My Melkite Super-Heroes: Patriarch Maximos IV Sayegh and Archbishop Joseph Tawil

Melkite Super-Heroes:  Patriarch Maximos IV & Archbishop Joseph Tawil

By Fr James K. Graham

Good morning!  When I heard that the topic for today was “Super-Heroes of the Faith, Past and Present,” two names almost immediately came to mind as super-heroes of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church.  They belong neither to the distant past nor to the immediate present, but to the 20^th century, a time of extraordinary change in the Catholic Church and in the whole Christian world.

My super-heroes, Patriarch Maximos IV Sayegh and Archbishop Joseph Tawil, participated in the Second Vatican Council.  Patriarch Maximos IV represented all of Byzantine Christianity at the Council, not just his own Church, not just Eastern Catholics.  Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople told him, “You were our voice at the Council.”  Archbishop Joseph shaped the Melkite Church in the USA.  He founded parishes, diocesan structures, a seminary, a religious education program, and lay people’s organizations.  He pursued good relations with the Orthodox Churches and with the vastly larger Roman Catholic Church.

It can be argued that Patriarch Maximos IV changed the Roman Catholic Church.  Archbishop Joseph certainly changed the Melkite Catholic Church in America.

What is the Melkite Greek Catholic Church?

But before I talk about them, I have to deal with the question that is probably in most of your minds:  what in the world is the Melkite Greek Catholic Church?

Most people think they know what the Catholic Church is.  It’s the Church of Rome; its headquarters is the Vatican; its head is the Pope.

And when most people hear “Greek” and “Church” together, they also hear “Orthodox.” Even when it’s not spoken.

And the closest most people have come to hearing the word “Melkite” is the name of a mineral:  “malachite.”

So, let us unpack the name of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church is not just the Roman Church, but also many other ancient Catholic Churches:  Byzantine-rite Churches from the Middle East and Eastern Europe; Syriac-rite Churches from Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and India; Armenian-rite Churches from Armenia and Lebanon; Coptic-rite Churches from Egypt and Ethiopia.

They have their own liturgies, theological traditions, languages, and hierarchies—united to Rome, in communion with Rome, but not Roman.  They do not count many members, and many saw their numbers diminished greatly by Islamic or Communist domination in their native lands.

One of these Eastern Churches is the Melkite Greek Catholic Church.

Greek was the language of the Roman Empire in the East—Greece, what is now Turkey, Syria, Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Northern Africa.  The Melkite Greek Catholic Church originated in Syria, in Antioch, where, the Acts of the Apostles tell us, the followers of Christ were first called Christians.  At first, the Christians of Antioch were mostly Greek-speaking Gentile converts, but some Aramaic-speakers also adopted the new faith.  Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, despite many persecutions and martyrdoms.  Finally, early in the 4^th Century, Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal.  Soon after, it became the official religion of the Empire.

The name “Melkite” came to the Church of Antioch in the wake of the Fourth Ecumenical Council, held in Chalcedon in 451.  The council affirmed the orthodox teaching that Christ is one person—the second member of the Trinity—with two unconfused natures, divine and human.

Those who disagreed with the council’s decision—the so-called Jacobite Church of Syria, the Coptic Church of Egypt, and the Armenian Church—derisively labeled the adherents of the orthodox doctrine “Melkites,” or “followers of the emperor,” from melko, the Syriac word for “king,” because the emperor stood at the head of all the Christians who accepted the council.  Later, Melkite Christians reinterpreted the name to indicate that they followed the King of Creation.  Thus, a term of insult became a badge of honor.

The history of the Melkite Church is one of domination, subjugation, and struggle.  By the middle of the 7^th Century, Islam had spread from Saudi Arabia through Palestine, Egypt, and Syria.  The Western European Crusades to recapture the Holy Land from Muslim rule devastated the Christians of the East.  The Western Christians refused to acknowledge and respect the liturgical, theological, and hierarchical ways of the East.  It’s no wonder that Eastern Christians still have a hard time trusting the West.

