N E W S
¿ ¡¡THE "Filioque"!! ?
Agreed Statement On
"Filioque" Adopted By North American Orthodox-Catholic Consultation
October 28, 2003
The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation concluded a
four-year study of the Filioque on October 25, when it unanimously adopted an
agreed text on this difficult question that has divided the two communions for
many centuries. This important development took place at the 65th meeting of the
Consultation, held at St. Paul’s College in Washington, DC, under the joint
chairmanship of Metropolitan Maximos of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of
Pittsburgh and Archbishop Pilarczyk of Cincinnati.
The original version of the Creed most Christian churches accept as the standard
expression of their faith dates from the First Council of Constantinople, in
381, and has been used by Orthodox Christians since that time. Towards the end,
this Creed states that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father.” The word
Filioque (“and the Son”) was later added to the Latin version of this Creed
used in the West, so that the phrase as most western Christians know it reads
that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son.” This
modification appeared in some areas of Western Europe as early as the 6th
century but was accepted in Rome only in the 11th century. This change in the
wording of the Creed and the underlying variations in understanding the origin
and procession of the Holy Spirit within the Trinity have long been considered a
church-dividing issue between Catholics and Orthodox. The Consultation had been
studying this question since 1999 in the hope of eventually releasing an agreed
statement.
Entitled “The Filioque: A Church-Dividing Issue?”, the ten-thousand word
text has three major sections. The first, “The Holy Spirit in the
Scriptures,” summarizes references to the Spirit in both the Old and New
Testaments. The more lengthy second section, “Historical Considerations,”
provides an overview of the origins of the two traditions concerning the eternal
procession of the Spirit and the slow process by which the Filioque was added to
the Creed in the West. It also shows how this question concerning Trinitarian
theology became entwined with disputes regarding papal jurisdiction and primacy,
and reviews recent developments in the Catholic Church which point to a greater
awareness of the unique and normative character of the original Greek version of
the Creed as an expression of the faith that unites the Orthodox East and
Catholic West. The third section, “Theological Reflections,” emphasizes our
limited ability to speak of the inner life of God, points out that both sides of
the debate have often caricatured the positions of the other, and lists areas in
which the traditions agree. It then explores the differences that have developed
regarding terminology, and identifies both theological and ecclesiological
divergences that have arisen over the centuries.
In a final section, the Consultation makes eight recommendations to the members
and bishops of the two churches. It recommends that they “enter into a new and
earnest dialogue concerning the origin and person of the Holy Spirit.” It also
proposes that in the future both Catholics and Orthodox “refrain from labeling
as heretical the traditions of the other side” on this subject, and that the
theologians of both traditions make a clearer distinction between the divinity
of the Spirit, and the manner of the Spirit’s origin, “which still awaits
full and final ecumenical resolution.” The text also urges theologians to
distinguish, as far as possible, the theological issues concerning the origin of
the Holy Spirit from ecclesiological issues, and suggests that attention be paid
in the future to the status of councils of both our churches that took place
after the seven ecumenical councils of the first millennium. And finally, in
view of the fact that the Vatican has affirmed the “normative and irrevocable
dogmatic value of the Creed of 381” in its original Greek version, the
Consultation recommends that the Catholic Church use the same text (without the
Filioque) “in making translations of that Creed for catechetical and
liturgical use,” and declare that the anathema pronounced by the Second
Council of Lyons against those who deny that the Spirit proceeds eternally from
the Father and the Son is no longer applicable.
At this meeting the members also took time to review major developments in the
lives of their churches. Among the items discussed were the seminar on Petrine
Ministry that was held in the Vatican in May; the granting of autonomous status
to the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America; the Orientale
Lumen Conference held in Washington, DC, last June; the recent Patriarchal
Assembly of the Maronite Catholic Church; the presence of a delegation from the
Ecumenical Patriarchate in Rome in late June for the feast of Sts. Peter and
Paul headed by Archbishop Demetrios of America; the seminar sponsored by Pro
Oriente on the union of Transylvanian Orthodox with Rome in Cluj, Romania, last
July; the Faith and Order response to Ut Unum Sint; statements by the two
churches on same-sex marriages; and the recent meeting of the Joint Committee of
Orthodox and Catholic Bishops in Baltimore.
The 66th meeting of the Consultation is scheduled to take place from June 1 to
3, 2004, at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline,
Massachusetts, and the 67th meeting from October 21 to 23, 2004.
The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation is sponsored
jointly by the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the Americas
(SCOBA), the Bishops* Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the
USCCB, and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Since its establishment
in 1965, the Consultation has now issued 22 agreed statements on various topics.
All these texts are now available on the
website of the US Catholic Conference at: http://www.usccb.org/seia/dialogues.htm
In addition to the two co-chairmen, the Orthodox members of the Consultation
include Father Thomas FitzGerald (Secretary), Archbishop Peter of New York,
Father Nicholas Apostola, Prof. Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Father James Dutko, Prof.
Paul Meyendorff, Father Alexander Golitzin, Father Emmanuel Gratsias, Dr. Robert
Haddad, Father Paul Schnierla, Father Robert Stephanopoulos, and Bishop
Dimitrios of Xanthos, General Secretary of SCOBA (staff). The additional
Catholic members are Father Brian Daley, SJ (secretary), Msgr. Frederick
McManus, Prof. Thomas Bird, Father Peter Galadza, Msgr. John D. Faris, Father
John Galvin, Sister Jean Goulet, CSC, Father Sidney Griffith, ST, Father John
Long, SJ, Father David Petras, Prof. Robin Darling Young, and Father Ronald
Roberson, CSP (staff).
GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA http://www.goarch.org