Melkite Greek Catholic Church

Holy Synod

Inaugural Address to the Holy Synod
Meeting at Ain Traz 2-7 June 2008

In the name of Christ the Saviour, we are opening this Holy Synod and placing it under the protection of our Virgin Mother Mary, our Lady of the Annunciation, patron of this patriarchal summer residence at Ain Traz. Let us be inspired in our discussions by the breath of the Holy Spirit and the teachings of the Apostle Paul, especially as we are just a few days away from the beginning of the year that His Holiness Benedict XVI has been pleased to declare as the Year of Saint Paul, to commemorate the second millennium of his birth at Tarsus. We shall have great joy in being able to participate in person at the inauguration of this year at the Basilica of Saint Paul-without-the-Walls in Rome, the eternal city, on 28th. of this blessed month of June, 2008.

Saint Paul emphasised the fact that he continually had the “mind of Christ(1)” and he wished to assure us that we too should always approach God with that same mind, being nourished, as we are, by this self-same mind and by the teachings of that Apostle, whose words have “gone out through all the earth and …to the ends of the oikoumene - the inhabited world.(2)”

Before outlining the different aims and topics of the Synod in this introductory address, I should like to underline the importance of the celebration of the Year of Saint Paul in all our churches, eparchies and parishes. Thereby we shall be helping each other and the faithful confided to our care to gain a deeper understanding of the teachings of that great Apostle, for they are words of life, words for all circumstances of life.

We should like to emphasise particularly the importance of the celebration of this blessed year in the city of Damascus, the Syrian capital, which is currently celebrating the fact that it is the capital of Arab culture for the year 2008. Now Saint Paul embodies the story of Christianity in this city and is considered a cultural cornerstone both of civilization and, more particularly, of our religious heritage. This city of Damascus, residence of our Antiochian Patriarchal See, is the heir of that great Patriarchal See of Antioch, that Antioch called the great city of God, which was capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and, what is more, capital of the Christian East and first eparchy after Jerusalem, city of the resurrection. In that city the disciples of Jesus Christ were first called Christian, a name that took precedence over any other name, ethnicity or denomination. We should endeavour to return to this very beautiful, blessed, universal name that includes all Christians, regardless of differences in their rites, ethnicity, countries or nations and despite various quarrels that have historically existed between them: Antioch must return! There are today four successors who all bear the title of Antioch and who represent the Christians most encultured in the Arab East, with its culture, civilization, history and plurality of different Christian and Muslim communities in all their ethnic variety. This Church of Antioch, Church of the Christian East, must take up again its role as faith-leader in a spiritual, pastoral and cultural sense, and even in an economic, political and social way.

We hope that, God willing, our eparchies will be able to prepare suitable programmes to stimulate holy faith on the occasion of the Year of Saint Paul. Perhaps we shall have the opportunity during this Synod to present some initiatives for celebrating the Year of Saint Paul.

Subjects:

1. In this Synod, we shall be mainly concerned with the principal theme, the training of future priests. In fact the Synod of 2007 chose an ad hoc commission to study this theme and present it to this Synod. There is no need to emphasise the importance of the training of priests, whether in religious congregations or the Patriarchal Seminary of Sainte-Anne at Rabweh, which receives candidates for the priesthood from all the eparchies of all our countries. We hope that future candidates for the priesthood from the Holy Land will also be able to join this seminary. We pray and beseech the Lord, “Send good workmen to tend thy vine, Lord. Give us holy priests,” for holiness sums up all that is blessed for the sacred priestly vocation.

2. The other topics are related to the life of our Church and its progress through time, amongst which there figures especially the Patriarchal Assembly that we held in September 2007. The Central Committee decided to collect the different suggestions which had been drawn up and presented to the Holy Synod, in a report on the proposed recommendations for this session of Synod. It is up to this Holy Synod to decide what to do with these different presentations or suggestions for the animation of pastoral work and above all pastoral care through the sacraments and pastoral care of youth.

3. Of course, we shall have a report on our visit of 7-12 May 2008 to His Holiness Benedict XVI. This kind of visit is mentioned in the Canons of the Eastern Churches in which ecclesial communion with the Church of Rome and its Sovereign Pontiff, Successor of Saint Peter, is discussed: “It is to be the custom for the Patriarch to visit the Roman Pontiff and, according to the norms established especially for this, to send him a report concerning the state of the Church over which he presides. Within a year of his election and then often during his tenure in office, he is to make a visit to Rome to venerate the tombs of the Apostles, Peter and Paul and present himself to the Successor of Saint Peter, in primacy over the entire Church.” (Canon XCII, iii)

We thank our most reverend brother bishops, who accompanied us on this visit, together with the superiors general and mothers general, priests, monks, nuns and beloved lay-people who came promptly from Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the Holy Land, France, England, Italy, Belgium, Germany, the United States of America, Mexico and Brazil. We thank our representative to the Apostolic Holy Roman See, Archimandrite Mtanios Haddad, for all the efforts he expended to make this visit a success.

