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Home , Adrian Fortescue, Greek Orthodox Church

742

"GREEK CATHOLIC" AND "GREEK ORTHODOX" In the recent Ontario case of Scherbanuk v. Skorodoumov,l Mr. Justice Macdonnell was called upon to decide which of two rival claimants was the lawful "Bishop of Canada" of the Russian Orthodox . The plaintiff relied on an appointment in 1926 by the late Platon Rojdestvensky, who was said to have been himself appointed, in 1922, Administrator of North America and the Aleutian Islands, by the late Patriarch Tykhon. The defendant alleged that Platon owed his appoint- ment to the Synod of Karlovtsi (Jugoslavia), recognized as the governing body of the by most (though not by all) of the Russian émigrés, that he was dismissed in 1927 by the same Synod, and that the appointments that he had made fell with him. The defendant: claimed under an appoint- ment in 1930, by Archbishop Theophilus, whom the Synod purported to appoint in 1927, in the place of Platon. It was common ground that Platon had been regularly appointed and that his appointment of the plaintiff was at the 'time regular. The points at issue were.- (1) Was Platon appointed by the Synod? (2) Had the Synod power to depose him and appoint Theophilus in his stead? and (3) Assuming that power, had the Synod power to terminate the plaintiff's tenure as Bishop of Canada? Mr. Justice Macdonnell decided in favour of the plaintiff. A somewhat similar matter was the subject of litigation, some years ago, in the New York Courts, in a case of Kedrovsky v. Platon Rojdestvensky2 The defendant in that case was the same Platon, through whom the plaintiff in the Ontario case claimed, but the issue was different. The plaintiff Kedrovsky, relied on an appointment made by a so-called Sobor, which the judgments describe as an " of the Russian Church", held in Moscow in 1923, but which the defendant contended was a Council, not of the Russian Church, but merely of a schismatic body known as the "Living Church", at that time supported by the Bolshevist Government. In consequence, Kedrovsky was referred to in the press at the time, as the "Red Archbishop". The courts, nevertheless, eventually decided in his favour, but, in the Canadian case, his authoritywasrepudiated by both parties. '{19351 O.R. 342 . 2 Kedrovsky v. Roidestvensky et al. (1924), 204 N .Y. Sup. 442 ; (1924), 205 N.Y. Sup. 930; (1925), 214 N.Y. Appeals 433 ; (1926), 242 N.Y. 547.

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The Massachusetts case of Russian Orthodox v, Kedrovsky,s was a three-cornered fight, between Platon,, Kedrovsky and Theophilus, in which the last named succeeded . In the reports of all of these decisions, the church which the various parties claimed to represent, is referred to through- out as "The Russian Greek Catholic Orthodox Church" . This name is quite incorrect. It is worse than, that. In the light of well settled terminology, it , is a palpable absurdity . In the East, the words "Catholic" and "Orthodox" and more particular- ly the phrases "Greek Catholic" and "Greek Orthodox" are contradictory terms and are never, therefore, used in combination . Had the church in question been an incorporated body, or had it been even a separate and independent church, it might, of course, have selected for itself any name that it saw fit, however incongruous. It appears from the reports, however; that the Russian Orthodox Church in the United States and Canada is not incorporated and that, moreover, it caims to be an integral part 'of the Russian Orthodox,Church in ,Europe, and the latter Church certainly does not' call itself "Greek Catholic Orthodox", a name involving, as it does, a contradiction in terms. A man may be either a "Greek Catholic" or a "Greek Orthodox" . ~ He cannot, at one and the, same time, be both. In a book entitled The Syrians in America by Philip K. Hitti, Ph.1J"4 at page 38, under the heading "Existing Faiths and Churches", the following passage occurs:

THE GREEK CATHOLICS.-A great deal of confusion exists in the public mind and in current literature (i.e. in America) as to what these Christians are. Such queer and meaningless , phrases as "Orthodox Greek Catholics" and "Greek or Orthodox Catholics" have been freely coined and used indiscriminately. The Greek Catholics, or Melchites, are an offshoot of the Greek Orthodox and owe allegiance to the 'Pope. . . . Like the Maronites, the Greek Catholics are erroneously , termed in the United States . In fact they are, a Uniat Eastern Church ; and strictly speaking there is no such thing as Roman Catholics among the Syrians . The few Roman Catholic congregations .founded by members from abroad, are known as the "" .

It may be explained that Dr. Hitti is a member of the faculty of Princeton University. He was formerly a professor at the American University (Protestant) of. Beirut,, , and was, prior to that, a lecturer at Columbia University.- He is a Syrian but is not a Catholic.

a Russian Orthodox etc. Church v. Kedrovsku, (1931), 156 Atlantic Rep, 688 . George Doran Company, New York, 1924. .

