What are the requirements for a church to be accepted into the Catholic Church?

What are the requirements for a church to be accepted into the Catholic Church?

In a nutshell anyone entering into full communion with the Catholic Church from an other Church either as an individual or as a group must make a Profession of Faith in the Catholic Church! In order to be Catholic one has to accept the authority of the pope. History bears this out, but first a little background information.

Eastern Churches accept the pope as the leader of the Church. Eastern Churches are fully Catholic. While all the Eastern Churches accept the authority of the pope, they also have a great deal of autonomy in Church life. They are governed by a separate code, called the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. This code helps to preserve some traditions that differ from the Roman Catholic Church, including the ordination of married men to the priesthood. Eastern Churches worship with their own style liturgy. The Armenian, Byzantine, Coptic, Ethiopian, East Syrian (or Chaldean), West Syrian, and Maronite liturgical rites and certain other liturgical rites of local churches and religious orders have been recognized as authentic liturgical expressions within the Catholic Church. The three largest Eastern Churches are the Byzantine Ukranian Greek Catholic Church, the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, and the Maronite Catholic Church. - What is the difference between Eastern Catholic Churches and Eastern Orthodox Churches?

You stated that ”on November 21, 1964, the Eastern Rite Church was accepted into full communion with the Catholic Church.” This statement is untrue, as several Orthodox communities had already been united with Rome for decades or even centuries.

In reality, Orientalium dignitas strongly defends the rights and privileges of all Eastern Rite Churches and places safeguards in place to preserve their unique liturgical heritages.

Orientalium dignitas

On 30 November 1894 Pope Leo XIII issued the apostolic constitution Orientalium dignitas in which he stated:

The Churches of the East are worthy of the glory and reverence that they hold throughout the whole of Christendom in virtue of those extremely ancient, singular memorials that they have bequeathed to us. For it was in that part of the world that the first actions for the redemption of the human race began, in accord with the all-kind plan of God. They swiftly gave forth their yield: there flowered in first blush the glories of preaching the True Faith to the nations, of martyrdom, and of holiness. They gave us the first joys of the fruits of salvation. From them has come a wondrously grand and powerful flood of benefits upon the other peoples of the world, no matter how far-flung. When blessed Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, intended to cast down the manifold wickedness of error and vice, in accord with the will of Heaven, he brought the light of divine Truth, the Gospel of peace, freedom in Christ to the metropolis of the Gentiles.

Adrian Fortescue wrote that Leo XIII "begins by explaining again that the ancient Eastern rites are a witness to the Apostolicity of the Catholic Church, that their diversity, consistent with unity of the faith, is itself a witness to the unity of the Church, that they add to her dignity and honour. He says that the Catholic Church does not possess one rite only, but that she embraces all the ancient rites of Christendom; her unity consists not in a mechanical uniformity of all her parts, but on the contrary, in their variety, according in one principle and vivified by it."

Leo XIII declared still in force Pope Benedict XIV's encyclical Demandatam, addressed to the Patriarch and the Bishops of the Melkite Catholic Church, in which Benedict XIV forbade Latin Church clergy to induce Melkite Catholics to transfer to the Roman Rite, and he broadened this prohibition to cover all Eastern Catholics, declaring: "Any Latin rite missionary, whether of the secular or religious clergy, who induces with his advice or assistance any Eastern rite faithful to transfer to the Latin rite, will be deposed and excluded from his benefice in addition to the ipso facto suspension a divinis and other punishments that he will incur as imposed in the aforesaid Constitution Demandatam."

The Second Vatican Council directed, in Orientalium Ecclesiarum, that the traditions of Eastern Catholic Churches should be maintained. It declared that "it is the mind of the Catholic Church that each individual Church or Rite should retain its traditions whole and entire and likewise that it should adapt its way of life to the different needs of time and place" (n. 2), and that they should all "preserve their legitimate liturgical rite and their established way of life, and ... these may not be altered except to obtain for themselves an organic improvement" (n. 6; cf. n. 22).

