Patriarch Of The West

There’s been a lot of head-scratching over B16’s decision to remove the title "Patriarch of the West" from his official roster of titles.

The change was made quietly, without any public announcement, by deleting the title from the official list in the Annuario Pontificio ("Pontifical Yearbook") for 2006.

The folks noticed it, called the Vatican to ask if it was a typo, and they were told no, it wasn’t. The pope said to remove it.

There were also comments made that suggested it was removed for ecumenical reasons–as a stimulus to dialogue with the East, where the other patriarchs are.

This struck many as bizarre, since if anything Eastern non-Catholics might be offended by the dropping of the title, as it could appear to be a power-grab by the pope, claiming jurisdiction over their patriarchs by refusing to acknowledge himself as a patriarch.

So the controversy escalated, the Catholic press went nuts with speculation, and

NOW WE HAVE AN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION OF THE DROPPING OF THE TITLE.

It’s put out by the Pontificial Council for Promoting Christian Unity–which ain’t surprising since they’d be the ones who’d have to try to dialogue with honked-off Eastern non-Catholics in the wake of the drop.

I’ve got a suspicion, though, that the communique was either written in part or in whole by B16 himself. It’s got a tone in it in some passages that says "pope" to me rather than "PCPCU underling." However that may be, the issue is sensitive enough that B16 certainly signed off on the thing.

As one would expect, it downplays the ecumenical relations aspect of the change, though it still holds that out to some degree.

It’s interesting that the Vatican was caught off guard with this one. They thought they could make the change without any fanfare, and then events spiralled out of control, causing an the ecumenical equivalent of a diplomatic incident.

Whether dropping the title was a mistake or not, I don’t know. The reasons that are cited for dropping the title could be entirely good ones that will produce long-term good, even if there is an initial, negative adjustment reaction.

Time will tell.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live." View all posts by Jimmy Akin