The Byzantine Empire re-conquered Antioch in 960 and lost it to the Crusaders in 1098.  The patriarch had to seek refuge in Constantinople and his successors resided there until the end of the 13^th century.  Influenced by living in the imperial capital, by that time the Melkites had adopted Byzantine liturgical practice, although retaining some distinctive Antiochian features.

When the West and the East—the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople—split in the 11^th century into the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, the Melkite Church of Antioch, under the influence of Constantinople, also became Orthodox, no longer in communion with Rome.

In the late 14^th century, Damascus replaced Antioch as the seat of the Melkite patriarchate.

Under the Ottomans, the Middle East opened somewhat to trade with Europe, especially Italy and France.  Along with the merchants came missionaries.  They could not proselytize the Muslim population, so they worked among the Christians.  And they were welcomed, because they brought a level of education that had been unavailable for centuries.  Inevitably, they became agents of what we would now call “cultural imperialism.”  Along with scholarship in languages, mathematics, and science, they brought studies in philosophy, theology, scripture, and so on—all from their Western perspective.  In this way, many Orthodox Christian churchmen and lay people began to look favorably upon reunion with the Church of Rome.

In 1724, Patriarch Athanasios III died.  As was the custom of the time, the clergy and people of Damascus elected Patriarch Cyril VI, who favored reunion with Rome.  The Ecumenical Patriarch intervened and appointed the monk Sylvester as Patriarch of Antioch.  From that time, the Melkite Church of Antioch has been split into Catholic and Orthodox branches—the Melkite Greek Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch (which is called Antiochian Orthodox in the US).

Melkite Patriarch Gregory II Youssef spoke strongly at the First Vatican Council (1869-1871) in favor of better relations between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.  He correctly argued that the declaration of papal infallibility would deepen the divisions between Catholics and Orthodox, and voted against it.  Later, under pressure, he signed the decree, with the provision that the “rights and privileges of the Eastern patriarchs” be respected.

The first Melkite immigrants arrived in the USA toward the end of the 19^th century.  By 1900 at least two parishes had been established, in Manhattan and in Lawrence, MA.  When communities wanted to start a church, they would write to a bishop in the Old Country to send them a priest.  The USA had no Melkite bishop until 1966 and about 15 Melkite parishes, mostly in the Northeast and the Midwest, with isolated outposts such as Birmingham, AL, and Los Angeles.

In 1959, the Melkite Catholic Church had 30 bishops, all of them in the Middle East except for one in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  Although numerically small, the Melkite Church had people and parishes around the world, in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan, Europe, North and South America, Australia, and New Zealand.

 

Patriarch Maximos IV Sayegh

If Pope St John XXIII had not called the Second Vatican Council, I would not be here today to talk about Patriarch Maximos IV as a super-hero of my faith.  I would probably never have heard of him, would not have joined the Melkite Church, and very likely would not be a priest.

The story of Maximos IV cannot be separated from the story of the Council.

Maximos Sayegh was born on 10 April 1878 in Aleppo, Syria, and ordained priest on 17 September 1905.  In 1919 he was elected Metropolitan Archbishop of Tyre, Lebanon.  He visited the Melkite communities in the US in 1921 at the request of the Melkite hierarchy and the Vatican.  During this trip he facilitated the formation of parishes in Detroit and in Worcester, MA, and served liturgies in Minneapolis, Duluth, and other “western” cities, raising awareness of conditions in the Middle East following the end of the Ottoman Empire and World War I.  In 1933 he was named Metropolitan Archbishop of Beirut.  When Patriarch Cyril IX died in 1947, the Synod of Bishops of the Melkite Church elected Maximos Sayegh as Patriarch of Antioch.  Starting in 1948, Patriarch Maximos convened annual synods of his bishops.  He returned to the USA in 1955, making the first visit to the New World by a Melkite Patriarch.  Maximos IV died in 1969 at the age of 89.

