LAVIGERIE AND THE ORIENTAL CHURCHES

Being a bright star and gifted in many ways, Lavigerie showed interest in the Eastern Churches right from the time of his studies. He felt a great attraction towards the Eastern Churches and his first thesis was about the Christian school of Edessa in Syria.

The Turkish Government under the Ottoman Empire gave the church of St. Anne in Jerusalem to France as a present for the help during the Crimean war in 1857. It was in a pitiful condition after centuries of services as a Koranic school. It was a fine Romanesque building associated with the Crusaders and long tradition associated it with the birth place of Our Lady.

After several attempts of restoration of the church by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and others, still the plan did not go through. Application of Jesuits, Dominicans, Premonstatensians, the Father of Sion and even the Franciscans, being considered the custodian of the Holy Land, were turned down by the French Government. In 1872, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem died. Lavigerie wrote to Rome asking if he could be sent there, but his proposal was turned down regardless of the thorough knowledge he had of the situation of the Eastern Churches. It was not until 1877, finally the sanctuary was offered to the Archbishop of Algiers. The French were eager to give it to a French Foundation.

His vision of ten years earlier, i.e. to find another place for his students to study in case something would happen in Algeria forcing the students to leave the country. To his great disappointment and annoyance, on proposing the idea to the council of the M. Afr. in April 1877, they all voted against it. Being a persuasive man, he managed to convince them to accept the proposal, except for his first assistant Livinhac who was the only one to vote against the project as he saw the Society as being only for the African Continent. After the death of the Founder, Bp Livinhac, as Superior General, no longer objected to the project, out of respect for the Founder.

When the White Fathers were beginning this foundation, Lavigerie wrote a long letter containing “the provisional conditions under which the establishment of St. Anne’s in Jerusalem should function.” Accept and respect everything to be found amongst the Orientals, with the exception of vice and error. Lavigerie was ahead of his time, for this instance of preserving the identity of the Eastern Churches was the opposite of current practice of his time where “Rome” tried by all means to Latinize the Eastern Churches, i.e. Liturgy.

“The capital fault committed in the East is to have treated the Eastern Christian rites with reserves and even with contempt and to have wanted to Latinize the Eastern Christians in bringing them into the Western Church community. It is desirable that eventually an apostolic school to be opened at St. Anne’s for Eastern rite children. If this plan comes to realization, these children must not be required to transfer to the Latin rite. They must be left in their own rite, and their bishops should have the ordained in the same rite…. The ideal for the Latin missionaries in the East would be for them, ‘if possible,’ to become Orientals themselves, adopting the dress, the language and the liturgy of the Eastern Clergy. Their action would then be truly effective” (Atemaj, P.42). Lavigerie did not beat about the bush, but made his intentions very clear by that statement. 

Lavigerie wrote ‘if possible’ (for his Western Rite missionaries) because at that time, there was no possibility that Rome could sanction such a transfer of rite. Being aware of that, he added, ‘nevertheless’, the White Fathers must be penetrated by the spirit, and do everything possible to bring that goal into realization.

The White Fathers received authorization to adopt the Greek Melchite Rite only after the 2nd world war. Twenty years before the Vatican council, they were celebrating the liturgy in Arabic and Greek before approval. Although there was no talk of ecumenism, one could see the ecumenical spirit in the advice which Lavigerie gave concerning relations with the Eastern Orthodox Christians, who were delighted by the spirit of adaptation shown by the missionaries.

Lavigerie and the French Government had entered into an agreement concerning a number of legal and materiel details. By taking charge of the sanctuary, the Fathers would pray for France and for the Church, and would open a Biblical school for the French ecclesiastics who would come there especially for the biblical language studies. On Lavigerie’s side, he was planning to open a junior seminary or an Apostolic schools for the Eastern Catholics, as well as a school for Muslims and non-Catholics. A century later, the plan succeeded. A small learning institution for Muslim children operated for a few years but it never proved possible to carry out Lavigerie’s plan for a school for Eastern Orthodox.

In 1882, an apostolic school for Greek Melchite Catholic was opened. In 1886, St. Anne Senior Seminary was founded and the training of the Greek Melchite Clergy continued until 1967, when war between Israel and Egypt broke out. The seminary was then moved to Rayak, Lebanon in 1967 as the property was situated in Eastern Jerusalem, that was, and still is, occupied by Israel.

KELVIN MWAMBURI

Bibliography: Atemaj, Paulines Publications Africa,  Nairobi, Kenya.