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Francis John MARINI, The Power of the Patriarch: Patriarchal Jurisdiction on the Verge of the Third Millenium, Maronite Rite Series, vol. VI, Staten Island, NY, Saint Maron Publications, 1998, xxii, 413 p. -- ISBN 1-885589-09-3 -- 35.00 US$ -- (Order from Saint Maron Publications, 4611 Sadler Road, Glen Allen, VA 23060, U.S. A.).
The patriarchal institution is one of the most ancient traditions of the Church, recognized by the first ecumenical councils. The patriarchs, "fathers and heads" of their ecclesial communities, played an important role in the first millennium of Christianity. By the time of Emperor Justinian I (527-565), the title of patriarch came to be reserved specifically to the bishops of the five principal sees in the Christian world: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. Today, the Roman, Coptic, Maronite, Melkite, Syrian, Chaldean and Armenian Catholic Churches enjoy patriarchal dignity while the Ukrainian and Syro-Malabar Churches are quasi-patriarchal churches.
The Second Vatican Council sought to restore the patriarchal institution, the ordinary form of ecclesiastical governance in the East, which had diminished in power and stature throughout the second millennium, most notably after the reunification of the Eastern Churches with the Apostolic See of Rome: "Therefore this holy council enacts that their rights and privileges be restored in accordance with the tradition of each church and the decrees of the...