I spoke of this visit in the sermon at the Divine Liturgy that we celebrated at the Patriarchal Church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, saying, “We have seen in Rome the extraordinarily beautiful unity between the Successor of Peter and his collaborators. We loved them and they loved us. They heard our voice and we heard their voice. They became acquainted with us and we became acquainted with them. So we brought with us all our cares and concerns, in our countries and parishes, to the Holy Father Benedict XVI and his collaborators.”

From all the talks that we engaged in with His Holiness and the six cardinals, I would like particularly to share with you at the Inauguration of the Holy Synod and emphasise via the media, the importance of the role of the Pope. Despite all the disagreements that there are between Churches and theologians about the primacy of the Pope, there has to be one Christian spiritual leader, who can really be a strong common spokesman to the world that today, more than ever, needs his voice. I brought this wish to all those whom I met in Rome: besides the different cardinals, we raised the matter with His Holiness, the Catholicos of Armenia, Karekin II and with His Grace, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who visited us in our patriarchal residence at the Vatican at Santa Marta. May the Lord and Saviour inspire the leaders of Churches throughout the world, to agree to a suitable declaration on the matter! In the meantime, the official theological meeting about the Pope and his primacy has an importance for unity in the Church’s functioning and witness to Jesus Christ in this world, “that the world may believe.(3)”

4. Again our Holy Synod must through all these subjects be in contact with society and with our parishes, with their concerns, visions and sorrows, especially in our dear Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Palestine and in all Arab countries and countries of emigration, for all are affected and influenced by the situation in our countries, especially by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has already lasted sixty years. I heard in Rome, from the lips of His Holiness Benedict XVI and the cardinals, that this conflict is the mother of all crises, wars and dissension and has been and still is day after day the cause of galloping emigration, which lessens Christian influence and our witness and service. It causes the growth of fanaticism, hatred, vengeance, force and violence. It also leads to many in our world wanting strife between civilizations, cultures and religions, especially between Christianity and Islam, for it is the great obstacle to peace, security, progress and advancement throughout our Christian East.

During our visit of 8 May last, His Holiness praised and showed appreciation in his speech, for our efforts to strengthen living together and solidarity through dialogue and encounter. Similarly he praised our deep awareness of and feelings towards the Arab world of which we are an integral part, in its difficulties, concerns, problems of justice and peace, dignity of women, liberty of religion, freedom of conscience and solidarity. He was also ready to praise the ecclesial and social service carried out by our Patriarchal Church, in all its eparchies, religious communities of men and women and our different institutions. All that is really a very deep and real expression of our communication with society and the fact that we carry the aspirations and sufferings of our parishioners (and our own too) for our fellow-citizens.

In all these preliminary discussions, even those concerning the business of internal church organisation and election of pastors, our Synod is concerned with ecclesial and social work in our home countries and our relations with those homelands. Though we are here in our patriarchal residence, yet by means of all the workings of our Holy Synod, we have entered upon a steadily growing relationship with our parishioners throughout the world and we pray and think and plan decisions for the welfare of souls saved by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and sanctified by his Spirit. He has deigned to entrust to us the responsibility for serving the Church in all aspects so that people “might have life and have it more abundantly,(4)” that is, more worthy and advanced, as it should be.

That is why, at the beginning of this Holy Synod, we call on our brothers, their excellencies the bishops, the superiors general and all the faithful, those who are watching us on television (for which, thanks) and those who are listening to us – and the Synod of our Church appeals to all, especially through the news carried by the mass media covering our proceedings, to all our parishes everywhere, with their clergy, monks, nuns and all our faithful, to redouble their prayers for peace, love, concord, justice and solidarity in Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and all Arab countries.

We should also underline the tragic case of the Lebanon that was causing us considerable anxiety. We saw fit to bring the Lebanese case to His Holiness, who showed much concern and solidarity. We are sure that the unity of Lebanon and understanding among its communities will bring both a resolution to the current crisis and be the key to solving the majority of the misfortunes and crises of our region. Besides, we think that fundamental harmony between Syria and the Lebanon is also a very important lynchpin for helping all the different problems of the Middle East. In fact, resolving crises between Lebanon and Syria, on the one hand, and Palestine and Israel, on the other, is really the key to peace and justice throughout the Middle East and even throughout the whole world.

We felt immense joy at the news of the election of President Michel Sleiman, after a vacancy of five months. We wish him well for his term of office and trust that he will implement the remarkable national plan outlined in the speech he gave at his investiture. Making our own that part of his speech about the participation of the diaspora in national life and echoing our own leitmotiv: “no to emigration,” we are proposing a new slogan by way of appendix to the President’s speech: “returning to the mother country is a must.”

We pray for the unity of Lebanon and all the sons and daughters of all its communities.

Conclusion

We now implore the rich blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ with all our patron Saints, on the workings of this Holy Synod, that it may be fruitful for the glory of God, for our service and charge, for the growth of faith, hope and love and good Christian living in accordance with the Gospel. Besides we pray that our Synod may be an instrument of growth in holiness, especially, among our faithful and in our parishes and society. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.