Looking Eastward: The Ancient Wells of Christianity

Pope Leo XIV is preparing for his first Apostolic Journey outside Italy—to Türkiye and Lebanon, lands that remain bastions of Eastern Christianity. His visit marks the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed and includes a pilgrimage to the tomb of the beloved St. Charbel Makhlouf. Yet beyond commemoration, this journey offers an invitation: to rediscover and appreciate the Church’s Eastern tradition.

Like many Catholics, growing up in a Roman Catholic family, I assumed that “Catholic” meant “Roman”— with a universal, uniform liturgy, a single rite, and a hierarchy centered in Rome. Even in university, where we studied the breadth of Christian traditions across two millennia, I never realized that several of these ancient traditions continue today as living and fully Catholic Churches.

It was not until I moved to the Middle East that I encountered, in the flesh, these Eastern Catholic Churches. I met their faithful, became friends with them, and experienced their liturgies—mystical, contemplative, profoundly symbolic. They emphasize transcendence: icons, chant, incense, veiled sanctuaries, and a strong sense that earthly worship mirrors the eternal liturgy of heaven. Their clergy vestments are so resplendent that even the most ornate papal garments seem restrained by comparison.

Only then did I come to fully appreciate that the Catholic Church is, in fact, a communion of 24 Churches—one Latin (Roman), comprising around 98% of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics, and 23 Eastern or Oriental Churches, each sui iuris (“of their own law”). All are fully Catholic and in communion with the Pope, but each guards its own liturgical, devotional, and canonical patrimony. Each is shepherded by its own patriarch or major archbishop. Liturgy is not merely ceremonial for these Churches; it is the heart of their identity.

All these 24 Churches bear traditions and practices that are at least a millennium old and are heirs to the original Christian expression of their homelands. Many trace their origins directly to the apostles or to apostolic times. While “Eastern” often evokes the Byzantine tradition of Constantinople, the term also encompasses communities stretching from Egypt to Syria, from Iraq to Ethiopia, and from the Malabar Coast of India to Armenia and Georgia.

Historian Peter Brown captured this reality powerfully when he wrote: “In the past thirty years a scholarly revolution has altered our notion of the first thousand years of Christianity… Scholars have turned to Africa and Asia to discover ancient variants of Christianity whose vast, largely forgotten presence once dwarfed the fragile beginnings of the Catholic Church in Europe. Ancient Christianity was like a great comet: its luminous trail swept across the globe, from the Horn of Africa to Tamil Nadu, and from Mesopotamia to the court of the emperor of China.”

Sadly, because Roman Catholics are so numerous today, many of us miss the opportunity to learn from our fellow Catholics of the Eastern rites. Too often these Churches go unnoticed or unappreciated within our own parishes and communities. Unsurprisingly, some Eastern Catholics desire to maintain distance, guarding their distinctive traditions against being overshadowed by the dominant Latin culture.

But as one patriarch observed in the documentary Listening to the East, we often forget that Christianity is, at its origin, an Eastern religion. Jesus was born, lived, preached, healed, suffered, died, and rose in the East. As Christianity spread throughout the world, its Eastern roots became easy to overlook—even though they remain deeply embedded in the Catholic Church’s life.

Why, then, is it important for us today to embrace these Eastern Christian roots? Beyond the historical fact that Christ Himself came from the East, doing so fosters unity in diversity within the Church. This is especially necessary today, when some groups assert the superiority of one liturgical expression over another. For example, Traditionalists may claim that the Tridentine Mass surpasses the Novus Ordo; others make the opposite claim. But when we contemplate the immense richness of the Catholic Church’s many rites—Byzantine, Maronite, Syro-Malabar, Coptic, Chaldean, Armenian, and more—it becomes clear that no single form is superior. Each manifests the same mystery of Christ.

The Nicene Creed, whose 1700th anniversary Pope Leo will celebrate together with the leaders of the Orthodox and Oriental Catholic Churches, stands as the most visible sign of our shared inheritance. Born in a moment of profound crisis and crafted by bishops from every corner of the ancient Christian world, the Creed remains the enduring confession that binds us together. It reminds us that despite our differences in prayer, spirituality, theological accents, and apostolates, we profess one and the same faith.

In a Church marked by legitimate diversity, the Nicene faith is the unbroken thread that weaves East and West into a single tapestry—an anchor of unity amid our varied traditions, and a summons to rediscover one another not as distant branches, but as brothers and sisters drinking from the same ancient well.

Let us accompany the Holy Father in his upcoming Apostolic Journey at the end of this month, praying for deeper communion among all Christians, in fulfillment of Christ’s own prayer that we “may all be one.” (cf. John 17:21)