DEATH OF ARCHMANDRITE - FATHER - ROBERT TAFT SJ EXPERT ON EASTERN FAITH

Robert Francis Taft, S.J. (January 9, 1932 – November 2, 2018) was an American Jesuit priest and Archimandrite of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, one of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See of Rome.

An expert in Oriental liturgy, he was a professor at the Pontifical Oriental Institute from 1975 to 2011 and its Vice-rector from 1995 to 2001.

Taft was born in Providence, Rhode Island, into the Taft family notable for their contribution to American politics. Taft entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus on August 14, 1949.^[1] 

He did his initial spiritual and academic training in philosophy at the former Weston College in Weston, Massachusetts. During his period of regency that followed, he taught for three years at Baghdad Jesuit College. He returned to the United States in 1959 and pursued a graduate degree in Russian at Fordham University. He was ordained a priest of the Byzantine Rite on June 7, 1963.

Developing an interest in Eastern liturgical traditions and, with his background in Russian, Taft undertook studies at the Pontifical Oriental Institute of Rome in 1970. He completed his doctoral thesis under Jesuit Professor Juan Mateos on the Great Entrance of the Divine Liturgy in 1975. The work was published as The Great Entrance and immediately hailed as a classic in the field.

A professor at the Oriental Institute of Rome from 1975 to 2011, Taft guided innumerable doctoral theses. His expertise gained him recognition from the many Eastern churches and rites, including the Ukrainian and Armenian Catholic Churches in Europe, the Chaldean Catholic Church in the Middle East and the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Catholic Churches in India. 

From 1972 to 1976, he was director of the specialized journal Orientalia Christian Periodica and from 1987 to 2004 was editor of the collection Orientalia Christiana Analecta. Consultor of several ecclesiastical dicasteries and the Vatican Congregation for the Oriental Churches, he was the founder of the Societas Orientalium Liturgiarum.

Taft was an outspoken observer. He called "the height of asininity" the argument that the use of Latin in the Tridentine Mass is an approach to mystery better than the use of the vernacular language in the modern Mass. He was a supporter of the synodal form of church administration, followed by the Eastern Orthodox Churches, for the entire Catholic Church. When the issue of possible full communion with the Assyrian Church of the East was being considered, a problem arose regarding their liturgy's lacking the exact formulation of the words of consecration considered essential by the Catholic Church. Working with Taft's analysis of the situation, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity issued a decree in 2001 which now allows members of both churches to receive communion from one another's clergy in case of emergency.

In 2011 Taft left Rome and the library desk at the Oriental Institute which he occupied for 46 years. He lived at Campion Hall, in Weston, the site of his college studies, now the retirement facility of the New England Jesuit Province. Taft died on November 1, 2018.

PAT SAYS:

In my ignorance of matters Eastern and Oriental, I'm afraid I had never heard of Francis Taft or indeed his impressive lifetime's work.

He achieved a lot in life and the world is a better place because he lived.

He left behind a vast body of knowledge of the Eastern Catholic churches and their relations with the Roman Catholic Church.

I think his life and work is a timely reminder to us who care about these things that:

1. Catholic is a far greater term than Roman Catholic.

2. For the first 1,000 years of church history, the Catholic church consisted of the Church in the East and the Church in the West.

3. You can be a Catholic without having anything to do with the pope or The Vatican.

4. Some of the Eastern Churches are "in communion" with Rome - 23 I think?

I think that the Greek Orthodox and others are not?

I would be interested in hearing from some readers with more knowledge of this area.

It's an important part of the history of our Christian faith.

BIG QUESTION:

Have the Eastern and Orthodox had the same levels of corruption the RC has had?

What's their sexual abuse and coverup rates like?

I think that it is obvious for instance that Putin in Russia is using the Russian Orthodox Church?

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