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Published: May 15, 2008
Ecumenical triumph
California-based diocese of the Assyrian Apostolic Church enters full communion with the Catholic Church
On Pentecost, leaders of the Chaldean Catholic Church in California formally received into communion a bishop of the Assyrian Apostolic Church of the East, his clergy and faithful. The bishop, Mar Mawai Soro, who presided over the western Assyrian diocese headquartered in San Jose, was disciplined by the Holy Synod of the Assyrian Apostolic Church in 2005 for publicly defending papal primacy.
 The Assyrian Church (centered in Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq), which dates back to the earliest days of the Christian faith, eventually came to embrace the teachings of the fifth century archbishop of Constantinople, Nestorius, condemned by the Council of Ephesus in 431. Beginning, however, in the 16th century, large numbers of Nestorian Assyrians came into union with Rome, forming the Chaldean Catholic Church -- which today is larger than the Assyrian Church.
The course of events that led the California-based Assyrian diocese into full communion with the Catholic Church began in November 2005, when Mar Mawai Soro presented a paper, The Position of the Church of the East Theological Tradition on the Questions of Church Unity and Full Communion, to the Holy Synod of the Assyrian Church. Five days after Mar Mawai delivered the paper, in which he argued for the necessity of papal primacy, he was suspended by the synod. Subsequently, with loyal clergy and faithful, Mar Bawai formed the Assyrian Catholic Apostolic Diocese.
The new diocese then began to draw closer to the El Cajon-based Chaldean Catholic Diocese of St. Peter the Apostle. On Jan. 17, 2008, the clergy of the Assyrian Catholic Apostolic Diocese, meeting in Dublin, unanimously adopted a “Declaration of Intention” to “enter full communion with the Catholic Church” and “resume church unity with the Chaldean Catholic Church.” On March 28, the Chaldean and Assyrian clergy met at the Cathedral of St. Peter in San Diego, where they recited a Catholic profession of faith before the altar.
The union, which brought the bishop, Mar Bawai, six priests, over 30 deacons and subdeacons, and about 3,000 faithful into full, Catholic communion, was solemnized May 10-11 at St. Thomas Church in Turlock and at St. Matthew Church in Ceres.
Posted Thursday, May 15, 2008 7:57 AM By Well Informed
Unfortunately, Mar Mawai Soro wanted more power then the Assyrian Church had to offer him. This is why he sold out his beliefs, tried to confiscate Church property as his own and make this union with the other Churches.
When will Assyrians like him learn that they do not need to 'legitimize" ourselves through others. We've had our own beliefs for 2000 years, the Assyrian Church has survived this long, without joining other big groups.
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Posted Thursday, May 15, 2008 8:08 AM By SNoel
Praise God and welcome home!
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Posted Thursday, May 15, 2008 8:47 AM By Fr. M.P.
What wonderful news. Say some prayers in thanksgiving.
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Posted Thursday, May 15, 2008 10:09 AM By John L. Sillasen
***We've had our own beliefs for 2000 years***: Food for thought!
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Posted Thursday, May 15, 2008 11:08 AM By Fr. J
He wanted power? That's why he accepted the authority of the See of Rome? Sounds contradictory to me. Maybe he just really believed in Papal primacy. I hope that all churches make the same move.
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Posted Thursday, May 15, 2008 11:15 AM By Herman
This is a great model of reconciliation with the Roman Catholic Church for those traditional USA Episcopalians and Anglicans worldwide to enter full communion with Rome.
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Posted Thursday, May 15, 2008 1:40 PM By joseph
Thank you, bishop, for reconciling with the Roman Catholic church. You are in our prayers...God bless!
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Posted Thursday, May 15, 2008 2:09 PM By Maria C
What beautiful news! I am rejoicing! Praise be Jesus Christ!! Now lets pray for the Orthodox churches to do the same.
