The Light of the East

An apostolic letter to the bishops, clergy and faithful dated 2 May 1995, the memorial of Saint Athanasius, marking the centenary of Leo XIII's apostolic letter Orientalium Dignitas (1894), which sought to safeguard the significance of the Eastern traditions for the whole Church. It is written so that Western Catholics may know and love the Christian East. The first part, 'Knowing the Christian East: an experience of faith', describes the riches of the Eastern tradition: the Gospel, the Fathers, liturgy as heaven on earth, divinization, the Trinity, the place of monasticism, the Word and silence, and the experience of the icon. The second part, 'From knowledge to encounter', turns to the relations between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches since the Second Vatican Council and to the Eastern Catholic Churches, and asks how the two traditions might meet more fully. It was published three weeks before the encyclical on ecumenism, Ut Unum Sint.