What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

There was another crumb tossed our way today about the decision to drop the title "Patriarch of the West" from the Annuario Pontificio.  (My emohasis added)

CLARIFICATION ON PAPAL TITLE OF "PATRIARCH OF THE WEST"

VATICAN CITY, MAR 22, 2006 (VIS) – In the wake of media comments concerning one of the Pope’s titles – that of "Patriarch of the West" – which did not appear among the list of papal titles at the beginning of this year’s edition of the "Annuario Pontificio" (pontifical yearbook), the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity has issued a communique clarifying the reasons for the omission.

  "From a historical perspective," the communique reads, "the ancient Patriarchates of the East, defined by the Councils of Constantinople (381) and of Chalcedon (451), covered a fairly clearly demarcated territory. At the same time, the territory of the see of the Bishop of Rome remained somewhat vague. In the East, under the ecclesiastical imperial system of Justinian (527-565), alongside the four Eastern Patriarchates (Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem), the Pope was included as the Patriarch of the West. Rome, on the other hand, favored the idea of the three Petrine episcopal sees: Rome, Alexandria and Antioch. Without using the title ‘Patriarch of the West,’ the Fourth Council of Constantinople (869-870), the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) and the Council of Florence (1439), listed the Pope as the first of the then five Patriarchs.

  "The title ‘Patriarch of the West’ was adopted in the year 642 by Pope Theodore. Thereafter it appeared only occasionally and did not have a clear meaning. It flourished in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in the context of a general increase in the Pope’s titles, and appeared for the first time in the ‘Annuario Pontificio’ in 1863."

  The term ‘West’ currently refers to a cultural context not limited only to Western Europe but including North America, Australia and New Zealand, thus differentiating itself from other cultural contexts, says the communique. "If we wished to give the term ‘West’ a meaning applicable to ecclesiastical juridical language, it could be understood only in reference to the Latin Church." In this way, the title "Patriarch of the West," would describe the Bishop of Rome’s special relationship with the Latin Church, and his special jurisdiction over her.

  "The title ‘Patriarch of the West,’ never very clear, over history has become obsolete and practically unusable. It seems pointless, then, to insist on maintaining it. Even more so now that the Catholic Church, with Vatican Council II, has found, in the form of episcopal conferences and their international meetings, the canonical structure best suited to the needs of the Latin Church today."

  The communique concludes: "Abandoning the title of ‘Patriarch of the West’ clearly does not alter in any way the recognition of the ancient patriarchal Churches, so solemnly declared by Vatican Council II. ... The renouncement of this title aims to express a historical and theological reality, and at the same time, ... could prove useful to ecumenical dialogue."

Okay, everyone, I am now waiting for the day when they take the title "Patriarchal" away from the Lateran Basilica, the Pope’s Cathedral as Bishop of Roma and, once upon a time, Patriarch of the West.

The Internet Prayer project is rolling right along! This week we already posted both Dutch and Maltese.  Now we have the great African language Swahili.

If you can contribute to the collection, please do!  Any language missing from the list will be happily added.  There are visitors to this blog from all sorts of places in the world.  Let’s get to work!

Here is today’s addition.  

KISWAHILI

Sala kabla ya kuingia kwenye Interneti
Mungu Mwenyezi na WA milele,
Uliyetuumba kwa umbo Wako
Na ukatuamuru tutafute chochote kilicho kizuri, kweli na cha kupendeza,
Hasa katika nafsi takatifu ya Mwanao WA pekee, Bwana wetu Yesu Kristu,
Tujalie, tunakusihi,
Ili, kwa uombei Mtakatifu Isidore, Askofu na Daktari,
Wakati WA safari zetu kwenye Interneti
Tutumie mikono yetu na macho yetu kwa kile kinachokupendeza
Na kuwatunza kwa upendo na uvumilivu wale wote tutakaowakuta.
Kwa njia ya Kristu Bwana wetu. Amina

COLLECT
Praesta, quaesumus, Domine,
ut, per quadragesimalem observantiam eruditi
et tuo verbo nutriti,
sancta continentia tibi simus toto corde devoti,
et in oratione tua semper efficiamur concordes.

A bit strange in its style, no?   Well, this is of new composition for the Novus Ordo.  It takes some inspiration from Sermon 40, 4 of St. Pope Leo I "the Great" (+461).

Erudio is "to polish, educate, instruct, teach".  Rudis is an adjective for "unwrought, untilled, unformed, unused, rough, raw, wild".  Someone who is rudis is "rude, unpolished, uncultivated, unskilled, awkward, clumsy, ignorant; hence (like ignarus)".  People must be brought out of this state by being polished.    St. Augustine (+430) wrote a work called De catechizandis rudibus.  Eruditio refers to the whole culture and formation of a Catholic.

Observantia is certainly an "observance", but also "an observance of religious duties, divine worship, religion".  For example, the Theodosian Code speaks of "fides Catholicae observantiae" (16, 5, 12, § 54).  

LITERAL TRANSLATION
Grant, we beg You, O Lord,
that we, having been polished by means of the Lenten observance
and nourished by Your word,
may by holy continence be consecrated with our whole heart,
and we may be made always harmonious in Your prayer.

Day by day our Lenten observance ought to be a polishing not a torture.  Sometimes people make the mistake in the spiritual life of putting themselves on the rack.  The rock tumbler is a better model than the rack.