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Melkite Greek Catholic Church Information Center

Nicean Creed - An explanation of the The addition of "and from the Son" or "Filioque" by the Latin Catholic Church

Nicean Creed in St. Peter's Bascilia

The Nicean Creed is written on a wall in St. Peter's Bascilia in the Holy See of Rome. That Nicean Creed does not have the word "Filioque" because it was written before the word "Filioque" became standard in the Nicean Creed in the Latin Catholic Church.

Melkite Position

The explanation below was written by Rev. Fr. James Graham, Pastor of Saint Elias the Prophet Melkite Greek Catholic Mission, San Jose, CA.

Why We Don't Say "and the Son" in the Creed
In every Divine Liturgy, we profess the true Christian faith according to the formula developed at the First and Second Ecumenical Councils, in Nicea in 325 and in Constantinople in 381. We call this profession of faith the Creed, because in Latin it starts with the word "Credo," which means "I believe." When speaking of the Holy Spirit, we say, "And [I believe] in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father." This is what the Holy Fathers of the Councils wrote, based on the Gospel, in which Jesus says He will ask the Father to send the Spirit. This is the true faith of the entire Catholic Church. But in our Liturgy books, the Arabic text says, "who proceeds from the Father (and the Son)." And many people learned to say the Creed that way. This is because the Church in the West, starting in Spain in the 8th century, added "and the Son" to the Creed to combat heresy. The Western Church did this because the word for "proceeds" has a different meaning in Latin from in Greek. In Latin it emphasizes communion, but in Greek it emphasizes origin. Both the Byzantine East and the Latin West agree that the only origin of the Spirit is the Father, and that the Spirit is in communion with the Father and the Son. So we do not need to add anything to the Creed, and we now omit what was added under the influence of the Latins.

Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, director of the Aletti Center of Studies in Rome for dialogue between the East and West

EASTERN SCHISM: A THING OF THE PAST? Interview With Father Marko Rupnik, of Aletti Center

ROME, JULY 18, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The Great Eastern Schism occurred in July 1054, marking the start of a now 950-year-old rift in the Church.

Papal legates placed on the altar of St. Sophia in Byzantium the excommunication against Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople, who, in turn, four days later, excommunicated the papal envoys.

How did this all happen? Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, director of the Aletti Center of Studies in Rome for dialogue between the East and West, answered the question in this interview with Vatican Radio.

Father Rupnik is the painter behind the Byzantine-inspired mosaics that decorate John Paul II's Redemptoris Mater Chapel in the Vatican.

Q: What happened on July 16, 1054?

Father Rupnik: Spiritually speaking, we can say that a "sin" was committed, as happens in all separations, in all schisms. It was not the only schism; there were many others before.

The question was of jurisdiction over some areas in dispute, but dogmatic and theological reasons were given. It was about questions that affected the discipline of the Church, a question on the Eucharist, the subject of the "Filioque," etc. After 950 years, none of those issues are of any consequence!

Q: What happened, then, to those disputed issues? For example, the most famous, the "Filioque."

Father Rupnik: On the question of the "Filioque," namely, the fact that the Holy Spirit does not proceed only from the Father, but also from the Son, there is nothing left, as the Catholic Church, in a declaration a few years ago, totally resolved the question, which today does not represent any difficulty with the East.

Q: So there is agreement on points of view on the question of the Holy Spirit?

Father Rupnik: From a dogmatic point of view, there is agreement on points of view, as the Holy Father says. That is, there are no things that separate us irremediably.

Today also, given the events that take place in the world, the very rapid evolution of culture, I think that it is really difficult to find reasons to remain divided.

As the Pope said in "Orientale Lumen," we are now under the pressure of the charity of God to take steps toward a meeting, as only together can we point to Christ, Savior of the men and women of today.

This is a pressure before which there can be no excuses. We must do everything possible to find points in common. Today it is about attaining, as the Second Vatican Council announced, full recognition of one another. It is about two great apostolic traditions.