Maximos IV benefited from the existence among his clergy in Egypt of what was called “the Cairo School,” which studied and discussed the authentic traditions of the Church and sought ways to restore them.  Among the members of the Cairo School were Archbishop Peter Medawar, Archbishop Elias Zoghby, Archbishop George Hakim (later Patriarch Maximos V), Archbishop Joseph Tawil, and Fr Orestes Kerame.  Apparently, their influence revolutionized the thinking of Patriarch Maximos IV and set him on the course of advocating for the Eastern Churches at Vatican II.

The experience of being Orthodox in communion with Rome, or Catholics of Orthodox tradition, gave the Melkites a unique perspective on the Universal Church.  They saw the damage that Latinization had done to their Church and to national or regional or ethnic variations in the Church through increased centralization, rigidity, and legalism.  And they saw how the whole Church could benefit from their experience and perspective.

So, when Pope John XXIII announced the Council and asked the bishops of the world to submit ideas for consideration, the Melkite bishops met in a special synod in August 1959 to draft a document outlining their collective concerns and proposals for the Council.

They saw their primary mission as working for Christian unity, especially with the Orthodox Churches.  They advocated inviting the Orthodox to the Council, direct dialog between the Churches, creation of a commission for unity, and reforms to insure effective catholicity in the Church.

They also recommended a number of specific actions, including the following:

1.      Finding a balance of power between Pope and bishops;

2.      Relaxing rules against communicatio in sacris (any form of praying with Orthodox);

3.      Revising seminary training to give greater emphasis to the Fathers of the Church and contemporary philosophical ideas;

4.      Considering ordination of married men as priests, according to Eastern tradition;

5.      Adapting prayer and worship so that all the people could understand and live them, while adhering to authentic tradition;

6.      De-emphasizing liturgical differences from the Orthodox;

7.      Agreeing on one universal date for Pascha;

8.      Revising the Code of Canon Law for the Eastern Catholic Churches in an authentically Eastern way;

9.      Entitling patriarchs to vote in papal elections;

10.  Reforming the Roman Curia in the direction of decentralization, internationalization, and universality; and

11.  Reaffirming the declarations of earlier councils and popes protecting the rights and privileges of the patriarchs and the Eastern Churches.

The first impact of the Melkites hit even before the conciliar discussions began.  At the opening of the Council in October 1962, Maximos was 84 years old.  Keenly aware of his position as successor to St Peter as Bishop of Antioch—a see older than that of Rome—and determined to fight for the rights and privileges of all the patriarchs and their non-Roman Churches, Patriarch Maximos objected to the rules of precedence that set all the cardinals of the Roman Church ahead of the patriarchs in rank.

Historically, as established at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the Church had five patriarchs, the bishops of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, in that order of honor.  The cardinals were a much later development, a kind of late medieval court around the Pope in Rome that over the years grew in power and status, running the government of the Roman Church and electing popes.

So Patriarch Maximos IV refused to walk in the Council’s opening procession, to protest the improper and demeaning order of precedence that essentially identified of the Church of Rome as the Catholic Church.

In the second year of the Council, the new Pope, Paul VI, addressed this problem by providing the patriarchs with a special seating section, facing the cardinals across the presider’s table at the front of St Peter’s Basilica.

The second impact of the Melkites came during the debate on the Liturgy.  The whole Council was to be conducted in Latin, even though many bishops could barely read and write Latin, much less speak it or understand it.  Patriarch Maximos delivered his intervention in French.  This speech laid the foundation for the changes that have made Catholic worship accessible and understandable to millions of people around the world.

His Beatitude said, “Without doubt Christ spoke to his contemporaries in their own language.  He used a language which was understandable to all his hearers, namely Aramaic, when He celebrated the first eucharistic sacrifice.  The apostles and disciples acted likewise.  It would never have occurred to them that the celebrant in a Christian assembly should read the passages of scripture, should sing the psalms, should preach or break the bread, using a different language than that of the congregation.

