A Small (But Not Really) Thing
Last week, Pope Francis has brought up something that seems completely irrelevant but actually kind of a big deal--finding a common date to celebrate Easter. Eastern Vigil, 2012, Makeni-Lusaka, Zambia Let me try to summarize this issue in as simple a way as possible. In 325, at the Council of Nicaea, the church fixed a date for the celebration of Easter--the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal (Spring) equinox (the so called "Roman practice," as distinct from the "Jewish practice"--i.e. using the Jewish calendar to calculate Passover and then placing Easter on the Sunday after that). Except, not exactly--in practice, the date of Easter is determined using a mathematical algorithm that is designed to predict when the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox will fall. This algorithm was actually developed after the Council, and is not directly referenced in the Council documents. The important point for purposes of...