Ecclesiastical Communion of a Newly Elected Patriarch is the formal communion requested from and granted by the Roman Pontiff after the canonical election and enthronement of an Eastern Catholic patriarch.
Election, proclamation, and request
When a patriarchal synod canonically elects a bishop who accepts, the election is proclaimed and the new patriarch is enthroned according to liturgical law. He then sends a synodal letter to the Roman Pontiff, signed in his own hand, requesting ecclesiastical communion. He also sends notice of the election to the other patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Churches.[1]
The request is not an application for episcopal ordination or a papal appointment to the patriarchal see. The Synod of Bishops elects the patriarch under the CCEO. Ecclesiastical communion formally manifests and juridically orders the new patriarch's relation with the bishop of Rome in the communion of the Catholic Church.
If the person is already a bishop
An already ordained bishop is proclaimed and enthroned after accepting the election. His episcopal character does not await Rome's reply, but canon 77 restricts the exercise of certain acts until ecclesiastical communion is received. Sacramental order, election to office, enthronement, and communion are distinct moments.
If the elect is not yet a bishop
The one elected must receive episcopal ordination before enthronement according to the Code. The canonical sequence safeguards the patriarchal office's episcopal nature. Ecclesiastical communion is still requested after election and enthronement; it is not a substitute for the sacrament of Holy Orders.[2]
Exercise before communion is received
Canon 77 provides that the patriarch validly and licitly exercises his office from enthronement, but he may neither convoke the Synod of Bishops nor ordain bishops until he has received ecclesiastical communion from the Roman Pontiff. The qualification is precise: it does not describe the patriarchal see as vacant, yet it withholds two especially consequential exercises.
This interval should not be confused with Administrative Silence or a presumed negative response under the Latin Code. The CCEO gives its own sequence and restrictions. Nor is it the same as the pope's confirmation required for some other Eastern elections; patriarchal election has a distinctive canonical form.
Not a second degree of Catholic communion
The technical phrase does not mean that the patriarch or patriarchal Church was non-Catholic between election and reply. The Church sui iuris remains in Full Communion, and the patriarch has already entered office. The act concerns the newly elected head's formal ecclesiastical bond and the lawful exercise of specified patriarchal functions.
Keeping the classification narrow preserves Eastern synodality and Roman primacy together. Treating communion as mere courtesy understates the canonical restriction; treating it as papal appointment understates the synod's election. The signed request and response express an organic communion whose participants possess distinct offices and competences.
References
- 1.Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches — The official Eastern Catholic code governing communion, patriarchal election, ecclesiastical communion, and Churches sui iuris
- 2.Lumen gentium — Vatican II's dogmatic constitution on ecclesial communion, the episcopal college, hierarchical communion, and canonical mission