinas the highest praise. The Supreme Pontiffs, the Code of Canon Law, have honorably declared him as a guide for studies (studiorum ducem), decreeing that we have to return to the theology and philosophy of Saint Thomas, and that these must be explained in the spirit and according to the intention of the Angelic Doctor. I think that this exhortation also contains the implicit desire that the scientific work of the unionist movement be founded in Aquinas’ works.”
- “Furthermore, in the East, the study of Saint Thomas ought to be cultivated, above all:
- because the scholasticism of the first period was born in the East and developed based on Patristic theology and philosophy;
- Because Eastern theology and philosophy certainly flourished again under the influence of Saint Thomas and scholasticism, and thanks to that, union has been promoted. In fact, at the same time as Aquinas’ influence in the East has grown, the union of the Churches has been reaffirmed.”
But the study of Saint Thomas is also extremely important for the work of ecumenism, especially with the Orthodox Churches. Therefore, Cardinal Slipyj rightly warns us: “No one is ignorant of the fact that scholastic doctrine and that of Saint Thomas is not at all pleasing to the Orthodox, who even loath it. There are two reasons for such dissent:”
– “The first reason is that the Orthodox think that scholasticism is contrary to Eastern mentality and that to embrace it would be to renounce Eastern theological tradition and to abandon an age-old method. Going further, according to them, Western scholasticism consists in formalism, in the defense of overly dialectical dogmatic questions, in the examination of exaggerated distinctions, and of futile and ridiculous opinions.”
“The Orthodox theologians inherited this judgement from the Protestants and have hardened it with their prejudice. Nevertheless, when the question is examined better, this conviction completely lacks foundation: in no way is scholasticism in opposition with Eastern tradition.”
– “The second reason for dissent between East and West is in the language, which causes difficulties for the translation of concepts. For example, ‘substance’ and ‘hypostasis’ sound identical, but the meaning is completely different, and the same goes for ‘cause’ and ‘principle’. Aquinas clarifies the terminology and enables the understanding of these terms in order to apply them to theological truths where apparently there are discrepancies. For this reason, the doctrine of Saint Thomas is important, because it is the only one that overcomes the differences by clarifying the true terms that would make union with the Orthodox possible.”
Then he presents “the advantages of the study of Saint Thomas and scholasticism for the East:
- The effort made by Saint Thomas, and later by scholasticism, in declaring and expounding the truths of the faith, giving them an order and a logical nexus, show how East and West not only are not opposed, but are complementary, and come together into a single Catholic doctrine. Having taken from both the Greek and Latin Fathers, the Angelic Doctor has summarized Eastern thought as well as Western, explaining terms with precision and making it possible to resolve difficulties presented against revealed truths.
- The foundation of the philosophy, and even the theology of Saint Thomas, is the doctrine of Aristotle, the greatest Greek philosopher used in theology – note this attentively – by the Greek Fathers.
- Likewise, the scholastic theologians built their work, as was already said, on the patristic works, especially Augustine, though the method was derived from the Greek Fathers.”
What is more, Saint Thomas has already resolved many difficulties that the Orthodox maintain today.
Indeed, “by the influence of Greek patristics in the works of Saint Thomas, we can affirm Western theology’s dependence on the Greek. Another motive, not only not to oppose the two theologies, but for which there is a mutual and reciprocal complementarity.”
“If the works of Saint Augustine,” says Cardinal Slipyj, “have not left deeper marks in the East, this is due to ignorance of Latin among the Greeks. This did not happen with Saint Thomas, because in the Middle Ages, this obstacle was overcome, in addition to which the promoters of union were obliged to read the Latin works.”
“For all that has been said,” concludes our proper law, “the major seminarians will study the doctrine of Saint Thomas Aquinas.”
It does not hurt to remember that the study of Saint Thomas – for all members of our dear Institute of the Incarnate Word – is of central importance in our formation and is one of the non-negotiable elements included in our charism. It is precisely this which allows us to “bite reality” and not to beat the air in the sublime adventure of the evangelization of cultures.
To embrace the grace of Thomism is also intimately related to another non-negotiable element included in our charism: faithfulness to the Magisterium, since this “has proclaimed that the doctrine of Saint Thomas is her own.” Likewise, from this follows that great “plus” for our members which formation in Rome entails: it permits them “to be witnesses, day after day, to the living tradition of the faith as it is proclaimed in the See of Peter” which entails “universal openness, fidelity to the Magisterium, a missionary spirit, endurance, and magnanimity,” so necessary to permeating cultures with the Gospel.
4. Liturgy and spirituality
All of us know with how much love our members of Eastern sui iuris Catholic Churches celebrate the liturgy, above all the Eucharist. Many of us have had the opportunity to appreciate how beautiful and peaceful the soul of the Eucharistic celebration is, according to the Coptic or Byzantine rite, in our Religious Family. And with great satisfaction we are compelled to affirm that these rites are truly a wealth for the Church, like a same melody sung in different tones, which splendidly praises the unfathomable transcendence and greatness of God.
This variety of rites in the Church “not only does not harm its unity, but rather makes it more explicit; [and] it is the Catholic Church’s desire that the traditions of each particular Church or rite remain intact and entire in the different needs of time and place,” because they make her even more beautiful.
This is why it is so important that our members “receive the liturgical, spiritual and disciplinary formation of the sui iuris Church that they belong to” and that they pass it on to future generations in all its purity. Because the worthy celebration of the Holy Mass and the distinctive place it holds in our lives and mission of evangelization is also one of the non-negotiable elements included in our charism. Therefore, our priests – whichever rite they belong to – must be masters in the ars celebrandi (and our religious brothers and sisters must strive to live the ars participandi most perfectly).
