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Pope Francis gave a quite odd message today. Here are statements from the Vatican’s English translation of some of what he said:

Pope: In Every Age, the Church Is Called to Be Leaven

June 26, 2019

In every age, the Church is called to be the leaven of a reconciled humanity and the foreshadowing of a world of authentic justice and peace. In this way, she is enabled to live an authentic liturgical life, experiencing the Risen Lord’s presence in prayer and in the Eucharist, in order then to bring that saving love to the world. Like the early Church … https://zenit.org/articles/general-audience-pope-in-every-age-the-church-is-called-to-be-leaven/

This is quite odd for at least three reasons.

The first is that the Apostle Paul wrote:

7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. (1 Corinthians 5:7, NKJV)

Christians are to purge out leaven and be unleavened. Now the above is a Protestant translation of scripture, so let’s look at two Catholic-translations:

7 Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new paste, as you are unleavened. For Christ our pasch is sacrificed. (1 Corinthians 5:7, DRB)

7 Throw out the old yeast so that you can be the fresh dough, unleavened as you are. For our Passover has been sacrificed, that is, Christ;(1 Corinthians 5:7, NJB)

So, it looks like a contradiction to what the Apostle Paul wrote to claim that the church should be leavened.

Of course, if the Church of Rome were to base its doctrines mainly on the Bible, it would have to change many of them (see Which Is Faithful: The Roman Catholic Church or the Continuing Church of God?).

But the pontiff’s statements today still are odd at first glance.

Secondly, Jesus warned:

1 … “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. (Luke 12:1-2)

Now the third odd thing about this is that Pope Francis mentioned the ‘Eucharist’ and early Christianity.

Early Christians used UNLEAVENED BREAD for Passover–they also keep the Days of Unleavened Bread. So,  in every age the true Church is NOT called to be leaven.

Furthermore, understand that the Church of Rome uses unleavened bread for its Eucharistic host. So, that is another reason the Pope’s comments seem quite odd.

On the other hand, the Eastern Orthodox use leavened bread–so perhaps Francis’ statements today are to help set up for doctrinal compromise with the Eastern Orthodox.

If so, that would explain the odd statements from Pope Francis. But even so, it is quite odd that Pope Francis made the statements today in contradiction to Catholic practice and Catholic translations of scripture.

Although the Greek (Eastern) Orthodox use leaven for their eucharistic ceremonies, early Christians did not.

The Catholic Encyclopedia notes:

“Now on the first day of the unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the pasch”; Luke 22:7, “And the day of the unleavened bread came, on which it was necessary that the pasch should be killed”. From these passages it seems to follow that Jesus and his disciples conformed to the ordinary custom, that the Last Supper took place on the 14th of Nisan … (Mershman, F. (1912). The Last Supper. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil Obstat. July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York)

In the Western Church it is the uniform practice to use unleavened bread. … The Anglican Liturgy of 1549 prescribes the use of unleavened bread. …

the first Christians … simply used the bread that served as food. It seems that the form differed but little from what it is in our day. …

The leavened hosts of the Greeks are of a large size, sometimes round, triangular, or in the form of a cross, but oftener square. On the under side they have a quadrangular imprint divided into four equal parts by a Greek cross and bearing the inscription IC XC NI KA (Iesous Christos nikai), i.e. “Jesus Christ is victor”. (Leclercq, H. (1910). Host. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil Obstat. June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York)

Certain it is that in the ninth century the use of unleavened bread had become universal and obligatory in the West, while the Greeks, desirous of emphasizing the distinction between the Jewish and the Christian Pasch, offered up leavened bread. (Loughlin, J. (1907). Azymites. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil Obstat. 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York)

Against the Greeks it suffices to call attention to the historical fact that in the Orient the Maronites and Armenians have used unleavened bread from time immemorial, and that according to Origen (Commentary on Matthew, XII.6) the people of the East “sometimes”, therefore not as a rule, made use of leavened bread in their Liturgy. …

The reasons of congruity advanced by the Greeks in behalf of leavened bread, which would have us consider it as a beautiful symbol of the hypostatic union, as well as an attractive representation of the savor of this heavenly Food, will be most willingly accepted, provided only that due consideration be given to the grounds of propriety set forth by the Latins with St. Thomas Aquinas (III:74:4) namely, the example of Christ, the aptitude of unleavened bread to be regarded as a symbol of the purity of His Sacred Body, free from all corruption of sin, and finally the instruction of St. Paul (1 Corinthians 5:8) to keep the Pasch not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth”. (Pohle, J. (1909). The Blessed Eucharist as a Sacrament. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil Obstat. May 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.)

Yes, Jesus and His disciples used unleavened bread.

Despite that, one criticism that a Greek Orthodox bishop wrote to Pope Francis was:

The fact that Papism is a heresy is revealed by the appalling false doctrines which you confess. These are: … the use of unleavened bread (Host); (+ Andrew of Dryinoupolis, Pogoniani and Konitsa, + Seraphim of Piraeus and Faliro. Letter to Francis. HOLY AUTOCEPHALOUS ORTHODOX CATHOLIC CHURCH OF GREECE. April 10, 2014. http://cdn.romfea.gr/images/stories/photos/2014/4/romfea1/spiti/Epistle%20to%20Pope%20Francis%20I.pdf viewed 04/20/2014)

The Catholic saint Thomas Aquinas wrote:

As we read in Exodus 12, the paschal solemnity began on the evening of the fourteenth day of the moon. So, then, after immolating the Paschal Lamb, Christ instituted this sacrament: hence this day is said by John to precede the day of the Pasch, while the other three Evangelists call it “the first day of the Azymes,” when fermented bread was not found in the houses of the Jews, as stated above. Fuller mention was made of this in the treatise on our Lord’s Passion (III:46:9 ad 1). …

Since whatever is fermented partakes of corruption, this sacrament may not be made from corrupt bread, … there is a wider difference between unleavened and leavened bread than between warm and cold baptismal water: because there might be such corruption of fermented bread that it could not be validly used for the sacrament. (Aquinas T. The Summa Theologiæ of St. Thomas Aquinas Second and Revised Edition, 1920. Question 74. The matter of this sacrament).