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I hasten to explain that this article is not intended to be in any sense controversial. It is merely a plea for the avoidance of confusion, by adhering to well settled terminology. I am not challenging the right of any Christian to consider himself a member of the of the Creed, as I presume all Christians do. Neither am I disputing the right of any organized body of Christians regularly and definitely to adopt as the name of their church, any designation that they may see fit, provided they do not thereby cause confusion, by depart- ing from a terminology that is well settled and universally accepted. Subject to that limitation, I am whole-heartedly in favour of calling every religious body what it calls itself. This need not imply an acceptance of the implication embodied in any word used. For instance, every Christian considers his belief to be orthodox, yet all unite in conceding that name to the Orthodox Eastern Church. The Russian Church is one of the twenty autocephalous independent bodies that, together, constitute the Orthodox Eastern Church, which, with a membership of one hundred and forty-four millions, is, next to the Catholic Church, the largest . These twenty churches are separate and independent bodies, who, however, all profess the same faith, use the same (though in different liturgical languages) and are, with one or two exceptions, in communion with each other and with the Patriarch of who, though he is their titular head, has no authority whatever over them.-, There is, in fact, no machinery in the Church for the settlement of the disputes' that are so characteristic of it'. The official name of this composite body is the "Orthodox Eastern Church". Abundance of authority might be cited in support of this. For instance, in Dr. Fortescue's book, The Orthodox Eastern Church,$ recognized as the standard English authority on the subject, it is said, "The body about which this book treats always calls itself the Orthodox Eastern Church." To the same effect are there ports of two commissioners appointed 6 THE ORTHODOX EASTERN CHURCH, by ADRIAN FORTESCUE,Ph .D ., D.D ., 3rd edition, London, The Catholic Truth Society, 1911, pp. 273, 284, 337 ; Report of the Commission appointed by the Government of to enquire into the affairs of the Orthodox of Jerusalem, by the Commissioners, Sir Anton Bertram, M.A., K.C., Chief Justice of Ceylon, sometime Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of , and Harry Charles Luke, B. Litt., M.A., Assistant Governor of Jerusalem, Oxford University Press, 1921, pp. 51, 180. 6 BERTRAM & LUKE, op. cit., pp. 186, 220. 7 FORTESCUE, op. cit., p. 273, 274; BERTRAM & LUKE; op . cit., pp. 78 to 81, 235; HITTI, Op. Cit ., 106,.. . 8 FORTESCUE, Op. Cit., p. v .

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by the Government of Palestine, to enquire into the affairs of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Bertram .and Luke report published in 1921,9 and the Bertram and Wright report published, in 1926. 19 Throughout both of these volumes, the church is invariably called the "Orthodox Eastern 'Church" . When one of the individual churches is referred to it is called, the "Church of Russia" or the "Church of " or- as the case may be. In the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Orthodox Eastern Church is called "The Holy Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Eastern Church". The chief objection to .that name is that it is not a name ever applied to their church, either by the Orthodox themselves or by others. The church is popularly known as the "Greek Orthodox Church" and to this there can, of course, be no possible objection.,. It is never, in Europe or the , referred to,as the "Greek Catholic Church" nor are its adherents ever called "Greek Catholics". In the United States and Canada, however, (and nowhere else) there is 'a wide-spread - popular impression that "Greek Catholic", means, or at all events includes, the Orthodox Eastern Church. It does note The phrase has a _very definite and well understood meaning. A ,"Greek Catholic" is a spiritual subject of the Pope, belonging to one of the Byzantine rites in, communion with Rome. This statement may, however, need some explanation. What is a rite? A rite, in its primary sense, may be briefly described, as the' manner of performing -all-of the various services of the church. A Catholic rite, using, the word in a secondary sense, is a group of persons within the Catholic Church, having their own liturgy and liturgical language, their own local Canon Law and local customs and having, in particular, their own local ecclesiastical government, consisting always of their own priests and almost always including their own and bishops and sometimes their own patriarch, to whom their archbishops are directly responsible, but subject always to the general law of the Church, to the Roman congregations (in so far, of course, as these have jurisdiction) and to the Pope These differences do not, however, include differences of . -All Catholics believe the same articles of faith, to whatever-

9 BERTRAM & LUKE, op. cit ., passim. 1° Report of the Commission appointed by the Government of Palestine, to enquire and report upon certain controversies between the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Arab Orthodox Community, by the Commissioners Sir Anton Bertram, M.A., K.C., Chief Justice of Ceylon, sometime Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of Cyprus and J. W. A. Young, ,sometime Financial Adviser to the Orthodox Patriarchate' of Jerusalem and previously Chief Inspector under the Ministry of the, Interior in , Oxford University Press, 1926. Passim.

