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Il patriarcato d'Occidente nei dibattiti del Vaticano II

Summary — At the conclusion of the previous research, which appeared already in this review, dealing with the Western Patriarchate, the author examines the debates of Vatican II. In such debates the question arose especially in the context of revaluating the patriarch of the Eastern Church and the connection of the bishop of Rome with the episcopal College. In the promulgated texts, however, the question does not occur at all: notwithstanding the recognition that the patriarchal institution is a response to the design of divine Providence, the Council underlines in various instances that at present it is binding only in the Eastern Churches. On the contrary, from the analogy established between the patriarchates and the episcopal Con­ferences it seems lawful to deduce that to the patriarchal structure, characte­ristic of the East, corresponds the structure of the episcopal Conferences of the West and not a similar Western patriarchate.