The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (2)

The Restoration of the Latin Patriarchate

Jerusalem was the first “Episcopal” See in the history of the Christian world, with St. James the Lesser, and after his martyrdom, with his successors. But other episcopal sees that had preeminence in the ancient world (Antioch, Alexandria of Egypt, Rome) and Jerusalem became the see of the Patriarchate only in 451, together with Constantinople.

Since then, there were many successive Patriarchs in Jerusalem, until the end of the Crusades era (1099-1291), when the Crusaders elected a Patriarch of the Latin Rite.

The jurisdiction of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem extended throughout this period to the territory of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Patriarch directly controlled the Christian quarter of Jerusalem and had three suffragan bishops: Hebron, Lydda-Ramla, and Bethlehem-Ascalon. The Patriarchate then had four other Archdioceses: Tyre, Caesarea, Nazareth, and Petra. The Latin Patriarchs succeeded one another in Jerusalem from 1099 to 1187, then in Acre.

After the fall of St. John of Acre (1291) there was no longer any Patriarch in Jerusalem, and the title was attributed to some prelate of the Papal Court of Rome (called in partibus infidelium = “in the lands of unbelievers, an expression used also in the abbreviated form in partibus) to indicate the bishops, today called titular bishops, whose dioceses, purely honorific, are found in countries occupied by the Turks.

This ancient dream of restoration will be brought forward by the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide). Since its inception, in the 17th century, Propaganda Fide devoted a lot of energy to the Middle East, but its efforts were blocked, particularly by the French Revolution (1789) and its consequences in Italy.

It was only at the beginning of the 1800s that Propaganda Fide tried to apply new missionary methods, with the introduction of other Religious Orders, with the formation of indigenous clergy, the creation of schools, etc. All this became possible due to the facilitations granted directly to Christians, first by the Egyptian Authority and then by the Ottomans.

Propaganda Fide began to seriously consider the restoration of the Latin Patriarchate when it saw the success of the missionary word of the Russian Orthodox and the Protestants in the Holy Land. The opposition of the Franciscans and France and the weakness of the pontificate of Pope Gregory XVI, however, rendered this question only a subject for discussion.

It was [with] the election of Pius IX in 1847 that the project took shape. A harmony of favorable events gave the young pope the possibility of realizing the project. The Sublime Gate (a name of the executive organ of the Ottoman Governate) sent its Ambassador Chebib Effendi, in February of 1847, who proposed to the Holy See a direct agreement for the protection of Christians, to overcome the repeated interference of Western nations in the Ottoman Empire.

The project was favorably welcomed by Pope Pius IX, who had already in mind an ambition program for the Christians and Oriental Churches, and who also wanted to affirm the autonomy of the Holy See vis-à-vis the European Powers.

The times were ripe at the international level, the numerous local constraints were overcome, so the word of Propaganda Fide resumed with the drafting of the practical questions, connected with the restoration of the Latin Patriarchate and put in writing by the English Cardinal Charles Acton.

The latter listed the different reasons for the establishment of a Latin diocese in Jerusalem and the issues inherent in this restoration (the title of the new bishop, borders of the diocese, resources, etc.). Propaganda Fide defined these aspects and the Pope announced to the world with the apostolic letter Nulla celebrior of July 23, 1847, the successful restoration of the Patriarchate and, on October 4, 1847, the name of the new Patriarch.