When the Holy Father said that the Eastern Church is the other lung of The Church, I thought he meant the Eastern Rite of the Holy Catholic Church. There is an EWTN program, "Light of the East" and they said that the other lung is the Eastern Rite of the Holy Catholic Church. However, in today's homily, the priest expounded that the Orthodox Church (of the 11th Century split) is the other lung. Which is which?

-- Left (and@Right.Lungs), January 20, 2004

Answers

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-- top (top@top.top), January 20, 2004.

One answer has to be: The priest has interpreted the words of the Pope either correctly, or he's mistaken. The Pope alone can say which church he meant. Or which church he didn't mean.

-- eugene c. chavez (loschavez@pacbell.net), January 20, 2004.

From Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Letter of 2001, "Novo millenio ineunte" ("At the beginning of the new millennium"):

"In the perspective of our renewed post-Jubilee pilgrimage, I look with great hope to the Eastern churches, and I pray for a full return to that exchange of gifts which enriched the Church of the first millennium. May the memory of the time when the Church breathed with 'both lungs' spur Christians of East and West to walk together in unity of faith and with respect for legitimate diversity, accepting and sustaining each other as members of the one Body of Christ."

Thus, the expression "breathing with both lungs" refers to the complete unity of all the apostolic churches (archdioceses/dioceses/eparchies/exarchies) of the West and East. The complete "eastern lung," therefore, refers to all the Eastern churches descended from the Apostles, whether in union with the pope or still separated.

-- (Pulmonary@News.com), January 21, 2004.

Eureka! Thank you, Pulmonary! ... now, I can breathe!

-- Left (and@Right.Lungs), January 21, 2004.

You could say the apostolic Church is now breathing, but not with each lung. The schismatics are a collapsed lung.

I don't mean it as a denunciation, but as the deplorable truth. We must thank our Holy Father for having the kindness to speak to them this way.

-- eugene c. chavez (loschavez@pacbell.net), January 21, 2004.

Eugene, As I reread our Holy Father's statement ... come to think of it, your concept of the "collapsed lung" can also be inferred from his statement; because of their schism there is a "blockage" of air to their lung. I would assume that his charitable primary meaning would be that both lungs are expanding, just separate.

-- Left (and@Right.Lungs), January 21, 2004.