Pope Leo XIII

The new Pope of Rome, Leo XIV, has made it clear that he chose his name in honor of his predecessor Leo XIII. This is especially interesting to me as an Orthodox historian, since Leo XIII took a particular interest in Orthodoxy, and at the turn of the last century, Orthodox leaders and scholars (including St Raphael Hawaweeny) responded to and rebutted Leo’s statements. Most of those responses were to Leo’s 1894 encyclical on the Eastern Churches. Today, though, I’m going to focus on a less heralded encyclical — his 1901 encyclical issued for the establishment of a Roman Catholic seminary in Athens, Greece.

After writing at some length about his love for Greece and the papacy’s goodwill toward the Greek people, Leo called for the Greek Orthodox to enter into union with Rome:

These events are recalled now for no other reason than to reveal from this accustomed manner of acting the fraternal nature of the goodwill and the true desires of the Roman Pontificate. Will not prejudiced opinions, which lamentable occurrences in the distant past have implanted so strongly, gradually, and with God’s help give ground to the truth? The true nature of things must surely appear to those who judge with equity and integrity, namely, that the oriental peoples have nothing to fear if the union with the Roman Church should be restored: nothing whatsoever would be lost to Greece of its dignity, its fame, and all its adornments; nay, more, no little reinforcement of its glory would accrue. The age of Constantine was not deficient as far as the florishing state of the nation is concerned. What did the times of Athanasius or Chrysostom leave wanting? And yet in those times the authority of the Roman Pontiff was held sacred by all. Both east and west, to the agreement and profit of the souls of both, gave allegiance to the same as to the legitimate successor of blessed Peter and, in consequence, to the supreme ruler of the Christian Church.

The following year, the official journal of the Russian Orthodox Church in America, edited by St Alexander Hotovitzky, published a fascinating response to Leo’s encyclical, in English. Most of this response is a translation of a rejoinder published in an Athens newspaper. The introductory text doesn’t indicate an author, but given that St Alexander was the editor, it may well have been him. In any case, he clearly approved this for publication. Here’s the text in full:

St Alexander Hotovitzky

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On the Papal Encyclical

The encyclical of the Pope Leo XIII to the Catholic bishops in Greece was directly addressed to all the Greek nation – as it is evident from its contents – with a persistent offer that they should give up the schism of orthodoxy and acknowledge the supremacy and the infallibility of the Roman archbishop. And so – says the Messager d’Athenes, it has been reprinted, from beginning to end, by all the Greek newspapers and magazines in order that the minds of the readers should not entertain any manner of doubt or misunderstanding as to the pretension expressed by the Pope. Three quarters of the long encyclical are devoted to the glorification of the Greek nation, in its past and its present, and to the outpour of supposed tender feelings entertained by all the Popes and especially Leo XIII towards the Greeks.

These tactics were assumed with the evident object of attracting the sympathies of the Greeks and of softening down the painful effect, produced by the offer of the Pope on all the Greek-Orthodox world. The Encyclical has raised a storm in the Greek press, which indignantly repudiates the offer of the Pope and puts forth weighty historical facts against his assertions about the “advantages of the Catholic Church and the Salvation of all, depending on the acknowledgement of the Pope’s supremacy”.

“Let us not touch the dogmas in comparing Catholicism and Greek Orthodoxy” – says the Messager d’Athenes. – “as the Holy Father himself thought it best not to refer to this delicate side of the question, representing, in a cursory historical review, the “salutary part”, played in the history of the nations by Christian Rome, under the leadership of the Popes. It condemned the primitive peoples of South and Central America to a general slaughter and auto da fe [burning of heretics], because they did not want to join the Catholic Church. After the Byzantine empire was founded and the Christian faith was introduced in it, the Greeks had to bear the heavy rule of the Roman Caesars, who have imported into Byzantium all the demoralisation of Rome, the treachery and heartlessness of its politics and the fanaticism and despotism of its clergy, so that the Greeks became an unwilling instrument in the hand of the deteriorated Caesar and the high priests of Rome, to the destruction of the heroical Christianity of a race, which was the bulwark of Greece against heathen conquerors. Century after century Christian Armenians fought the assailing Persians, Arabs and other barbarians of Central Asia. And instead of helping the Armenians, Byzantium Caesars, guided by Rome, sent strong armies against them which devastated the unhappy Christian country with no less cruelty, than the wild hordes of the Tugruls and Arparslans [Seljuk Turks]. Their relations with the Armenians became still more inhuman, after they begun their struggle with the Arabs. As the result of this blind hatred and unchristian fanaticism, the Seljuk and the Osmanli Turks demolished Armenia, striking in it firm roots, after which they made slaves of us also for many centuries, and of all the Balkan Peninsula. Who started the Crusades, but the Christian Rome, chiefly having in view not the deliverance of the Holy Land from the Mussulmans, but the creation of Catholic principalities in Palestine? Having armed all the Mussulman world against the Christians, the High Priests of Rome sent legions of Crusaders against the Armenian Kingdom of Kilikia [Cilicia], which has rendered them so many services, just because it refused to accept the supremacy of the Popes. A Christian nation succumbed under the blows of the fierce Sultans of Egypt, whose confederates were the Latin principalities founded in Palestine. And what about the Inquisition of Spain? The rule of Poland? The dragonnades [anti-Protestant persecutions] and the St. Bartholomew [massacre] in France? The bonfires of Bohemia? and so on, and so on.

“Greek civilization prepared the road for Christianity, but the teaching of the man-God, as it was understood by Rome, could not remain long amongst the descendants of Socrates and Aristotle. It was bound to free itself from the fetters of Rome, which it accomplished by proclaiming orthodoxy and by creating a universal Orthodox Patriarchate. Does orthodoxy, like Catholicism, forbid every orthodox nation to have liturgy performed in its own language? Does orthodoxy proclaim anathema to every Christian nation, that is not orthodox? Does it persecute and slaughter the heathen? Does it endeavor to place the lay power under its own dictatorship? Would it enter the head of an orthodox pastor to claim infallibility? In what orthodox country does the clergy preach, that ‘there is no salvation outside orthodoxy’? And lastly where is the head of an Orthodox Church, free from the influence of some Mahometan country, who would enter into a hearty friendship with a Caliph, at whose will were slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Christians?

“However close in the fundamental dogmas, the Catholic and the Orthodox Church are so wide apart in spirit, principles and their attitude towards nationality, that they have nothing in common. The Orthodox Church allows no religious violence, no paying orthodoxy with money, no estrangement and animosity against other Christian creeds. And if in any country at any time, orthodoxy does deviate from these rules, it will violate the foundation of orthodoxy, it will be false to its commandments, it will distort its spirit and shake its principles.

In weight of all this, the offer, made by the Pope in the encyclical to the Greek nation must be considered devoid of any sense. It would be equally impossible for the Greek Government to institute in Athens a Catholic seminary for the training of missionaries of Greek origin. Amongst the 2,500,000 of Orthodox population in Greece, 30,000 only are Catholics, and even these are Levantines from Santorin, Syra and Naxos. They enjoy complete toleration, and have their schools for boys and for girls. But the Catholic bishops and pastors in Greece are almost without exception Italians, not naturalised in Greece. And if, in the present encyclical, the Pope expresses the wish, that the Catholic clergy in Greece should consist of people, who would be Greek by birth, this in no way flatters our vanity, the less so Greeks could be turned astray by Greeks easier, than by Italians.”