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Catholic World News News Feature

Vatican explains suppression of papal title March 22, 2006

The Pontifical Council for Christian Unity has issued a statement explaining the decision by Pope Benedict XVI to drop a traditional title, "Patriarch of the West."

The Vatican explanation-- apparently issued to answer the concerns of some Orthodox leaders-- confirmed that Pope Benedict had made the decision to renounced one of the 9 titles traditionally accorded to the Roman Pontiff. The Pontifical Council for Christian Unity said: "The renouncement of this title aims to express a historical and theological reality, and at the same time, ... could prove useful to ecumenical dialogue."

The title "Patriarch of the West" did not appear in the 2006 edition of the Annuario Pontificio, which made its debut earlier this month. The Vatican statement released on March 22 said that the title "was never very clear, over history has become obsolete and practically unusable.

The title was introduced in 642, and became more popular in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Vatican statement notes. It first appeared in the Annuario in 1863. But the meaning was never clear, because while the four traditional patriarchates of the Eastern Church (Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem) were associated with particular geographical areas, "the territory of the see of the Bishop of Rome remained somewhat vague."

The "West" in which the Pope enjoyed special jurisdiction referred to the Latin-rite Church, the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity said. But today, the statement said, the Latin Church "has found, the form of episcopal conferences and their international meetings, the canonical structure best suited to the needs of the Latin Church today." In light of that collegial approach to Church governance, the statement concludes, the title "Patriarch of the West" is obsolete.

In response to the news that the Pope had abandoned his title as "Patriarch of the West," some Orthodox leaders expressed misgivings, suggesting that the Pontiff was staking a new claim for supremacy over the Eastern churches. Orthodox Bishop Hilarian of Vienna observed that the reasoning behind the Pope's decision appeared "mysterious." Today's Vatican announcement is clearly intended to ease Orthodox concerns. The suppression of the title, the Vatican says, "clearly does not alter in any way the recognition of the ancient patriarchal churches."