Posted on 11/20/2022 9:09:46 AM PST by ebb tide
Both the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches have spoken about resolve to find a shared date for Easter, and it seems that this goal might be closer than ever.
This November 19, Pope Francis received in audience His Holiness Mar Awa III, Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, which has its See in Iraq.
The Pope thanked the Catholicos-Patriarch for assuring his desire to find a common date for Easter.
For Catholics, Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox. While there are various factors that cause the divergence of dates with the Orthodox – including the use of the Gregorian vs Julian calendar – one aspect is that the Orthodox Churches abide by a previous requirement that said the Pascha must take place after the Jewish Passover in order to maintain the Biblical sequence of Christ’s Passion.
Learn more about the divergent dates here.
The Pope is among a host of religious leaders working to get this issue solved, along with Patriarch Bartholomew of the Greek Orthodox Church and Tawadros II of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
“On this point, I want to say – indeed, to repeat – what Saint Paul VI said in his day: We are ready to accept any proposal that is made together.”
This is stated by Paul VI in an appendix to the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, promulgated in 1963, Sacrosanctrum Concilium.
Pope Francis added that “2025 is an important year: We will celebrate the anniversary of the first Ecumenical Council (of Nicea), yet it is also important because we will celebrate Easter on the same date.”
For Catholics, it will also be an ordinary jubilee year. Easter that year, for both Catholics and Orthodox, is April 20, the third Sunday of April.
With such a convergence, the Pope proposed:
So let us have the courage to put an end to this division that at times makes us laugh: “When does your Christ rise again?” The sign we should give is: One Christ for all of us. Let us be courageous and search together: I’m willing, yet not me, the Catholic Church is willing to follow what Saint Paul VI said. Agree and we will go where you say. I dare even to express a dream: That the separation with the beloved Assyrian Church of the East, the longest in the history of the Church, can also be, please God, the first to be resolved.
Ping
This is absurd.
The orthodox have a canon that says they can never, ever, change the date of Pascha.
So if you want us to pick a date, it is the one we have always used.
The same one that you used for most of your history.
No change is possible for us.
Forgive us if we wonder attempting to get us to change is a trick
Do they want to guarantee it’s after Passover? If so, go with the Orthodox. If not, stay with the Western.
Why does it matter that the Orthodox and Catholic churches celebrate the same day as Easter?
Bergolio ignores all prior councils so what does the Council of Nicaea mean to him?
He is wrecking the church by 1. his silence in the face of manifest heresy from the German and Belgium bishops, and 2. his diminishment of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
I have read that another goal is to diminish the role of the celebrant.
“Next step: Handing over St. Peter’s Basilica to the muslims.”
This goes back closer to the original calculation before the Catholics put in the artificial constraint that Easter must fall on a Sunday.
It helps Cadbury decide on how many chocolate cream eggs to make, and when.
I’m Catholic but the Orthodox actionable makes more scenes to me than the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, which sounds a lot like a compromise with some ancient pagan or druid ceremony.
Orthodox rationale makes more sense to me…
artificial stupidity got me.
“So if you want us to pick a date, it is the one we have always used.”
Originally, it was not celebrated on a Sunday. The RC church set the date to fall on a Sunday thus diverging from the original tradition.
“I’m Catholic but the Orthodox actionable makes more scenes to me than the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, which sounds a lot like a compromise with some ancient pagan or druid ceremony.”
The RC church just made it up because they wanted Easter to fall on a Sunday.
And if “Catholic” Easter changes to match Orthodox, I suppose that leaves all the Protestants behind?
This keeps Easter in the spring where it belongs and not, say, on the Fourth of July.
The first Easter was on a Sunday.
Are you not aware that Passover itself is tied to a full moon? So if the Orthodox method derives from the Passover date, how is that “less pagan”?
It’s no big deal to me that Orthodox Easter and Catholic/protestant Easter are on two different dates (usually). Who cares?
OR maybe somebody read the Bible and saw in Exodus where the Lord commanded it as a day to be commemorated. It was also a sign of the coming sacrificial Lamb Who taketh away the sins of the believers. I know reading the Bible sounds old fashioned but I'm that way.
Just when was the first Easter? It’s not recorded in the Bible. Were there Easter egg hunts at the first one?
“The first Easter was on a Sunday.”
Only in the Western world. Originally, Christians observed the day of the Crucifixion on the same day that Jews celebrated the Passover offering—that is, on the 14th day of the first full moon of spring, 14 Nisan (see Jewish calendar). The Resurrection, then, was observed two days later, on 16 Nisan, regardless of the day of the week.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Easter-holiday
I think this is good news, and I agree with you that the Catholics need to have Easter on the true date.
Orthodox Easter, THE TRUE EASTER, is celebrated on the Sunday after the first full moon AFTER Passover (between April 4th and May 8th.)
In other words, HOW CAN YOU HAVE EASTER BEFORE PASSOVER!!!!?
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