Dominus Iesus - Nicene Creed

Nicene Creed

The document quotes the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed in its original form, without Filioque, which was first added to the creed by the Third Council of Toledo in 589. In the document, that part therefore reads: "I believe in the Holy Spirit ... who proceeds from the Father" or, in Latin, "Credo in Spiritum Sanctum ... qui ex Patre procedit." The phrase "and the Son" (in Latin, "Filioque") was one of the elements that led to the great schism of 1054 that split Chalcedonian Christianity and has not yet been healed. The Catholic Church recognizes that the addition of "and the Son" to the Greek form of the Creed would be wrong, because of the specific meaning of the Greek verb that is translated as "proceeds", but it holds that both forms of the text, with and without "Filioque", are orthodox in other languages, where "proceeds" can also represent a different Greek verb, used by Greek Fathers when saying that the Holy Spirit "proceeds" (in that sense) from the Son. The Orthodox Church holds that it was illicit to add the phrase, and also objects to its content, although both Catholics and Orthodox have agreed that the formula "and through the Son", articulated at the Council of Florence, is theologically unproblematic.