Eastern Catholic Churches

As of the present moment, there are 23 Eastern Rite Catholic Churches. Each one is self governing. The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, are twenty-three Eastern Christian sui iuris (autonomous) particular churches of the Catholic Church, in full communion with the Pope in Rome. Although they are distinct theologically, liturgically, and historically from the Latin Church, they are all in full communion with it and with each other.

As I mentioned above the number one requirement for any individual or group such as a particular Church to be received into the Catholic fold is to make a solemn Profession of Faith in the Catholic Church.

Seeing that these Churches have valid bishops they are required by Canon Law to make a Profession of Faith ”in the presence of the one delegated by the Apostolic See, all those promoted to the episcopate as well as those who are equivalent to a diocesan bishop.”. At the Easter Vigils how many of us have witnessed non-Catholics being received into the Church after making their Profession of Faith.

The Profession of Faith (Can. 833)

Can. 833 The following are obliged personally to make a profession of faith according to the formula approved by the Apostolic See:

1/ in the presence of the president or his delegate, all those who attend with either a deliberative or consultative vote an ecumenical or particular council, a synod of bishops, and a diocesan synod; the president, however, makes it in the presence of the council or synod;

2/ those promoted to the cardinalatial dignity, according to the statutes of the sacred college;

3/ in the presence of the one delegated by the Apostolic See, all those promoted to the episcopate as well as those who are equivalent to a diocesan bishop;

4/ in the presence of the college of consultors, the diocesan administrator;

5/ in the presence of the diocesan bishop or his delegate, vicars general, episcopal vicars, and judicial vicars;

6/ in the presence of the local ordinary or his delegate and at the beginning of their function, pastors, the rector of a seminary, and teachers of theology and philosophy in seminaries; those to be promoted to the order of the diaconate;

7/ in the presence of the grand chancellor or, in his absence, in the presence of the local ordinary or their delegates, the rector of an ecclesiastical or Catholic university, when the rector’s function begins; in the presence of the rector if he is a priest or in the presence of the local ordinary or their delegates, teachers in any universities whatsoever who teach disciplines pertaining to faith or morals, when they begin their function;

8/ Superiors in clerical religious institutes and societies of apostolic life, according to the norm of the constitutions.

The actual realization of seeing a particular Church of the East entering into full communion with Rome can historically be very complicated due to particular situations and circumstances, and in some cases take centuries to achieve, while other Churches have historically been united with the Catholic Church and then left the fold due to external pressures. In a word, the whole process can be quite complicated. But in the end, a simple Profession of Faith will end the journey back home.

The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church celebrates Reunion Day every September 20 (1930). After negotiations with Rome, they entered into the Catholic Church.

The Malankara Syrian Catholic Church traces its origins to the missions of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. The Church employs the West Syriac Rite Divine Liturgy of Saint James. It is one of the two Eastern Catholic churches in India, the other being the Syro-Malabar Church which employs the East Syriac Rite liturgy.

The Malankara Syrian Catholic Church was formed on 20 September 1930 as a result of the reunion movement under the leadership of Archbishop Geevarghese Ivanios, when it split from the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and entered into communion with the Catholic Church. The Malankara Church itself had emerged from the split within the Saint Thomas Christian community of the 17th century; after the Coonan Cross Oath in 1653, the Malankara Church emerged as the faction that stood with Archdeacon Thoma I in swearing to resist the authority of the Latin Catholic Portuguese Padroado. This faction entered into a relationship with the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch and adopted the West Syriac Rite (the Saint Thomas Christians of India had until this point used the East Syriac Rite inherited from the historic Church of the East). The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church represents the group from this Malankara faction that reunited with Rome in the 20th century (1930).

Mar Ivanios started to have negotiations with the Holy See of Rome in 1926 to enter into a new communion. The two bishops including Ivanios, a priest, a deacon and a layman were received into the Catholic Church together on 1930. This resulted in a significant movement of the faithful into the Malankara Catholic Church. Hindus, especially from Nair community, also joined the Malankara Catholic Church. By 1950 there were some 65,588 faithful, in 1960 112,478, and in 1970 183,490. There are now over 400,000 faithful in over 12 dioceses in India and across the world.