In this sense, our proper law, following the teachings of the Petrine Magisterium, tells us: “All members of the Eastern Rite should know and be convinced that they can and should always preserve their legitimate liturgical rite and their established way of life, and that these may not be altered except to obtain for themselves an organic improvement.”
I would also like to point out that although our novices ought to be formed according to the spirituality of their own sui iuris Church, “they also ought to be familiar with the great spiritual masters of the universal Church,” in order to be always imbued with the Institute’s identity and charism, which all of us ought to respect and preserve. And what is said about novices also ought to be said of all the Eastern-rite members of the Institute.
In this sense the Chapter Fathers in the last General Chapter declared that “the protection and promotion of different rites ought to coexist with a clear awareness of their belonging to the IVE and with the missionary availability and spirit, saving the provisions of the Church on the subject.”
You all know very well that it is inherent to our condition as religious of the Institute of the Incarnate Word to have “a serious spirituality” that emphasizes the essential things, leaving aside all formalism, that strives to have a “providential” view of life, and that, having “the mystery of the Incarnation always before us, avoids dialectics and assumes what is authentically human… Because, just as all Christological heresy comes from an error in the understanding of the mystery of the Incarnation, the same can happen in our life and apostolate.” Therefore, our missionaries, especially those in Eastern territories, must know “how to act, respecting what is proper to each tradition,” and its characteristic rites, “without losing the identity or charism of the Institute.”
Let us be careful to not make “a false dialectic between the different rites, as if one were competing with the others, creating rivalries, or trying to establish a hierarchy of illicit or inadequate subordination between the liturgical rites, or reforming rites and customs, mixing them with elements of other rites.”
We must not succumb to particularism, reductionism, partialities or unilateralism that threaten Catholicity. I repeat: the Catholic Church breathes with two lungs: “One cannot breathe like a Christian, or better said as a Catholic, with a single lung; it is necessary to have two lungs, that is to say, the Eastern and the Western.”
Consequently, the Directory of the Oriental Branch, wisely exhorts us to “fine discernment, in order to promote all that is authentically human and traditional that belongs to the bimillenary patrimony of the Church, honoring and protecting it from all that impoverishes the diversity and unity of the Church.” This is a great help to ecumenism, and, certainly, to attracting Eastern Rite vocations.
So, on one hand, our Eastern Rite members must faithfully observe their liturgical traditions, guard them and faithfully pass them on to future generations, since they are “an integral part of the heritage of Christ’s Church.”
But on the other hand, it is also “necessary,” as our dear John Paul the Great said, that “the members of the Catholic Church of the Latin tradition must also be fully acquainted with this treasure and thus feel, with the Pope, a passionate longing that the full manifestation of the Church’s catholicity be restored to the Church and to the world, expressed not by a single tradition, and still less by one community in opposition to the other; and that we too may be granted a full taste of the divinely revealed and undivided heritage of the universal Church which is preserved and grows in the life of the Churches of the East as in those of the West.”
By God’s grace, for the past 25 years, we have been able to contemplate, joyfully and thankfully, as a precious and living reality, that desire expressed in our proper law by the following words: “we wish our Institute to have an ‘Oriental Branch’ to help our brothers of the Eastern Churches.”
At present, our dear Religious Family has a large number of Eastern-Rite members, including sisters of the Institute Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará. To them we have to add all the members of the Third Order who, from our missions in the Eastern-Rite Churches, join our missionary efforts.
Throughout all these years, our missions in the Eastern-Rite Churches have been increasing: Deo gratias! But the exhortation of our Religious Family’s Spiritual Father remains in force: “Today, especially in the East…, there is a great need for evangelization.”
This is why on this first day of the year, and just a few days from the celebration of the Birth of the Incarnate God, according to the Eastern-Rite calendar, I want to encourage all our Eastern-Rite members to preserve their tradition with fervor, as a particular spiritual heritage, and may it be the strength of their life and missionary activity.
Keep in mind that pastoral work for vocations – as the Holy Father said – has to be viewed as the soul of all evangelization and of all the Church’s pastoral ministry and is an “indispensable apostolate” for us. In you, God has blessed our Institute with high-quality Eastern-Rite vocations. The vocation is love which can only be returned with love. Be thankful for such a precious gift by working to encourage and guide many more vocations.
Always remember the great testimony of faithfulness to Christ, to the Church, and to the Pope that innumerable Eastern saints and martyrs gave: Saint Athanasius, Saint Cyril, Saint Pachomius, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Basil the Great, Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Josaphat, the 27 Blessed Greek-Catholic martyrs, Saint Maron, Saint Charbel Makhlouf, Saint Rafqa, and many, many more. Learn the spiritual and apostolic lesson of the saints: “to prefer nothing whatever to Christ!” Do, like them, all that is possible “to love and serve Jesus Christ – His Body and His Spirit – and to help others love and serve Him. We want to love and serve the physical Body of Christ, the Eucharist, as well as His Mystical Body, the Church.” This is and always will be our mission. In other words, always choose holiness with courage.
Duc in altum! The mission “revitalizes faith and Christian identity, and offers fresh enthusiasm and new incentive. Faith is strengthened when it is given to others!”
I commend all of you to Mary, the Mother of God, who, from the beginning, prays with the Church and for the Church. And I invite all of you to pray for an increase in priestly and religious vocations from Eastern-rite Churches. Pray also that all together, founded on the rock that is Christ, we may make the Gospel’s light of truth shine forth in all corners of the world.
Happy feast day of the Virgin to all!
And to our Eastern-Rite members, a very Merry Christmas! Щасливого Різдва! عيدَ ميلادٍ مَجيد!
A big hug,
Fr. Gustavo Nieto, IVE
General Superior
