The "Bishop of Rome" signed the Cuba Declaration with the additional title "Pope of the Catholic Church". I wonder if readers know anything about the past use of this title. I can't find it in the Annuario.
Like so many things it seems to be a journalistic invention and can be found in such sources as Wikipedia and even the official Vatican News site http://www.news.va/en/news/vatican-the-argentine-bergoglio-elected-pope-of-th/. Pope Francis appears to be the first to personally adopt this title in an official document.
Those of us who spent moments of the 1970s in the smallest room of the House of Ss. Gregory and Macrina reading about Christian Peace Conferences in the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate have a strong sense of dejà vu all over again. Seriously, there were these grainy photographs of bearded hierarchs with a token Hungarian Protestant in a suit sitting in bare rooms in Cuba plotting world peace. Made you realise that the Byzantine marriage of diplomacy and evangelism (by which after all the Rus were converted in the first place, as related in the most famous passage in the Russian Primary Chronicle) was far from dead. Anyone who thinks that this is a piece of purely ecclesiastical ecumenism would underestimate Mr. Putin's Weltpolitik - not least because it by-passes the Oecumenical Patriarch, who must by law be a subject of the Republic of Turkey, with which Mr. Putin has less than cosy relations at present. I hope and trust that Papa Bergoglio has considered these things.
Father, I recall that the Vatican supplied "Pope of the Catholic Church" to the United States government when it inquired how the Holy Father was to be announced upon entry on the occasion his address to the joint session of Congress. Thus was he announced by the Sgt. at Arms on entering the floor of the House. I believe the use of the title at that time to be a novelty.
I would have preferred that the Holy Father had used "Patriarch of the West" but unfortunately pope Benedict "retired" that ancient title.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the Bishop of Rome's use of that particular title to sign this Declaration invalidates it ? This question was intended as a joke ...
ReplyDeleteDear Fr,
ReplyDeleteAre you sure that you are not getting confused with His Holiness's Passport Description ?
I recall the mosaic on the triumphal arch of Sta Maria Maggiore in rome with its inscription "Xystus Episcopus Plebi Dei" (Sixtus III).
ReplyDeleteLike so many things it seems to be a journalistic invention and can be found in such sources as Wikipedia and even the official Vatican News site http://www.news.va/en/news/vatican-the-argentine-bergoglio-elected-pope-of-th/. Pope Francis appears to be the first to personally adopt this title in an official document.
ReplyDeleteThose of us who spent moments of the 1970s in the smallest room of the House of Ss. Gregory and Macrina reading about Christian Peace Conferences in the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate have a strong sense of dejà vu all over again. Seriously, there were these grainy photographs of bearded hierarchs with a token Hungarian Protestant in a suit sitting in bare rooms in Cuba plotting world peace. Made you realise that the Byzantine marriage of diplomacy and evangelism (by which after all the Rus were converted in the first place, as related in the most famous passage in the Russian Primary Chronicle) was far from dead. Anyone who thinks that this is a piece of purely ecclesiastical ecumenism would underestimate Mr. Putin's Weltpolitik - not least because it by-passes the Oecumenical Patriarch, who must by law be a subject of the Republic of Turkey, with which Mr. Putin has less than cosy relations at present. I hope and trust that Papa Bergoglio has considered these things.
ReplyDeleteFather, I recall that the Vatican supplied "Pope of the Catholic Church" to the United States government when it inquired how the Holy Father was to be announced upon entry on the occasion his address to the joint session of Congress. Thus was he announced by the Sgt. at Arms on entering the floor of the House. I believe the use of the title at that time to be a novelty.
ReplyDelete-gm
It’s been used before.
ReplyDeleteFor example, in 1994 by Pope St John Paul II (in the preamble here):
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_11111994_assyrian-church_en.html