I encourage everyone in our Church to write letters writing campaign to Rome. We are a small Church. A mere dozen letters from our clergy alone would be able to overturn the reformed liturgy in favor of the real liturgy. If we all write letters and each find only 2 more people to write letters we can succeed. I especially encourage our clergy to write since letters from clergy are not ignored by Rome.

Start by obtaining a good copy of the promulgation and cover letter from your pastor. The one on this website is not good enough.

Send copies to the following people (as a start):

His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI
The Apostolic Palace
00120 Vatican City, Europe

His Eminence Cardinal Ignace Moussa Daoud, Prefect
Congregation for the Oriental Churches
Palazzo del Bramante
Via della Conciliazione, 34
00193 Roma, Italia, Europe
Telephone: 011.39.06.69.88.42.82
Fax: 011.29.06.69.88.43.00

Send separate letters to the following at the same address:

His Excellency Antonio Maria Veglio, Secretary
Mons. Krzystof Nitkiewicz, Undersecretary

And to the following:

His Eminence Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prefect
Congregatio de Cultu Divino et Disciplina Sacramentorum
Palazzo delle Congregazioni
Piazza Pio XII, 10
00193 Roma, Italia, Europe
Telephone: 011.39.06.69.88.43.16; 011.39.06.69.88.43.18
Fax: 011.39.06.69.88.34.99

His Eminence Cardinal Walter Kasper
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
Via dell'Erba, 1
00193 Roma, Italia, Europe
Telephone: 011.39.06.69.88.30.72; 011.39.06.69.88.42.71
Fax: 011.39.06.69.88.53.65

When I have a chance I will post the mailing information for all the Greek Catholic patriarchs (especially the Ukrainian Patriarch Lubomyr and the Melkite Patriarch Gregorios III) and for our bishops in Europe.

Keep your letters polite and respectful. Make sure they contain no emotion all.

There is a lot of material on this web board to draw from. Write the letter in your own words and focus on the following points:

1. This Reformed Liturgy violates official books, the Ordo Celebrationis, and the Liturgical Instruction.

2. This Reformed Liturgy makes the Liturgy in our Ruthenian Church different than all other Byzantine / Greek Catholics and thus hurts unity within the Catholic Church.

3. This Reformed Liturgy makes the Liturgy in our Ruthenian Church different than all the other Orthodox Churches and thus hurts Catholic / Orthodox unity.

4. The embracement of inclusive language violates Liturgiam Authenticam.

Make sure your letter is no longer than 2 pages. Have someone not from our Church read it. If they don't understand what you are saying neither will the people in Rome.

Make sure you ask questions. Why did they approve a Byzantine Novus Ordo liturgy that is different than the official Ruthenian books? Why did they direct the use of inclusive language that violates Liturgiam Authenticam? Ask them why the official Ruthenian Divine Liturgy is being prohibited at the same time the Holy Father is considering making the Tridentine Mass an equal standard with the Novus Ordo.

Enclose a copy of Archbishop Basil's promulgation letter and the cover letter sent to your pastor so they know what you are talking about.

Do not threaten to leave or withhold your offerings. Take the position that you are a faithful Byzantine Catholic and that you want the official liturgy of our Church. Take the position that you are willing to do whatever it takes to obtain permission from the Vatican for your parish to continue celebrate the official Ruthenian Divine Liturgy.

Use full names and addresses. Make sure the signatures are clear. If you can sent either U.S. Global mail, UPS or FedEx. The special cardboard envelopes will attract attention.

If you think you can manage it petitions do work. Just make sure that every signature and name and address is captured and legible.

Don't sit back and think someone else will write and you can ignore this. YOU NEED TO WRITE YOUR OWN LETTER! YOU NEED TO WRITE YOUR LETTER TODAY!

Dostojno Jest

I would like to know what the opinion of the Administrator is on writing letters like this to Rome. Since I value his opinion I would appreciate his input.

I have been told by a priest who worked as a secretary in the office for the Roman Rite where they select Bishops, that writing Rome is very, very important.

All the faithful have the right and sometimes the duty to make their concerns known to authorities. This is not disobedience or disrespect. Church canons provide for appeals to higher authorities. We are in full communion with the Holy See, and are within our full rights to appeal to it.