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Posted Thursday, May 15, 2008 5:57 PM By John F. Maguire
I would be remiss if I did not note certain residual problems pertaining to the Chaldean Catholic Church's decision to receive Mar Bawai Soro, a bishop of the Assyrian Apostolic Church of the East, into the same union enjoyed by all Catholics with the bishop of Rome. (1) The basis for this reconciliation cannot be Mar Bawai Soro's defense of the necessity of the primacy of the pope (which defense occasioned his isolation and suspension by the Holy Synod of the Assyrian Church). That defense was incomplete inasfar as it was predicated on the historical consensus of patriarchs and bishops in recognition of the presence of Sts. Peter and Paul in Rome but not also, and crucially, on Christ's own express words to Peter establishing him and his successors as the visible head of the Church. (I hope Mar Bawai has by now resolved this problem in his own favor.) (2) To my knowledge, there is nothing on the record indicating that Mar Bawai has accepted the same terms of reconcilation with the bishop of Rome that the Chaldeans themselves had accepted. When in the 16th century the ex-Nestorian Chaldeans petitioned for reconcilation, Rome embraced them, but on the assumption that their priests would henceforth recite the Mass's Institution Narrative and not rely instead on their own traditional Anaphora of Addai and Mari, which anaphora does not contain the express words of consecration. This was an issue at the beginning of the 20th century (see footnote to Letter dated 31 July 1902 [Note to missionaries], _Codicis Juris Canonici fontes_, Vol. V, Rome, 1935, 546: "Abolish the incredible abuse of not pronouncing the sacramental words at the Consecration in the Mass called 'of the Apostles', which is the most frequent one. Instruct on the true formula of Consecration.")--and it is now an issue at the beginning of the 21st century (see Uwe Michael Lang, ed., _Die Anaphora von Addai und Mari: Studien zu Eucharistie und Einsetzungsworten).
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Posted Thursday, May 15, 2008 6:19 PM By Anne
Wonderful! Thanks be to God. Welcome to the Fold.
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Posted Thursday, May 15, 2008 8:43 PM By FHKJ
Indeed...thanks be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit! I have been told that the Assyrian Apostolic Church of the East permits married clergy and that Bishop Mar Mawai Soro is married. Is this the case?
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Posted Thursday, May 15, 2008 11:55 PM By Christopher Zehnder
FHKJ,
I do not know if Mar Mawai is married, though it is the case that the Assyrian Apostolic Church has traditionally had married clergy and even married bishops, from what I understand. In having a married clergy, the Assyrians, of course, do not diverge from Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic practice. But in having a married episcopate, they diverge from the Catholic, Orthodox and Coptic traditions. A married bishop is certainly an anomaly, at least in the last 1,500 years.
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Posted Friday, May 16, 2008 4:30 AM By MHPC
I believe that it is worth mentioning that the Assyrian Church of the East has been in dialogue with the Holy See, in terms of unity. Mar Dinka the Patriarch some time ago had initiated this dialogue. It needs to be remembered that The Assyrian Church of the East has an aggrement with the Catholic Church concerning the reception of the sacraments. Part of the difficulty is that the Assyrian Church of the East had been, separated from the other churches and bishops, and there fore was only involved with the first two Councils. This meant that much dialogue had to take place before true unity was able to be completed. I sense that the perhaps the concern was that the people, including bishops did not feel the time was right. Bishop Soro had been involved at the highest level of the ecumenical dialogue and thus may have been drawn to his conclusion and felt the need to act on it. I hope this does not hinder the ecumenical dialogue. At one time, I attended the Liturgy of the Assyrian Church of the East, and was welcomed warmly. The priests and the deacons and subdeacons mentioned some differences in theological understanding, and I did not think it was proper for me to get into a discussion. I just gave them the courtesy to have their say. I am also aware that Mar Dinka met with Benedict XVI, who actually, I am told, wanted the whole church to continue with the dialougue.