“The Latin language is dead, but the Church remains alive.  So, too, the language which mediates grace and the Holy Spirit must also be a living language since it is intended for men and not for angels.  No language can be untouchable.”

In virtually all of their interventions, the Melkites pushed the Council Fathers to consider how their words, actions, and decisions would appear to non-Catholics—the “separated brethren.”  Since the time of Vatican II, Catholic and Orthodox theologians in the US and internationally have conducted ongoing dialogues on issues of mutual interest.

The Melkites insisted on the understanding that bishops do not have authority as delegates of the Pope, but because of their ordination as successors to the Apostles, who were called by Christ as a body with Peter as its head.  The Melkite bishops pushed for the establishment of national bishops’ conferences with decision-making power, like the bishops’ synods of the Eastern Churches.  The Melkites proposed a universal College of Bishops to advise the Pope and run the Church.  The Melkites wanted a complete reorganization of the Curia, to make it less secretive, more responsive to the local churches, and more international in membership.  Despite some changes, such as the establishment of national bishops’ conferences and the Synod of Bishops, too much power is still centralized in Rome, far from direct knowledge and understanding of local issues.

Even before the Council, Patriarch Maximos wrote many articles and made speeches at conferences, enhancing the profile of his Church while promoting Christian unity, especially between Catholics and Orthodox.  During the Council, the Melkite’s lodgings were a popular place for bishops and reporters to meet and discuss issues.  Talking to journalists was a good way of making sure ideas and proposals would get out into public consciousness.  Hosting dinners and receptions enabled bishops and their advisers to consider ways to advance their view in the Council.

The Catholic Church as we know it today comes from Vatican II, where Patriarch Maximos IV and his Melkite bishops constituted only about one percent of all the bishops, but had an impact far beyond their numbers.

 

Archbishop Joseph Tawil

If Patriarch Maximos IV was a remote cause of my becoming a Melkite priest, Archbishop Joseph Tawil was a much more immediate cause.

What attracted me to the Melkite Church was the beautiful and accessible liturgy, the deep mystical theology expressed largely in poetic language, and the welcoming hospitality of the people.  Much of the credit for making the Melkite Church in the USA accessible and welcoming to non-Middle Easterners such as myself goes to Archbishop Joseph.

Joseph Tawil was born in Damascus, Syria, on 25 December 1913.  He was ordained priest in 1936, having studied at St Anne’s Seminary in Jerusalem.  For the next 23 years he served in Cairo at the Patriarchal College.  In 1954, Maximos IV appointed him Patriarchal Vicar in Alexandria.  Named Patriarchal Vicar in Damascus in 1960, he was consecrated titular Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, the historical see of St Nicholas the Wonderworker, just in time for the opening of the Second Vatican Council, where he made several important interventions.

The first Melkite bishop in the United States died suddenly in 1968.  In 1969 the Melkite Synod elected Archbishop Joseph as the next bishop.  In 1976, the Melkite exarchate in the US (a sort of pre-diocese) became a full-fledged eparchy or diocese, with Archbishop Joseph as its head.  He led the American Melkite Church until his retirement in 1990, and died 17 February 1999.

Archbishop Joseph arrived to find a Church of 23 parishes and about 23,000 registered members.  Bishop Justin had not been able to accomplish much in his short episcopacy, so the job of building a Local Church had to begin essentially from scratch.

From the start, Archbishop Joseph had a vision for his new American Melkite Church.  He understood that a strictly ethnic Church would neither serve its own people well nor contribute much to the larger society.  And he believed that the Melkite Church must reclaim its authentic Byzantine Tradition and reject all forms of Latinization.  He said, “A Latinized Eastern Church cannot bear anything but false witness.”  In reclaiming its authentic tradition, the Melkite Church would have to seek good relations with its sister Orthodox Churches and participate in the work for Christian unity.

