Dall'Oronte al Tevere. Scritti in onore del cardinale Ignace Moussa I Daoud per il cinquantesimo di sacerdozio (review)

The work is a Festschrift, a collection of articles published on the fiftieth anniversary of the priestly ordination of His Beatitude, Ignace Moussa I Daoud, Patriarch Emeritus Antioch for the Syrian Catholic Church and Prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches since 2000. There are three sections in the work: the first section treats the life and ministry of the cardinal prefect; the second section comprises articles treating the activity of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches; and the third section is a collection of studies on miscellaneous orientalia.

The first article, written by Théophile Georges Kassab (Daoud's successor as Archeparch of Homs), is a brief biography of Moussa Daoud until his appointment as prefect. Moussa Daoud was born near Homs, Syria, in 1930 and was ordained a priest in 1954. In 1977, he was elected as bishop of Cairo and was appointed as archbishop of Homs in 1994. Elected as head of the Syrian Catholic Church in 1998, his tenure as patriarch was brief because in November 2000, Pope John Paul II appointed Daoud as prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches. Maurizio Malvestiti, in his chronicle, offers insights into the role of the prefect. Activities include traveling with the Pope on apostolic visits as well as "follow-up visits" to those countries with Eastern Catholic hierarchies, meetings with Eastern Catholic hierarchs on their ad limina visits and newly-elected patriarchs, oversight of institutes for the formation of priests and religious women and men and the Pontifical Oriental Institute, and participation in the canonization of saints.

The second section encompasses topics relating to the Congregation. It opens with a detailed study by Michel Berger of Byzantine iconography, especially the iconostasis of Pimen Sofronov and the murals and the iconostasis executed by Jérôme Leussink in the Byzantine Chapel of the Congregation. A memoir of Lucian Lamza details the events that occurred during his long tenure at the dicastery. Francesco Brugnaro describes the challenges facing the Congregation in the formation of church leaders subsequent to the collapse of communist regimes and throughout the decades of turmoil in the Middle East. Krzysztof Nitkiewicz provides a sympathetic biography of Wladyslaw Cardinal Rubin, who served as prefect from 1980 to 1985. From its inception in 1917 until 1967 the pope himself presided over the Sacred Congregation for the Eastern Church (as it was then called). The superiors of the Congregation held the titles of cardinal secretary, assessor, and substitute (counterparts to today's titles of prefect, secretary, and under-secretary). Gianpaolo Rigotti provides brief biographies of four Eastern prelates who held the positions of secretary or under secretary. Dimitri Salachas presents an expansive canonical study of the role of the Congregation in ecumenical and missionary matters.

In the third section of the book, François Akl studies the historical relationship between the Maronite patriarch and the various civil authorities who exercised hegemony over the region throughout the century. Jihad Battah provides a brief description on the College of Saint Ephrem for Arabic-speaking priests studying in Rome, and Gisele Harb provides a brief history of the Latin rite Congregation of the Rosary. Bernard O'Connor analyzes the concept of unity as articulated in the 1995 apostolic letter Orientale lumen and its resonance in papal allocutions to the diplomatic community from 1990 to 1999. As a canonist, I cannot overlook the imprecise use of the term "rite" in the author's concluding remarks. The erudite and insightful article of Luigi Padovese on the tenure of Angelo Roncalli as nuncio in Turkey and administrator of the Vicariate of Istanbul is timely in light of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to this country. Over the years, the Congregation has performed an invaluable service by publishing Eastern liturgical texts. Olivier...