This post only contains my personal opinion. I have no authority to teach matters of Faith.
The Latin language, though it is considered precise, has always been far less nuanced than Greek. The cliché "lost in translation" certainly applies to the controversy over the "Filioque" addition to the Creed.
The Latin translation of the Greek for the phrase "who proceeds from the Father" is "qui ex Patre procedit". Greek, however, has two words for proceed with slightly different meanings:
προϊέναι (proïénai) = proceeds (Latin = procedit)
ἐκπορεύεσθαι (ekporévesthai) = issue; exit (Latin = exitus)
In the Creed, it is the second word, ἐκπορεύεσθαι, that is used to better represent causation:
τὸ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον
the one emanating from the Father
To issue from means to come out from, and to exit, of course, mean to leave. Whereas, to proceed means to move forward. One can proceed from, through, or toward. In short, the Creed is stated precisely to show causation, that the Father is the Cause of the Holy Spirit. The difference between this phrase and the one following is blatant and intentional:
καὶ εἰς τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον, τὸ Κύριον καὶ Ζωοποιόν,(kaí eis tó Pnevma tó Ágion, tó Kýrion kaí Zoopoión,)and in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life,τὸ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον,(tó ek toú Patrós ekporevómenon,)emanating from the Father,τὸ σὺν Πατρὶ καὶ Υἱῷ συμπροσκυνούμενον καὶ συνδοξαζόμενον(tó sýn Patrí kaí Yió symproskynoúmenon kaí syndoxazómenon)together with the Father and the Son worshiping and glorifying
St. Maximus the Confessor, considered a Saint in the east and the west, was a monk and theologian who lived in Rome in the sixth century. He explains that Rome's understanding of the procession of the Holy Spirit, of "Filioque" ("and His Son"), is not the same as taught later by the counterfeit Catholic hierarchy. True Rome taught the Holy Spirit is not caused by the Son, but is eternally manifested through Him. (The Creed is intentionally worded to show causation: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life. Who proceedeth from the Father; Who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified.) St. Maximus points to a difference in language as the source of misunderstanding between Rome and Constantinople:
Maximus the Confessor (580-662), Letter to Marinus
The following is St Maximus' Letter to Marinus as found in Migne, PG 91:136:
Those of the Queen of Cities [Constantinople] have attacked the synodal letter of the present very holy Pope [Martin (649-653)], not in the case of all the chapters that he has written in it, but only in the case of two of them. One relates to the theology [of the Trinity] and according to this, says 'the Holy Spirit also has his ekporeusis [departure] from the Son.'
The other deals with the divine incarnation. With regard to the first matter, they [the Romans] have produced the unanimous evidence of the Latin Fathers, and also of Cyril of Alexandria, from the study he made of the gospel of St John. On the basis of these texts, they have shown that they have not made the Son the cause of the Spirit -- they know in fact that the Father is the only cause of the Son and the Spirit, the one by begetting and the other by procession -- but that they have manifested the procession through him and have thus shown the unity and identity of the essence.
They [the Romans] have therefore been accused of precisely those things of which it would be wrong the accuse them, whereas the former [the Byzantines] have been accused of those things it has been quite correct to accuse them [Monothelitism].
In accordance with your request I have asked the Romans to translate what is peculiar to them (the 'also from the Son') in such a way that any obscurities that may result from it will be avoided. But since the practice of writing and sending [the synodal letters] has been observed, I wonder whether they will possibly agree to doing this. It is true, of course, that they cannot reproduce their idea in a language and in words that are foreign to them as they can in their mother-tongue, just as we too cannot do.
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