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Before the Council of Nicaea,
the bishops of Rome, Alexandria and Antioch had been exercising
patriarchal authority over a large territory, and this right
was confirmed in the Council of Nicaea in 325. Later in 451,
the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon extended the title of
Patriarch to the titulars of
the five great sees of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch
and Jerusalem. In addition to being the
Patriarch of the West, the
Bishop of Rome also exercises
jurisdiction over the whole Church.
During the Crusades, residential Latin
Patriarchates were set up at
Constantinople,
Antioch and
Jerusalem,
but that of
Alexandria was always a mere title. After the period of
the Crusades, these Latin Patriarchs
generally resided in Rome and were titular only. Pope Pius IX,
by the Bull
Nulla Celebrior, reconstituted the
Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem in 1847 and henceforth Jerusalem has a residential
Latin-rite Patriarch.
The heads of some dissident Churches separated from Rome
during the first millennium and took also the title of
Patriarch. When some of these
returned to Catholic unity, the Holy See preserved their title
and privileges, as well as jurisdiction over the faithful of
their rite. In this way there exist today a Patriarchate of
Alexandria
for the Copts and three of Antioch (for the
Melkites, the
Syrians and the
Maronites).
In a similar way, the Armenians retained the patriarchal title
of Cilicia
and the Chaldees with the title of Babylon, but
they would more properly be designated as
Catholicos (i.e. delegated
ad universalitatem causarum).
In the Latin Church, the title of
Patriarch is given to the archbishops
of some prominent sees, but only carries with it only a prerogative
of honour but not of jurisdiction. This includes the Bishop
of Aquileia, later of Grado (607), and transferred to Venice by Pope
Nicholas V (1451); the Bishop of Bourges, France (1232), but
only for a short period of time; the grand chaplain of the Spanish
king as the Patriarch of the
West Indies
(under Leo X); the Patriarch
of Lisbon (1716);
and the Archbishop of Goa with the title of the
Patriarch of the
East Indies
(1886).
The Pope traditionally holds the title of the Patriarch
of the West. However,
Pope Benedict XVI made
the decision to drop the title, wishing to eliminate the
notion that the Holy See represents the Church of "the
West", and is therefore separate from the Eastern tradition.
The Holy Father wishes to emphasize the service that the
Bishop of Rome performs for the entire Christian community,
as the focus of unity in the universal Church.
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Antonios Naguib
