Vatican City - The Vatican took the unusual step Wednesday of explaining its decision to renounce a title popes have used for nearly 1,500 years, saying the omission of "patriarch of the West" should benefit relations with the Orthodox Church, not hinder them.
In the 2006 edition of the Annuario Pontificio, the Vatican's 2,373-page directory of prelates, Vatican offices and dioceses around the world, the title "patriarch of the West" was left out of the list of titles that Pope Benedict XVI holds.
Some Orthodox scholars questioned the motives behind the omission, asking whether it might mean Benedict was signaling a broader, or at least different interpretation, of his role as pope and the role of patriarchates in the Eastern traditions of Christianity.
The Catholic and Orthodox churches split in the Great Schism of 1054, largely because of disagreements over the primacy of the pope. The issue remains the main stumbling block to efforts to reunify the two churches.
One official of the Russian Orthodox Church, Bishop Hilarion of Vienna, Austria, told the Interfax news agency this month that the omission would not improve Catholic-Orthodox relations and "could be viewed as a further claim to the church's worldwide jurisdiction, which is reflected in the pontiff's other titles."
Those include bishop of Rome, vicar of Christ, successor of the prince of the apostles, and supreme pontiff of the universal church.
On Wednesday, the Vatican's office for relations with other Christians issued a statement to clarify the omission.
It said the title was first used in 642 by Pope Theodore I, but that its exact meaning had always been vague and, over time, had become "obsolete and practically speaking unusable."
Abandoning the title changed nothing about the Vatican's recognition of the ancient patriarchal churches, and could not be interpreted as suggesting any new claim to them, it said.
"The renunciation of the title seeks to express a historic and theological reality, and at the same time seeks to be a renunciation of a claim - a renunciation that could be of benefit to ecumenical dialogue," the statement said.
Benedict has said uniting all Christians and healing the schism with the Orthodox were "fundamental" priorities of his pontificate. Orthodox leaders have generally welcomed his outreach.
Meanwhile, members of the College of Cardinals begun arriving in Rome for a ceremony Friday to create 15 new "princes" of the Catholic Church - the first time the college has gathered as a whole since Benedict was elected pontiff last April.