The following shows that the Profession of Faith played in the unification of the Chaldean Catholic Church:

Successive leaders of those in communion with Rome

Sulaqa's earliest successors entered into communion with the Catholic Church, but in the course of over a century, their link with Rome grew weak. The last to request and obtain formal papal recognition died in 1600. They adopted hereditary succession to the patriarchate, opposition to which had caused the 1552 schism. In 1672, Shimun XIII Dinkha formally broke communion with Rome, adopting a profession of faith that contradicted that of Rome, while he maintained his independence from the Alqosh-based "Eliya line" of patriarchs. The "Shimun line" eventually became the patriarchal line of what since 1976 is officially called the Assyrian Church of the East.

Leadership of those who wished to be in communion with Rome then passed to Archbishop Joseph of Amid. In 1677 his leadership was recognized first by the Turkish civil authorities, and then in 1681 by Rome. (Until then, the authority of the Alqosh patriarch over Amid, which had been Sulaqa's residence but which his successors abandoned on having to move eastward into Safavid Iran, had been accepted by the Turkish authorities.)

All the (non-hereditary) successors in Amid of Joseph I, who in 1696 resigned for health reasons and lived on in Rome until 1707, took the name Joseph: Joseph II (1696–1713), Joseph III (1713–1757), Joseph IV (1757–1781). For that reason, they are known as the "Josephite line". Joseph IV presented his resignation in 1780 and it was accepted in 1781, after which he handed over the administration of the patriarchate to his nephew, not yet a bishop, and retired to Rome, where he lived until 1791.

Appointment of the nephew as patriarch would look like acceptance of the principle of hereditary succession. Besides, the Alqosh "Eliya line" was drawing closer to Rome, and the pro-Catholic faction within its followers was becoming predominant. For various reasons, including the ecclesiastical as well as political turbulence in Europe after the French Revolution, Rome was long unable to choose between two rival claimants to headship of the Chaldean Catholics.

The 1672 adoption by the "Shimun line" of patriarchs of Nestorian doctrine had been followed in some areas by widespread adoption of the opposing Christology upheld in Rome. This occurred not only in the Amid-Mardin area for which by Turkish decree Joseph I was patriarch, but also in the city of Mosul, where by 1700 nearly all the East Syrians were Catholics.[61] The Rabban Hormizd Monastery, which was the seat of the "Eliya line" of patriarchs is 2 km from the village of Alqosh and about 45 km north of the city of Mosul

In view of this situation, Patriarch Eliya XI wrote to the Pope in 1735, 1749 and 1756, asking for union. Then, in 1771, both he and his designated successor Ishoyabb made a profession of faith that Rome accepted, thus establishing communion in principle. When Eliya XI died in 1778, the metropolitans recognized as his successor Ishoyabb, who accordingly took the Eliya name (Eliya XII). To win support, Eliya made profession of the Catholic faith, but almost immediately renounced it and declared his support of the traditionalist (Nestorian) view.

Yohannan Hormizd, a member of the "Eliya line" family, opposed Eliya XII (1778–1804), the last of that line to be elected in the normal way as patriarch. In 1780 Yohannan was irregularly elected patriarch, as Sulaqa had been in 1552. He won over to communion with Rome most followers of the "Eliyya line". The Holy See did not recognize him as patriarch, but in 1791 appointed him archbishop of Amid and administrator of the Catholic patriarchate. The violent protests of Joseph IV's nephew, who was then in Rome, and suspicions raised by others about the sincerity of Yohannan's conversion prevented this being put into effect. In 1793 it was agreed that Yohannan should withdraw from Amid to Mosul, the metropolitan see that he already held, but that the post of patriarch would not be conferred on his rival, Joseph IV's nephew. In 1802 the latter was appointed metropolitan of Amid and administrator of the patriarchate, but not patriarch. Nonetheless, he became commonly known as Joseph V. He died in 1828. Yohannan's rival for the Alqosh title of patriarch had died in 1804, with his followers so reduced in number that they did not elect any successor for him, thus bringing the Alqosh or Eliya line to an end.

Finally then, in 1830, a century and a half after the Holy See had conferred headship of the Chaldeans on Joseph I of Amid, it granted recognition as Patriarch to Yohannan, whose (non-hereditary) patriarchal succession has since then lasted unbroken in the Chaldean Catholic Church.