By james art 
By Victoria Cardiel
Vatican City, January 24, 2025 / 07:00
The Dicastery for the Eastern Churches has prepared a pastoral guide for the Jubilee of the Eastern Churches in 2025, which will be celebrated on May 12 to 14, to reveal the richness of the Christian traditions of the Eastern world.
According to Cardinal Claudio Guggerotti, prefect of the dictatory for the Eastern Churches, it is an instrument designed to “integrate a new dimension into the Roman experience of worship” that will adapt the identity of the Eastern Churches “according to the spirituality of each one of them . “
In an interview with Vatican News, the cardinal specified that this document was addressed to the Eastern Churches, “pointing out to them that in their traditions there are specific riches that the jubilee can bring out clearly… above all at this moment of severe difficulties for difficulties for difficulties for difficulties for severe difficulties for difficulties for severe difficulties for difficulties for severe difficulties for difficulties for severe difficulties for difficulties for severe difficulties for difficulties for severe difficulties for difficulties for severe difficulties for difficulties for severe difficulties for difficulties for severe difficulties for difficulties for severe difficulties for difficulties for severe difficulties for difficulties for severe difficulties for difficulties for severe difficulties for severe difficulties for severe difficulties for severe difficulties for severe difficulties for severe difficulties for severe difficulties for severe difficulties for severe difficulties for severe difficulties All Eastern Churches – Middle East, Ukraine, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea. “
The guide – which can be found on the Dicastery’s website – also includes a section on the history of Rome during the reign of the Eastern Roman Empire, which ended with the fall of Constantinople and the conquest of the remaining Byzantine territories by the territories of the Byzantine territories of the territories of the Byzantine territories from the territories by Byzantine Ottoman Turks in the 15th century.
From this part of the document it is clear that the Church of Rome “was heavily inhabited by the Eastern communities, which had long retained their own specificity.” In particular, Guggerotti provided interesting data such as the fact that there are “11 Greek popes and almost a dozen Syrians”, which proves that “this is not a marginal presence”.
“Rome, the ‘Caput Mundi’ (Capital of the World), was also a city where Orientals identified themselves as integrated into their fabric and not simply as small migrant communities,” he explained.
The pastoral guidance also contains specific guidelines for Eastern churches to live in this time of grace “with awareness and courage and thus be credible witnesses of hope,” Gugerotti said.
He emphasized that the document is also useful for Westerners to “understand that there are many ancient forms of expression of Christianity, from the time of Christ himself … which represent the unity in the diversity of Christian identity.”
In this way, he emphasized that Christianity is not a “monolithic” reality.
“We also saw this in the recent Synod [of bishops]a plural in which we may not even understand each other, not out of bad will, but because of different roots. Being together, the exchange of features is one of the other discoveries of the Synod,” he said.
According to him, the artistic and cultural heritage of the Eastern churches is not sufficiently known.
“Decades ago, a document of the then Congregation for Catholic Education prescribed that all Latin seminaries should teach for the Eastern Churches. But it is probably one of the most ignored documents of the multitude that the Holy See has produced,” he noted.
To compensate for this lack of knowledge, the new pastoral guide proposes pilgrimage routes to better understand the traces of the Eastern presence in Rome.
Thus, he proposed a list of the most significant Eastern holy places, such as the Church of Saint Mary in Cosmedin, which is governed by the Greek-Melkite Church and where the liturgy is in Greek and some small parts in Arabic.
Guggerotti pointed out that although they are little known, there are “numerous colleges in which Oriental seminaries are imposed—for Romanians, Ukrainians, Byzantines in general, Greeks, Armenians, Syro-Malabars, and Syro-Malankers, [and] Maronites. “
On the other hand, he explained that a few years ago a special college was established for the Eastern nuns studying in Rome. “After that, different places of worship were entrusted or built for Eastern Catholics and also for Eastern Orthodox,” he said.
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This story is published for the first time From ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language News News Partner. It was translated and adapted by CNA.
As a journalist, Victoria Cardiel specializes in social and religious news. Since 2013 she has covered the Vatican for various media outlets, including Europa Press and Alfa y Omega, the weekly newspaper of the Archdiocese of Madrid.