Thursday, December 29, 2005

More from the East

This is a follow-up to this morning's post on the changing formulae of canonical provisions in the Eastern churches....

Apparently, the formulation in question given today's notification as regards Lviv has been used before in a situation involving the UGCC, in appointments which Rome mentioned in June. But the "informed" line is still an innovation in this pontificate.

Whereas CNS and others report that, as Cindy Wooden put it today, "the head of an Eastern Catholic Church only needs to inform the Vatican when bishops are transferred or dioceses are modified," the provisions of Canon 85, paragraph 2 of the Code for the Eastern Churches stipulate that the option of notification alone to the Holy See in the case of a metropolitan or diocesan eparch be undertaken solely "for a grave reason."

And so, we are led to ask, what is the "grave reason" here? Because, and let's face it, one patriarch's "grave reason" could well be another's "box of chocolates."

You just never know.

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