I agree...having other eyes looking at the situation is important...one thing I would caution against...after our letter writing to Rome with the Holy Trinity affair...it needs to be consistent and sustained...once eyes are not looking, bad things seem to happen...it is very easy to have a flood of letters go to the vatican...however, that's a tidal wave they can withstand...it needs to be a continual and sustained stream...

Another address:

His Beatitude, Cardinal Patriarch Lubomyr
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
pl. Sviatoho Yura 5,
Lviv 79000 Ukraine
Phone: (+380) 322 97-97-63

Additional Letter to:
Dionisio Lachovicz (Liakhovych), O.S.B.M., Auxiliary Bishop

General - info@ugcc.org.ua
Press office - press@ugcc.org.ua
Synod of Bishops - synod@ugcc.org.ua
Secretariate of the Sobor - sobor@ugcc.org.ua

I had a pm. We need to write to Patriarch Bartholomew, Bishop Maximos of Pittsburgh (the head of the Orthodox Catholic Dialog).

His All Holiness BARTHOLOMEW
Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch
Rum Patrikhanesi, 342 20 Fener- Halic, Istanbul, Turkey
Tel. +90 212 5319670 - 6
Fax. +90 212 5349037
E-mail: Patriarchate@ec-patr.org

Also:
His Eminence, Metropolitan Meliton of Philadelphia.
Tel.: +90 212 6354022
Fax: +90 212 5349037
E-mail: melito@superonline.com

I have been told that the Patriarch is very interested in the activities of the Byzantine Catholics. It does affect the Catholic / Orthodox ecumenical dialog. He will not take kindly to a feminist rewrite of the Divine Liturgy.

I forgot this:
His Eminence, Metropolitan Maximos of Pittsburgh
Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Pittsburgh
5201 Ellsworth Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15232
Telephone: (412) 621-5529
Fax: (412) 621-1522
Website: www.pittsburgh.goarch.org
E-Mail: info@odpgh.org

Sadly those of us outside the USA really cannot help in the letterwriting campaign but please do get on with it - every single letter that heads there way will help. Don't send them in batches - they need to go individually

I bet he is...A year ago I had heard from an ACROD authority that he truly believed under Metropolitan Judson there was going to be unification between the BCC and ACROD...so I'm sure the Patriarch is interested in the activities of the BCC...since Constatinople would have been involved...

I think we should send a copy to those monks on mount Athos, who wrote the letter (in another thread) about the meeting of the Pope and the Patriarch.

I wonder what the monks of Athos would say, about our abbreviated, reorganized, modernized, up to date, feminized, and gender neutral Liturgy? Think of the time they could save, wasted on all those psalm verses and repetitive litanies!

Perhaps the monks of Athos would like to follow our couragious lead, and change the way they celebrate the Liturgy in order to conform to the latest insights and contemporary scholarship!

They might even like copies of the 'educational materials' being produced in Pittsburgh, to help them understand all the changes.

Nick

p.s. Following our lead, they will see the advantages that come from Union with Rome, and then maybe they won't be so suspicious.

LOL!!! It would be interesting to see...I see one of two things happening when letters arive on Athos...either they read them and their outrage about Orthodox/Catholic dialogue increases...or they get discarded without even looking at it since they are coming from non-Orthodox...

Please do not distract this thread by posting about other topics. We must remain focused if we are to succeed in our appeal to Rome.

In addition to appealing to Rome each priest needs to petition directly to Rome for permission to celebrate the Divine Liturgy according to the official books. News accounts have stated that Pope Benedict XVI is about to issue blanket permission for any Roman Catholic priest anywhere to celebrate according to the 1962 Roman Missal. The Holy Father will not reject petitions from priests asking permission to follow the official Divine Liturgy of the Church. If the clergy send a single petition with 30 or more signatures success is almost guaranteed.

If you are a priest you need to lead. If every priest sits back to let someone else take the lead nothing will happen. The bishops have been convinced that the promulgation is the end of the issue. In truth, it is only the beginning.

For those newly arrived on this forum, what "Reformed Liturgy" is being referred to here? The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom? What parts of the Liturgy have been changed, and by whom?

Tony

This applies to the Ruthenians [Byzantine Catholic Church ] not the UGCC .

However I would advise reading the threads on this Forum pretty carefully.

My particular fear is that what one group have done today - another will do in the future - and frankly this terrifies me.

I've seen what happened in the RCCwhere many priests seems to have become their own liturgical expert, deciding that they know best for their own Parish.

All I can say is --- read and make up your own mind.

Anhelyna