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Posted Friday, May 16, 2008 8:10 AM By Emmanuel
Chris and FHKJ, Assyrian church of the east bishops are not allowed to marry but their priests do marry and so do there deacons, but bishops are not permitted to be married!
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Posted Friday, May 16, 2008 8:43 AM By Joe
"Well Informed": in the absence of presenting proof, your comment can only be taken as scurrilous. And if you are 'well-informed', why didn't you correct his name to Mar Bawai? "John F. Maguire", the Holy See has accepted the Anaphora of Addai and Mari as a legitimate Eucharistic Anaphora, without the words of institution, for that Church. The union of Mar Bawai is not directly through the previous documents, but through the hierarchy of the Chaldean Church.
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Posted Friday, May 16, 2008 6:54 PM By John F. Maguire
My thanks to Joe for raising the issue of the Eucharistic legitimacy of the Anaphora of Addai and Mari. This anaphora is the probably the world's most ancient anaphora and so is certainly legitimate as such. The question is whether it is valid as a substitute for the requisite words of consecration. Pope Benedict reports: "The Joint Commission [for the Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East has undertaken an important study of the sacramental life of both our respective traditions and forged an agreement on the Anaphora of the Apostles Addai and Mari." Pope Benedict, however, is perfectly well-aware that this tri-discastery agreement (dated October 26, 2001) has been challenged by the Vatican sponsored journal _Divinitas_, the imprimatur of which is granted by Francisco Cardinal Marchisano, the arch-priest of St. Peter's Basilica and Pope Benedict's vicar-general of Vatican City. David Berger's contribution to _Divinitas_ is the most succinct: "In none of the sacraments does such clarity prevail as here: Christ himself, according to the unanimous witness of scripture and tradition, personally and immediately decreed the matter and form of the Eucharist and Baptism. The church thus has no authority to change something in the essential rites of these sacraments which is based on a divine ordinance." Msgr. Brunero Gherardini, the editor-in-chief of _Divinitas_, advanced five arguments against the anaphora (forthcoming), but space in this post precludes my listing them here. --Again, although perhaps we might not agree,
my thanks to Joe for raising the question of the Holy See's position on this matter.
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Posted Friday, May 16, 2008 7:22 PM By John F. Maguire
I draw this summary of Professor Gherardini's five arguments against the Anaphora from the compilation published by John L. Allen, Jr. in the National Catholic Reporter's NCRonline.org cite for November 5, 2004: (1) "Whoever presumes to celebrate the Eucharist by silencing or modifying the words used by Christ in the moment of institution performs not an act of devotion to Christ, but rather its contrrary. (2) "That Christ could have consecrated in different ways than the one which is witnessed to by the sources of the New Testament, is not in discussion; but still less can it be discussed, or placed in the shadow of doubt, the lone way in which he himself [consecrated]. (3) "This same, lone way is expressed in the words of Institution; 'This is My Body,' 'This is My Blood,' the one form of the Eucharistic sacrament; if one prescinds from that, or substritutes or substantially modifies it, the sacrament does not exist. (4) "This is deduced also from the command with which Christ provides for the actualization of what he did and how he did it. (5) "If follows that the celebrant consecrates the bread and wine solely with the words used by Christ, and in no other way; and, further, that solely one who within the sacred rite pronounces precisely those words in fact consecrates."--I offer no commentary on Gherardini save to cite this summary of his position as evidence that the debate on the Anaphora of Addai and Mari has not been resolved.
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Posted Friday, May 16, 2008 9:51 PM By John L. Sillasen
I spent several years, prior to my Catholic profession, straining to understand exactly what was going on during the communion service in the Baptist congregation I belonged to. Finally, I saw that the recitation of the Gospel account was not designated in any way to connect to the bowl of cracker crumbs or containers of grape juice. No one ever explained this lack of connection; no one there ever discussed that communion ritual at all ... it was left for the congregation to assume that the two phenomena were connected. In other words, regardless of what the ministers would say or read, they never specifically indicated that the crackers and juice were the subject of the Gospel passage. The congregant was free to believe anything regarding it.
