H.G. Mar Bawai Soro and full communion with the Chaldean Catholic Church

[twf]

I remember that on this last Pentecost Sunday H.G. Mar Bawai Soro and his followers entered into full communion with Rome via the Chaldean Catholic Church. Does anybody have an update on this remarkable event? What role is the good bishop playing in the Catholic Church? Have his parishes been fully incorporated into an existing Chaldean eparchy/diocese?

 

[Amadeus]

I also thirst for updates!

Hopefully, your post will remind Anthony (who posts here as antgaria) to give us the latest news.

 

[antgaria]

Dear all,

Thank you for remembering us. I’m sorry that I have not been very active online and have not given updates lately.

This past weekend, we had a celebration of unity in St. Mary Church in San Jose, celebrating the unity which was accomplished the Saturday and Sunday of last Pentecost.

The parishes and missions that had followed H.G. Mar Bawai have been incorporated into the various local Catholic diocese and parishes. We in San Jose are part of St. Mary’s Parish, and for my part, I can only say how blessed we are and thanks and praise be to God!

H.G. Mar Sarhad is an awesome man, with a love for God, and a vision for ministry. And as a plus, he has a love for the Church of the East tradition that shines in him, and the knowledge to accompany it.

Mar Bawai’s position is currently still in review. He was with Mar Sarhad this weekend, and during the dinner on Saturday, he reiterated his happiness that we are now united. He asked that we not worry about him, pointing out that this was not about him as it was always an issue of following Christ’s will. I might add also “and being faithful to the tradition and teachings of our Church”.

Now we move forward as one. And I pray and wait for the day that the others who could not make this move yet will finally make their voyage home as well.

When there is an update on Mar Bawai, I will promptly post.

In Him,
Anthony

 

[peterpatros]

Mar Bawai is currently serving the two Chaldean Catholic Churches in San Diego, St Michaels and St Peter. He is the spiritual director of the seminarians of the the Seminary of Mar Abba The Great.

 

[mardukm]

HELLO MY CHALDEAN BRETHREN!!!

:extrahappy:

I have a question for you. I had a debate with a forum member a few months ago on the Christology of the ACOE and Nestorius. He claimed that the Catholic Church was “giving in” to the Nestorians by signing the Christological Agreement with the ACOE. I showed him the Christological Agreement and he backed down a bit. But it brought a question to my mind.

My question is, what are the issues that still remain preventing full communion between the ACOE and the Catholic Church?

Blessings,
Marduk

 

[chaldobyzantine]

HELLO MY CHALDEAN BRETHREN!!!

:extrahappy:

I have a question for you. I had a debate with a forum member a few months ago on the Christology of the ACOE and Nestorius. He claimed that the Catholic Church was “giving in” to the Nestorians by signing the Christological Agreement with the ACOE. I showed him the Christological Agreement and he backed down a bit. But it brought a question to my mind.

My question is, what are the issues that still remain preventing full communion between the ACOE and the Catholic Church?

Blessings,
Marduk

Ahh Marduk my friend, that is a long list. Despite Chaldean and Assyrians being the same people (seriously there is no difference at all!), many people in our communities tend to be very hateful against each other. Even among Chaldeans and Assyrians there is too much hate if someone doesn’t come from the same town/village your great-grandparents came from.

Theologically there are still some differences. Iconography is still not used in the ACoE, the Virgin Mary is still called the Christotokos instead of the Theotokos, Nestorius is still revered as a saint (despite not believing in his theology), the Patriarchate is autocephalous (not autonomous), and the ACoE still has not completely accepted the third ecumenical council (the council of Ephesus).

Liturgically the ACoE does not want to give up her Holy Traditions, the Chaldean Catholic Church has become fairly Latinized and union would probably cause the loss of their practices. Even the recent “union” of Mar Bawai Soro and some members of his community with the CCC resulted in the loss of most ACoE liturgical traditions. Everything from clerical vestments to the Holy Qurbana liturgy has Latin influences.

I pray for unity of the Chaldean and Assyrian people, and their churches into one Patriarchate, but until we resolve our differences and the CCC removes Latinizations, I doubt it will come anytime soon.