Thomas Aqunias is clearly saying that leavened bread is NOT acceptable for the eucharist (which is supposed to be the New Testament Passover).

Now notice the following from the Eastern Orthodox:

Question

Why does the Orthodox church use leavened bread and most Protestant fellowships use unleavened bread? …

Answer

Actually, leavened bread has always been used in the Eastern Church. In fact, at one point in time, a great controversy raged over the fact that in the Eastern Church leavened bread was used, while in the Christian West unleavened bread was the norm.

In the Christian East there is no concern for using the exact type of bread used at the Last Supper—known in the Orthodox Church as the “Mystical Supper.” Christ “leavens” our lives, so to speak, and the purpose of the Eucharistic celebration is not to “recreate” or “reproduce” a past event but, rather, to participate in an event that is beyond time and space and which, in fact, continues to happen each time the Eucharist is celebrated in fulfillment of Our Lord’s command. (Leavened Bread vs. Unleavened. Orthodox Church in America. https://oca.org/questions/divineliturgy/leavened-bread-vs.-unleavened accessed 05/16/19)

So, the Orthodox basically admit that Jesus did NOT use leavened bread, but that they decided to use leaven anyway.

The claim that they ALWAYS did is a stretch unless you do not count their existence until sometime in the third century.

Furthermore, the Eastern Orthodox consider Alexandria, as well as formerly Laodicea, as part of them. So notice that in the late third century, the Greco-Roman Anatolius of Alexandria, when he was their Bishop of Laodicea, wrote the following:

I am aware that very many other matters were discussed by them, some of them with considerable probability, and others of them as matters of the clearest demonstration, by which they endeavour to prove that the festival of the Passover and unleavened bread ought by all means to be kept after the equinox… (THE PASCHAL CANON OF ANATOLIUS OF ALEXANDRIA. Chapters V,X, p. 415, 419).

There would be no point in writing the above if some in the East were not keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread.

It also should be pointed out that the FAITHFUL “Eastern Church” never used leavened bread for Passover, it was only those that refused “to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) that changed.

That changed Greco-Roman church even felt the need to prohibit keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread in the fourth century, which helps prove that there were those in the East that were trying to keep them.

Anyway, there was an anti-Unleavened Bread declaration in Laodicea nearly a century after Anatolius’ death (c. 270-280). Canons 37 & 38 of the Council of Laodicea of the fourth century (c. 363-364) prohibited the observation of the unleavened bread and other festivals of the Jews:

Canon 37

It is not lawful to receive portions sent from the feasts of Jews or heretics, nor to feast together with them.

Canon 38

It is not lawful to receive unleavened bread from the Jews, nor to be partakers of their impiety.

(Synod of Laodicea. Translated by Henry Percival. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 14. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1900.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3806.htm>.)

And there was a similar condemnation in Canon 69/70 of the Syrian Apostolic Canons near this time. Notice:

Canon 37 {70} requires Christians not to accept gifts from the feasts of Jews and heretics, and denies Christians the right to feast with these persons: “It is not proper that Christians accept gifts which are sent by Jews or heretics, nor celebrate feasts with them.”98 Canon 38 declares that Christians are not to accept unleavened bread from the Jews nor take part in their festivals: “It is not proper for Christians to accept unleavened bread from the Jews, and take part in their impieties.” 99 These regulations taken together certainly leave a strong impression that even in the fourth century there were not only Judaic practices in the Asiatic church, but also there was actual religious fellowship with the Jewish inhabitants.

The Apostolic Canons, which are a Syrian compilation of the mid-fourth century, strengthen this impression. They deal in still further detail with religious fellowship between the clergy and the Jews in that very place where the violence of the monks was fiercest against the Jews, Alexandria. Canon 69 repeats the prohibition against feasting or fasting with the Jews: “If any” bishop or other cleric fasts with the Jews or celebrates festal days with them or accepts gifts from their festivals, such as unleavened bread or anything else similar, he shall be excluded from the Clergy; and if a layman does these things, he shall be segregated from the flock.” (Seaver JE.  Persecution of the Jews in the Roman Empire (300-438), Issue 30 of University of Kansas publications: Humanistic studies. University of Kansas Publications, 1952.  Original from the University of Virginia, Digitized Apr 29, 2009, pp. 34-35. http://vlib.iue.it/carrie/texts/carrie_books/seaver/text.html)

70. If any bishop, or any other of the clergy, fasts with the Jews, or keeps the festivals with them, or accepts of the presents from their festivals, as unleavened bread or some such thing, let him be deprived; but if he be one of the laity, let him be suspended. (Apostolic Constitutions (Book VIII), Section XLVII. Translated by James Donaldson. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/07158.htm>.)

Hence this practice of Christians keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread also must have been going on then in Asia Minor and elsewhere into the fourth century A.D.–otherwise, there would have been no point for them to be condemned by the Council of Laodicea. Others scholars share that opinion (Seaver, p. 34; Bagatti B, Priest. The Church from the Circumcision, pp. 87-88).

Instead of saying his church should be leaven, if Pope Francis wanted to promote the practices of early Christians, he would advocate that his church’s followers keep biblical holy days like the Days of Unleavened Bread.

Instead, it looks like he is setting more of the stage for some type of ecumenical unity with the Eastern Orthodox.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 26th, 2019 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Doctrine, Religious News.

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