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Posted Friday, May 16, 2008 10:00 PM By Bob
First of all welcome home!!!!
Second, does anyone know at which point the Orthodox predicate transubstantiation? Is it the words of institution, the epiclesis, or the action as a whole? -- just wondering.
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Posted Saturday, May 17, 2008 10:25 AM By William
With all due respect the catholic Church treatment of the Church of the East during the last 456 years has been less than honorable. Please see article related to this issue.
http://christiansofiraq.com/nationchurchFeb186.html
The Roman Catholic Church continued attempts to undermine the Church of the East has divided the Assyrian Christianity and has contributed to its decline and suffering. Even now the Roman Catholic Church is in favor of having the few remaining Christian villages in northern Iraq to be annexed to the Kurdish region known as "Kurdistan" i.e. "The Land of the Kurds".
Kurds have been historically the most cruel persecutors of the Christian Assyrians and Armenians and have confiscated their villages at any given chance. Once these villages have been annexed to the Kurdish region nothing can stop the Kurds from populating them by their people which would result in driving out their Assyrian population. This will mean the end of the Christianity in Iraq. It happened in Turkey starting in mid 1980s, in Northern Iraq between 1960 and 1991. In Kurdistan mountains during World War one, and many other instances.
Historically the Assyrian villages in the Plain of Nineveh have served as the last refuge for the Christian Assyrians, but evidently the pope and the Roman Catholic Church sees it to its advantage to please the Kurds even if it has to sell out the Assyrians of the Church of the East and even the Catholic Assyrians also known as Chaldeans who are the majority population of these villages at the present time.
William
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Posted Sunday, May 18, 2008 6:04 PM By sydneydude
His Grace Mar Bawai Soro is NOT married, nor is any other Assyrian bishop from any of the three branches of the Church of the East.
Fore more info check out the blog www.marbawai.com
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Posted Monday, May 19, 2008 9:43 AM By DMO8
Bay Area CCD posters: Is the Assyrian Catholic Church in Campbell a parish of this province?
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Posted Monday, May 19, 2008 1:04 PM By Joe
Thank you, John F. Maguire for some very pertinent input. William, while I cannot agree with your opening premise that "the catholic Church treatment of the Church of the East during the last 456 years has been less than honorable" I find it interesting that you echo some concerns of Ukrainian Greek Catholics during the period of Ostpolitik.
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Posted Monday, May 19, 2008 2:20 PM By JRP
To DM08,
St Mary's (Mart Miriam) Chaldean Church in Campbell is part of the Chaldean eparchy of St. Peter, based in El Cajon, CA. The eparchy forms part of the Chaldean Patriarchate, based in Baghdad, whose current patriarch, Mar Emmanuel was recently made a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI.
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Posted Tuesday, May 20, 2008 12:09 PM By DM08
JRP:
I visited there once, it was quite a charming Church, thanks for your information.
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Posted Friday, May 23, 2008 5:35 AM By jean-paul MESTRALLET
Not to prefer its former liturgical perfectionism proud to "know better than Thou" but instead to show its perfect love, that was JP II's choice in 2001= accept the immemorial but imperfect Addai and Mari eucharistic formulas, provided an inquestionable implicit profession of faith stands "glued" to it. Provided the will to act as the Church wills to act. All the contrary to "creative" self-celebrating modern liturgies.
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Posted Monday, May 26, 2008 10:57 AM By Johnn F. Maguire
In reply to Jean-Paul Mestrallet: Without the proper words of consecration, the Addai and Mari eucharistic formulae cannot--standing alone--be adequately relied upon within the liturgy by virtue of the "glue" of implicit faith, however adhesive that glue. What is required, as David Berger and Brunero Gherardini have argued, is the consecratory formula itself.
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