Pope Leo XIV says Eastern synods can remove patriarchs for serious reasons

Pope Leo XIV on Aug. 29 said bishops of the Eastern Catholic Churches can remove their patriarchs when assembled in synod, though the Holy Father said the pope must still give his assent to the proposal.

The pope made the declaration in an apostolic letter issued motu proprio titled Mutua Concordia. The letter modified canons 106 and 126 of the Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium.

The pope in the letter said the “mutual concord” between the head of an Eastern Church and the church’s bishops “is the soul of communion of the Eastern ecclesiastical hierarchy.”

If the “sacred bond” between the two “were to be irreparably compromised, this would constitute a grave wound requiring a remedy,” the pope said. In such situations, the bishops in question “must be able to exercise canonical authority” to remedy the crisis.

Synods will thus have the power to “[remove] their own Patriarch from office for a grave cause,” the pope said. Such a procedure would still guarantee the patriarch in question “a full defense before the synod,” the pope noted.

The pope, however, will retain “the sole concession of consent to the synodal decision,” Leo wrote. That provision will ensure “that…