AN IRISH theologian has called on the Catholic Church to acknowledge the offence caused Orthodox Christians by western Christianity centuries ago. Benedictine priest Fr Gregory Collins said this offence was caused "by the unilateral insertion of the word filioquein the [Nicene] Creed".
It led to the Great Schism between eastern and western Christianity in 1054 when pope Leo IX and patriarch Michael I, head of the eastern church, excommunicated each other.
The primary cause was a dispute over papal authority, with the eastern church asserting it was only honorary, while there was also a theological row, known as the filioquedispute.
It arose from the insertion of three words into the Nicene Creed by the western church.
The words "and the Son" had been added to that part of the Creed which reads "I believe in the Holy Spirit . . . who proceeds from the Father and the Son [ filioque, in Latin]."
The eastern church claimed this diminished the authority of God the Father and had been introduced unilaterally by Rome. Fr Collins, in turn, called on the Orthodox church "to acknowledge theological legitimacy of the Western Creedal usage."
The word filioque"has become part of the patrimony of the West. It expresses the Latin way of speaking about Christ and the Spirit and is part of our liturgical tradition," he said.
"Having grown up in Belfast," Fr Collins said, "I have learnt that cutting away the accretions of history is not always the best way to foster reconciliation: better to live with difference in a spirit of charity and mutual acceptance."
He was speaking at the recent seventh International Patristic Conference in St Patrick's College Maynooth, which took place under the directorship of Fr Vincent Twomey, professor emeritus of moral theology at the college.
Irish delegates were joined by colleagues from Canada, the US, England, Wales and Finland to discuss "the Holy Spirit as understood by the early fathers of the church".
