He card. Sako enters the debate on the renewal of the Eastern Churches, some of which want to remain "stubbornly tied" to the dictates of the past. We need to change, maintaining "originality and authenticity" and renewing the "missionary" challenge. Persecutions have generated "ethnic and closed" communities. Look at “current” needs and problems.

Baghdad (AsiaNews) – The Church must "give answers" to the questions and challenges posed by modernity, from the passage of time and preparing for those "that will arise in the future". For this reason "we must not be afraid" of modifying rites and traditions, without losing its nature which "has been missionary since its formation". This is what the Chaldean patriarch writes, he card Louis Raphael Sako, in a pastoral letter - sent to AsiaNews for information - focused "on the originality and authenticity" of the "renewal" that is affecting the Chaldean Church.

In the letter the cardinal urges us not to fear "modernity" and to those who criticize for an evolution of the rites, of customs, of traditions asks if “you still wear the uniform that, a time, was popular in the villages of origin”. Customs and traditions are not the same as "the ancestors" and this change is physiological because it is an adaptation "to the new society". From here, Card Sako continues in his reflection, the need to “prepare the texts of our liturgy in Arabic, Kurdish, English, French, tedesco”, that is, the languages ​​of the diaspora countries where new Chaldean communities have arisen in recent decades. A favored exodus, in the new millennium, from the US invasion in Iraq first and from the rise of the Islamic State which caused a real hemorrhage of faithful.

The intervention is part of a context of controversy and divisions on the reform of the liturgy which involves many of the Eastern Churches, some of which intend to remain stubbornly tied to the dictates of tradition. In response, the cardinal mentions the Malabar Church in India, who translated the various rites from the original “Chaldean-Syriac” language, like ours" to the Malayam language and promoted "a reform" so that the rites "are understandable to their believers". “We are a Church, not a museum called to preserve a certain heritage" warns Card Sako, who also denounces the loss of the "missionary dimension and the sense of evangelization" of the Eastern Catholic communities. This happened “due to the geopolitical situation, of pressure and persecution", which gave rise to “ethnic and closed churches: Chaldea, Assyrian, Armenian, Syriac, Coptic and Maronite, each according to geographical and linguistic affiliation". For the Chaldean primate "if we only maintain the old tradition" we end up "losing our people", as shown by some "traditional" churches that have remained "almost deserted of young people and without the participation of the faithful in prayers". The reform of the rites "is the result of academic studies and in-depth pastoral discussions" which aimed to maintain "the originality and spirituality: we must distinguish between essence and accident, between the divine which remains steadfast and the human which is variable”.

Today the Eastern Churches, the document concludes, they are present "in many countries that have different languages ​​and cultures", in the context of a world that is increasingly a "digital village". “Problems have emerged that were once not present in the classical and traditional religious vocabulary – concludes the cardinal – therefore an evaluation of the ecclesiastical heritage is essential to update it and address current needs and problems”.

http://www.asianews.it/notizie-it/Patriarca-caldeo:-reform-rites-and-traditions,-to-respond-to-the-challenges-of-modernity-46191.html