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rite they may belong. Catholic rites differ only in unessentials, such as the amplification or local expression of the prayers and ceremonies connected with the regular services of the church, liturgical languages, local customs and local voluntary devotional practices. There are in the Catholic Church no less than twenty-two of those subordinate bodies, eighteen of which are Eastern. Of the latter, eleven are variants of the Byzantine, the rite followed in the Orthodox Eastern Church. That a "Greek Catholic" means a spiritual subject of the Pope of one of the eleven Catholic Byzantine rites, admits of no doubts whatever. The phrase is used in that sense, and in no other, in standard works of reference, such as the Encyclo- paedia Britannica, the Encyclopedia Americana and the Catholic Encyclopaedia. When, in these works, the Orthodox Eastern Church is referred to, it is called by that name. The Bertram and Young Report speaks of the Catholic as "the Uniate Church known as the Greek Catholic Church".1l In countries, such as Poland, Yugo-Slavia, Czecho-Slovakia, Rumania, Syria etc., where there are both Latin and Byzantine Catholics, as well as members of the Orthodox Eastern Church, census returns invariably classify them as "Roman" (or sometimes "Latin") "Catholics", "Greek Catholics" and "Greek Orthodox". Anyone may verify this statement for himself, by consulting the Statesman's Year Book, Whittaker's Almanac, or any other similar statistical work. This meaning of "Greek Catholic" is recognized in Canada in statutes, both Dominion and Provincial, dealing with "Ruthenian Greek Catholics"." There have been twenty incorporations in Canada, of bodies connected with the Orthodox Eastern Church, one by Dominion and three by Provincial statutes and the other sixteen either by provincial letters patent or by registration under a provincial congregations holdings act. Of these twenty bodies, only two obscure rural congregations, both incorporated by Alberta letters patent, include in their name the word "Catholic". I am quite aware that the Orthodox Eastern Church claims that it and it alone, is the "One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church" of the , but it is the Church's and not its catholicity, that it emphasizes . In consequence, as a matter both of courtesy and of convenience, they concede to u DERTRAM ÔL YOUNG, op. cit., p. 24. 1913,12 (1913), 3-4 Geo . V, c. 191 (Dom .) ; c. 148 (Ont .) ; 1913, c. 73 (Sask) ; 1913, (1) c. 83 (Alberta) ; 1913, c. 127 (Man .) ; 1916, 6. Geo . V, (2) 117 (Que .) .

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Catholics the name "Catholic", just as Catholics, (who, of course, claim that their 'faith is orthodox), concede that designa- tion to them, As Fortescue 'says:"We call them Orthodox and they call us Catholics (unless when they mean to be rude) and no one thinks for a moment that either uses these names except as technical terms".is "Gregorian Armenian", the name assumed by the Independ- ent Armenian Church, is another example of the conceding of a designation without thereby acquiescing in its implication, which is that these people are of the religion of St. the Illumina- tor, who first evangelized Armenia. The Catholic Armenians claim that they alone,are the spiritual successors of St. Gregory and his converts, yet _they concede the designation "Gregorian" to 'those whom they look upon as schismatics . Nor are similar instances wanting in the West.' The designation "Evangelical", for instance, is conceded by Catholics and others, who are far from admitting that those so styled are the exponents of the true doctrine of the Gospel. Not only the Orthodox, but all other Eastern Christians, concede the name "Catholic" to the spiritual subjects of the Pope. No one else claims the word as a designation, though,, no doubt, each of them believes that his is the Catholic Church of the Creed. Thus, not only are "Greek Catholics" contrasted_ with "Greek Orthodox", but "Catholic Armenians" with "Gregor- ian Armenians", "Catholic Syrians" with "Jacobites" etc. I am not arguing that this should be so. I am merely stating that it is so, a fact that cannot be successfully contested. The existence of these Eastern Catholic rites illustrates the inappropriateness of the name "Roman Catholic" that English custom has fastened upon the followers of the Pope. If "Roman Catholic" means anything, it means a Catholic of the Roman or Latin Rite, to which these Eastern Catholics do: not belong. Hence Dr. Hitti's criticism of the practice, _ prevalent in the United States, of calling Greek Catholics and Maronites "Roman Catholics" v14 As he points out, in Syria, not even Latin Catholics are called "Roman" . They are called "" ." There is a very good reason for this. It will surprise many people to learn that, in the countries formerly comprised within the Turkish Empire, the members of the Orthodox Eastern Church have always called themselves "Romans" and that the' Turkish official

~a FORTESCUE. Op . Cit ., VII. 14 Ante p. 11 BERTRANX & LUKE, op. cit., pp. 89, 64, 102.

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name for their Church is the "Roman Church",0-strange legacy from an Empire dead five centuries ago! Hence, in the near East, "Roman" is ambiguous, since it may apply either to the Orthodox or to the Catholics, whereas "Catholic" is claimed as a designation by none save those in communion with Rome.

W. L. SCOTT. Ottawa.

1s FCRTESCUE, op . cit., 239; BERTRAM ôs LUKE, op. cit., pp . 12, 13, 18, 21, 24, 28, 239, 243; BERTRAM & YOUNG, op. cit., pp. 37, 38, 292, 318.