Folia Canonica 5. (2002)

STUDIES - John D. Faris: Territory and the Eastern Catholic Experience in the United States

FOLIA CANONICA 5 (2002) 51-58.

JOHN D. FARIS

TERRITORY AND THE EASTERN CATHOLIC EXPERIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES

Territory = Community; Conciliar Sea-Change; Pre-Conciliar Situation; ESTABLISHMENT OF HIERARCHIES; ESTABLISHMENT OF PARISHES; TERRITORY AND A Multiplicity of Churches; Conclusion.

Territory = Community

Some of the earliest disciplinary norms of the Church address the issue of ecclesial governance and territory. The image drawn by Ignatius of Antioch of a single bishop serving a city1—while not universally found in the Church of his times—was to evolve throughout the Church and eventually came to be understood as the only possible form of governance.

The First Ecumenical Council, Nicea I (325), further established the principle of one metropolitan for each province and one “patriarch” for each diocese,2 a principle that was to be reinforced and elaborated upon by subsequent ecumenical councils.

While susceptible to the possible accusation of over-simplification, the assertion can be made that, for the first nineteen centuries of the life of the Church, ecclesial governance was articulated in terms of territory because the ecclesial community and the territory were identical. There was an intermixture of peoples as a result of wars, famines and migrations, but society was generally monolithic and not pluralistic. The incursion of another group of people in a region usually did not result in pluralism, but in the conquest of one group over another.

1 “Therefore take care to keep one eucharistie feast only; for Christ’s flesh is one and His blood is one; there is one altar and one bishop with his priests and deacons.” Ignatius, Letter to the Philadelphians, 4.

2 Canon 6 — “The ancient customs of Egypt, Libya, and Pentapolis shall be maintained, according to which the bishop of Alexandria has authority over all these places, since a similar custom exists with reference to the bishop of Rome. Similarly in Antioch and the other provinces the prerogatives of the churches are to be preserved.

In general the following principle is evident: if anyone is made bishop without the consent of the metropolitan, this great synod determines that such a one shall not be a bishop. If however two or three by reason of personal rivalry dissent from the common vote of all, provided it is reasonable and in accordance with the church’s canon, the vote of the majority shall prevail.”