Q: In fact, the Pope also says in "Orientale Lumen" that the words of the West have need of the words of the East so that the Word of God will better manifest its unfathomable riches.

Father Rupnik: Exactly. Today we feel the need of one another and this is the sign of a new Pentecost. Today we know that we must arrive at an exchange of gifts to be able to be recognized as disciples of Christ.

ZE04071822

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The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation

The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation is an ecumenical standing conference that has been meeting semiannually since it was founded in 1965 under the auspices of the Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA). It works in tandem with the Joint Committee of Orthodox and Catholic Bishops which has been meeting annually since 1981.
The Filioque: A Church-Dividing Issue? An Agreed Statement of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation Saint Paul’s College, Washington, DC, October 25, 2003 from United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Two articles about that statement
North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation Issues Agreed Statement on Filioque, a Question that Divided the Two Communions for Many Centuries United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 28 October 2003
Catholic-Orthodox Statement Calls for 'Uniform Practice' on Nicene Creed is an article about "The Filioque: A Church-Dividing Issue?" National Catholic Register, 9-15 Nov. 2003

Latin Catholic Church

Pope John Paul II, GENERAL AUDIENCE, Wednesday, 29 July 1998
"...4. It is thanks to the “grace of the Holy Spirit” (Unitatis redintegratio, n. 4) that there is a desire for full unity among Christians. In this regard, it must never be forgotten that the Spirit is the first common gift to divided Christians. As “the principle of the Church’s unity” (ibid., n. 2), he urges us to rebuild it through conversion of heart, common prayer, mutual knowledge, ecumenical formation, theological dialogue, and co-operation in the various contexts of social service inspired by love. Christ gave his life so that all his disciples might be one (cf. Jn 17). The celebration of the Jubilee of the third millennium must represent a new phase in overcoming the divisions of the second millennium and, since unity is a gift of the Paraclete, it comforts us to recall that precisely on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit significant steps have been made towards unity among the various Churches, especially among the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches. In particular, on the specific problem of the Filioque concerning the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the Word who proceed from the Father, it is possible to maintain that the difference between the Latin and Eastern traditions does not affect the identity of the faith “in the reality of the same mystery confessed” but its expression, constituting a “legitimate complementarity” which does not jeopardize but indeed can enrich communion in the one faith (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 248; Apostolic Letter Orientale lumen, 2 May 1995, n. 5; Note of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, 29 June 1995: The Greek and Latin Traditions Regarding the Procession of the Holy Spirit, L’Osservatore Romano English edition, 20 September 1995, p. 3)...."

The Father as the Source of the Whole Trinity The Procession of the Holy Spirit in Greek and Latin Traditions by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, in September, 1995. This document was intended as a contribution to the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. This document was approved by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This copy of this document is from Apologia: a Catholic Page for Protestants and Eastern Orthodox. Also, this document may be found in English in Catholic International magazine (volume 7, no. 1: January, 1996; pp 36-49).

New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia

The Nicene Creed

Filioque

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Melkite Greek Catholic Church Information Center is dedicated to my cousins: Bucky (Richard C. Liles) and Shirley (Shirley Jean Liles Buck). Bucky fell asleep in the Lord on Dec. 12, 2000 and Shirley fell asleep in the Lord on Nov. 8, 2001.
O God of all spirits and of all flesh, who have destroyed death, overcome the devil, and given life to the world: grant, O Lord, to the souls of your servants Bucky and Shirley, who has departed from this life, that it may rest in a place of light, in a place of happiness, in a place of peace, where there is no pain, no grief, no sighing. And since You are a gracious God and the Lover of Mankind, forgive him/her every sin he/she has committed by thought, or word, or deed, for there is not a man who lives and does not sin : You alone are without sin, your righteousness is everlasting, and your word is true. You are the Resurrection and the Life, and the repose of your departed servants Bucky and Shirley. O Christ our God, and we send up glory to You, together with your eternal Father and your all-holy, good and life-givng Spirit, now and always and for ages upon ages. Amen.

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