For Christmas in 1970 Archbishop Joseph wrote a pastoral letter entitled “The Courage to be Ourselves.”  It set forth his vision and remains a foundational document for the American Melkite Church.  In clear, emphatic, and understandable language (a rare accomplishment for a bishop, some people might say!), he emphasizes the importance of the Byzantine theological and liturgical and ecclesiastical heritage, lays out the Melkites’ mission to Roman Catholics and to the Orthodox, warns of the dangers of a “Ghetto Mentality” closed in on itself and of assimilation that devalues our own identity, and outlines plans for the future.

In fact, what did Archbishop Joseph accomplish in 20 years as eparch?  He oversaw the establishment of about 20 additional parishes and missions.  He established a seminary and approved an arrangement for our seminarians to study at and receive their degrees from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, an unprecedented ecumenical approach that benefited both Catholics and Orthodox by breaking down preconceptions through mutual cooperation.  He founded the first deacon-formation program in the United States and began ordaining married men as deacons, giving new life to an ancient ministry.  He instituted a Diocesan Pastoral Council and mandated pastoral councils in all parishes.  He created an office of religious education and initiated cooperative religious education efforts among the Eastern Catholic dioceses in the US.  He encouraged the formation of the National Association of Melkite Youth for teens, the National Association Melkite Women with the specific mission of supporting vocations to priesthood, and the Melkite Association of Young Adults.

Archbishop Joseph criss-crossed the country to visit parishes, give lectures, participate in meetings; though he was a brilliant scholar, he was also an approachable pastor.  He understood the value of publicity and visibility.  When he attended the semi-annual meetings of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, he made a point of wearing the distinctive dress of a Byzantine bishop and sitting in the front row, so as to stand out among the hundreds of Roman bishops in their black suits.

Perhaps most importantly for me, Archbishop Joseph insisted that the Melkite Church in the US must be an American church.  He published translations of all the services of the church into English with Byzantine music in Western notation.  He welcomed both Middle Eastern and American men into the seminary, where he made a point of coming to teach, to pray, and to give personal encouragement.  His vision and his work made it possible for me, and others like me, to see the Melkite Church as a church where you didn’t have to be Middle Eastern or speak Arabic to participate fully in the Holy Mysteries and contribute to the building up and sanctification of the People of God.

2014 Lenten Message: Don't "Give Up," Do More

Great Lent Is a Time of Doing More, Not of Having Less

Many people seem to think of Great Lent as a time of denial and deprivation, a time of struggle and suffering.  In fact, Great Lent offers us the opportunity to gain and grow, to renew and rejoice.  It is true that in this time we emphasize prayer, fasting, and works of charity.  But these are things that are normal parts of Christian life all year ‘round.  Great Lent provides us with the incentive to do more, to seek the “life in abundance” that Jesus came to bring us.  Great Lent isn’t about having less—less leisure time, less food, less money.  It is about doing more—devoting more time in prayer to our relationship with God; becoming more conscious, through fasting, of food as God’s generous gift to us; doing more good works to help our sisters and brothers.

Prayer in Great Lent typically focuses on the church services of the Akathist Hymn, Great Compline, and Presanctified Eucharist.  It also points us to the Prayer of St Ephrem, which warns us of the dangers of laziness, greed, pride, and gossip, and reminds us of the virtues of humility, patience, love, and self-control.  We can also devote more time to prayer by reading the Holy Bible, especially the Old Testament books of Genesis, Isaiah, and Proverbs.  How powerful it would be for all parishioners and friends of St Joseph Church to take extra time each day to pray for our parish—that it may grow in faith and spiritual insight, that it may grow in numbers, that it may grow in charity and generosity, and that it may grow always in giving glory to God.

Fasting has always been part of human religious experience, in practically every culture.  Fasting accomplishes many things:  it makes us aware of our dependence on food, which comes from God, and so makes us thankful.  It makes us aware of the strength God gives us to endure hardships.  It makes us realize that we don’t really need to eat and drink so much, or so richly, and so helps us find humility and generosity.  It sharpens our senses and weakens our resistance, bringing us closer to God and making us more open to God.  It helps us to understand the suffering of the poor and makes us more willing to help them.  Fasting also helps us to connect with the sufferings of Jesus Christ and to have a better appreciation of His sacrifices for our salvation.  The Holy Tradition of our Church gives us guidelines to help us experience all these effects and benefits of fasting.

