Epilogue: After Sixty Years—An Eastern Catholic “Pope Leo Moment”

When Dr. Ana-Victoria Sima and I began this project, our question was simple: how should we mark sixty years since the promulgation of Vatican II’s Orientalium Ecclesiarum (21 November 1964), a pivotal moment for the Catholic East? We were grateful for the enthusiasm with which colleagues received the call to contribute to the Special Issue and for the strong submissions representing major Eastern Catholic Churches, including the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the Romanian Greek Catholic Church, and other churches. The result is a volume of high-quality research on the Eastern Catholic tradition. But an epilogue must also look ahead: what is happening now, and what comes next for the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches?

1. Guarding Eastern Identity in the Diaspora

On 22 November 2024, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, issued a practical guide on indults of biritualism amid concerns that Western countries with clergy shortages are becoming over-reliant on Eastern Catholic priests. That is not only policy, it is ecclesiology—unity with Rome while preserving diversity in practice. The near future will likely see particular canon law and seminary formation adapted to safeguard Eastern identity ensuring that pastoral generosity does not become quiet Latinization.

2. Liturgy After the Syro-Malabar Crisis

When we conceived this Special Issue, the Syro-Malabar liturgical controversy was still unfolding. In July 2025, the Holy See concluded the mandate of the Pontifical Delegate, Archbishop Cyril Vasil’, S.J., for the Archeparchy of Ernakulam–Angamaly, and local norms now balance ad orientem and versus populum practices. The next chapter will be catechesis and pastoral implementation: forming clergy and faithful in the “why” behind the “how,” so that unity in worship is received as communion, not as mere compliance.

3. Primacy, Synodality, and Ecumenism

Two recent reference points are reshaping Catholic–Orthodox theology and ecumenism:

• The Alexandria Document (June 2023) of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church on Synodality and Primacy in the Second Millennium and Today.
• The Vatican study “The Bishop of Rome: Primacy and Synodality in Ecumenical Dialogues and the Responses to Ut unum sint” (June 2024), which gathers convergences toward a primacy at the service of communion.

Together, these documents sketch what a Roman primacy receivable by the East might look like, which is crucial for Eastern Catholic ecclesiology and for dialogues where Eastern Catholics are often key interlocutors. The Coptic Orthodox suspension of official theological dialogue with Rome in 2024 (amid tensions over Fiducia supplicans) shows how fragile progress can be. The road ahead requires careful clarifications and patient bridge-mending, with Eastern Catholics frequently mediating at the local level.

4. Research Infrastructure, Rebuilt

Rome has been reorganizing study centres: the Pontifical Oriental Institute (Orientale) is now structurally integrated with the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical Biblical Institute, tightening collaboration in Eastern studies, canon law, and scriptural research. One can expect joint programmes, easier archival access, and a new wave of critical editions, liturgical history, and musicology grounded in sources newly available to scholars.

5. The Near Future (3–5 Years)

These priorities include: From permissions to particular law—concrete eparchial statutes to implement the 2024 biritualism guidance and protect Eastern praxis in mixed-rite settings; Eucharistic and liturgical ressourcement—deepening catechesis on the mysteries rather than managing rubrics alone; synodality as ordinary governance—regular consultation, accountability, and co-responsibility woven into eparchial life; conflict-aware moral theology—just peace, displacement, trauma, and minority jurisprudence as core subfields for Eastern Churches under pressure; diaspora identity and mission—formation that sustains language, chant, and domestic church practices while evangelizing in plural societies.

6. A “Pope Leo Moment” for the Eastern Catholic Churches

The modern defence of Eastern rites begins with Leo XIII’s Orientalium Dignitas (1894), which explicitly protected Eastern traditions and forbade proselytism into the Latin Rite. John Paul II’s Orientale Lumen (1995) carried that vision into a new century: “the light from the East” is not ornamental but essential. Today we stand at what may be a new “Pope Leo Moment,” a retrieval and fresh application of those principles—not uniformity, but unity-in-diversity.

This volume aims to contribute to that Pope Leo moment. Across its chapters one will find restoration and ressourcement; theological identity and ecumenical mission; diaspora and belonging; synodality in theory and practice; liturgy and mystagogy; resilience under pressure; renewed ecclesiological models; and pastoral reforms that address post-conciliar sensitivities without surrendering Eastern distinctiveness.

In sum, if Vatican II gave the Eastern Catholic Churches the juridical and theological space to breathe, the present asks them to sing, to let their liturgies, canons, and spiritualities sound clearly in parish life, in academia, and in ecumenical dialogue. The measure of success will not be the borrowing of Latin solutions, but the credibility of Eastern holiness—Eucharistic, ascetical, communal, and missionary.

From council text to parish praxis, from Rome to the peripheries, the “Pope Leo Moment” will belong to those churches that protect their tradition while generously offering their services. We hope that the research explored here helps the Eastern Catholic Churches do both, keeping the ancient faith with a new courage for the tasks at hand.