1. The Catholic Church holds in high esteem the institutions, liturgical rites, ecclesiastical traditions and the established standards of the Christian life of the Eastern Churches, for in them, distinguished as they are for their venerable antiquity, there remains conspicuous the tradition that has been handed down from the Apostles through the Fathers (1) and that forms part of the divinely revealed and undivided heritage of the universal Church.
1. Kanisa Katoliki huheshimu sana taasisi (institutions), madhehebu ya kiliturujia*, mapokeo ya kikanisa na nidhamu ya maisha ya kikristo ya Makanisa ya Mashariki (Orientalium Ecclesiarum). Maana ndani yake, maadamu ni maarufu kwa ukale wake mstahiki, hung’ara mapokeo yatokanayo na Mitume kwa njia ya Mababa[1]; na mapokeo hayo ni sehemu ya hazina iliyofunuliwa na Mungu na isiyogawanyika ya Kanisa lote zima.