The Traditional Fast is quite strict.  The use of olive oil and wine (or other alcoholic drinks) is not permitted, nor the flesh of any animal with a backbone (including fish, except on the feast of the Annunciation and on Palm Sunday), nor animal products (milk, cheese, butter, eggs, lard, etc.).  On weekdays, only one meal, in the evening after Vespers.  On Saturdays and Sundays, two meals, at mid-day and in the evening, with olive oil and wine permitted, which are also allowed on 24 February (the 1^st and 2^nd Finding of the Head of John the Baptist), on 9 March (the 40 Holy Martyrs of Sebastea), on 24 March (Forefeast of the Annunciation), on 26 March (Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel), and on Holy Thursday.  Fasting is more intense in the first week of Great Lent and in Holy Week.  The traditional fast is now seldom observed with complete strictness. 

In Current Fasting Practice, many Byzantine Catholic and Orthodox Christians keep the first week of Lent and Holy Week as times of stricter fast, but modify the fast during the remainder of Great Lent.  Typically, those keeping a strict fast would not eat before noon on any day, and would not eat a second meal until after receiving the Eucharist at the Presanctified Liturgy on Wednesday or Friday evening.  A strict fast might permit fish, but would still exclude meat, animal products, olive oil, and alcohol.

The Absolute Minimum Fast, according to the Pastoral Handbook of the Diocese of Newton, means not eating before noon on the first day of Great Lent and on Great Thursday, Great Friday, and Great and Holy Saturday, and not eating meat on those days or the Fridays of Great Lent (just as we do not eat meat on other Fridays).

Fasting is a physical and spiritual discipline.  It is not meant to cause suffering or physical harm.  However, it is meant to require effort and to impose some hardship, not because the body or the material world is bad and must be despised, and not because by our effort we can win God’s favor, but because hardship helps us to focus on the Source of all good, and because God asks our cooperation with His will.

Fasting is not an end in itself, nor a legal obligation.  As Bishop Kallistos Ware writes, “Divorced from prayer and from the reception of the holy sacraments, unaccompanied by acts of compassion, our fasting becomes pharisaical or even demonic.  It leads, not to contrition and joyfulness, but to pride, inward tension, and irritability.”

No one should feel guilty or discouraged if he or she cannot follow the fast because of health or other weakness.  Likewise, no one should take pride is observing the fast, but rather should give thanks and glory to God, who makes it possible.  But no one can simply dismiss the fast as not applicable, or as inconvenient, or as meaningless.  Follow the fast as strictly as you can, with equal attention to prayer and almsgiving.  Ask your pastor for guidance if you need to modify the fast.  Don’t just make up your own rules, because it is important for the whole community to share in the effort to come closer to God.

Good Works are the fruit of faith.  Our belief in God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—causes us to put our faith into action, to fulfill the commandments of Jesus to love God completely and to love our neighbors just as we love ourselves.  During Great Lent, we are challenged to do more good works, to increase our efforts to share God’s love and generosity.  We can do this with our time and talent, such as helping in a food bank or community service center, helping build houses with Habitat for Humanity, walking in support of a good cause such as breast cancer, hunger, AIDS, or opposition to the death penalty, and so on.  We can do this with our money, giving more to our parish, to our favorite charities, to individuals who ask us for help, to The Shepherd’s Care program of our Melkite Church, and so on.

Everything we do in Great Lent should be done not because of compulsion or fear of breaking the rules, but because we love God and seek to glorify and thank God for all the gifts we have received—life, health, family, food, prosperity, education, freedom, faith, and above all, salvation to eternal life.

So, Happy Lent to everyone!  Because Lent is about more, not less.