Benedicite!

Your comparison is very interesting and very sad if true. However, I do hope and pray this is not how most Eastern Catholics would see themselves and their relationship with Latin Catholics!

Also, I would like to point out that the Eastern Catholic Churches ("uniates") are not part of the Latin Church, but constitute Churches in their own right (sui iuris) which are in full communion with Rome.

Even to me as a Latin Catholic this does look rather odd, and I can't begin to imagine what it looks like to someone who is Eastern Orthodox. Frankly I can't see how the use of a Western-style pallium by the Romanian Greek Catholic major archbishop can be defended in light of Orientalium Ecclesiarum:



Surely the Western-style pallium is not part of the ancestral traditions of the Greek Catholics? Thus, substituting the pallium for the omophorion seems to be contrary to both the letter and the spirit of Orientalium Ecclesiarum. Thus, I have to agree with Fr. Serge that the pallium should not be given to Eastern Catholic hierarchs, or at least not to those of the Byzantine tradition.

For the sake of comparison, here is the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, without a pallium in sight

My personal opinion: The Pallium looks like a noose.

Yes, and it does seem rather schizophrenic to want to wear Metropolitan symbols of the East and West.

Thank goodness the Eastern Catholic bishops cannot wear both the Roman mitre and the Eastern crown.

Shhhh! Don't give them any ideas.

I've looked more carefully and it seems His Beatitude Lucian is only wearing the pallium and not the omophorion at all... do you agree?



Now that would be quite a sight and a classic sign of advanced schizophrenia!

Armenian Patriarch and Syro-Malankar Metropolitan (at the time) wearing pallium:
http://easterncatholichymns.homestead.com/armenian2.html

http://easterncatholichymns.homestead.com/smalkqur4.html

No. He is wearing the small omophor.

I guess there is one benefit to wearing the pallium.

An Eastern Catholic hierarch who wears a pallium will not be so easily mistaken for an Orthodox hierarch. It is supposed to be a sign of submission to the Roman See, isn't it?

I remember at the funeral of John Paul II, several of my Catholic friends asked me why the Orthodox hierarchs were helping to serve the funeral. They mistakenly thought that the Eastern Catholic Hierarchs were Orthodox.

Not all eastern rites are sui juris as Neil pointed out re: Ethiopian (Geez) rite in Washington, DC, which is under the Latin Rite diocese, probably for administrative reasons (see below). The history of the Ruthenian-rite (Rusyn-rite) in America as well as the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church also shows how this rite was viewed by Roman rite bishops (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_Toth). This has been documented sadly - thankfully we are only now starting to come out from under the cloud cast by Roman-rite hierarchs in North America. But this sense of being accepted as we are by our Latin rite brothers and sisters was formed by historical consciousness of actions taken in the past 100 years overturning some of the agreements of the unia. Time can and hopefully will heal this. Progress is being made.

-Pustinik
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"Acquire a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved." –St. Serafim of Sarov------------------------------------------------------
Kidane-Mehret Ethiopian (Ge'ez) Catholic
Our Lady of the Covenant of Mercy Ethiopian (Ge'ez) Catholic
Meeting At:
St Gabriel (Latin) Church
26 Grant Cir, NW
Washington DC 20011-4604
USA

202-726-9092

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Rite: Alexandrian

Church: Ethiopian (Ge'ez) Catholic

Eparchy/Diocese: Archdiocese of Washington (Latin)

Special Circumstances: Ritually Ethiopian Ge'ez; Pastorally Ethiopian & Eritrean

why do i suddenly think of the Pschent , the double crown of Ancient Egypt - a combination of the Red Crown (Deshret) of Lower Egypt, and the White Crown (Hedjet) of Upper Egypt...

I remember thinking how wonderful it was to see the venerable octogenarian Patriarch Stephen II of Alexandria and Patriarch Gregory III of Antioch serving at Pope John Paul II's funeral, since both Alexandria and Antioch have close Petrine links. But of course I can imagine many people would think they were Orthodox, not Catholic.

However, I don't think the problem is that Eastern Catholic hierarchs look too much like Eastern Orthodox ones, but rather that the Eastern Catholic Churches are practically unknown among most Latin Catholics. (On the contrary, Vatican II wanted Eastern Catholics to return to their roots and get rid of Latinizing innovations which only serve to perpetuate the thoroughly discredited and objectionable notion of præstantia ritus Latini.) As for Latin Catholics who don't know the Eastern Catholic Churches, they probably wouldn't know a pallium from an omophorion anyway, so it would hardly make any difference to them what the Eastern Catholic hierarchs were wearing!

Very interesting! The pallium doesn't look so bad on the Armenian Catholic patriarch, given the huge Western-style mitre he is wearing.

As for the Syro-Malankaras, now that they have a Major Archbishop who is styled "Beatitude" and "Catholicos," I wonder if he still wears a pallium? As for the second Syro-Malankara metropolitan (of Tiruvalla), I don't suppose he gets a pallium anyway, since he is subject to the Major Archbishop.

Thanks for the clarification!

I suppose that the point is a different one - please correct me

The EC Patriarchs and Major Archbishop, if they like, can wear the pallium as the pope does: without the need to receive the pallium from anyone

While EC Metropolitans can wear the pallium only if it is given to them by the pope.

*****
Looking at the CCEO, in TITLE 6 about Metropolitan Churches and Other Churches we read:

Canon 156 1. Within three months after episcopal ordination or, if already ordained a bishop, after the enthronement, the metropolitan is bound by the obligation to petition the pallium from the Roman Pontiff, which is a sign of his metropolitan power and full communion of the metropolitan Church sui iuris with the Roman Pontiff. 2. Prior to the imposition of the pallium, the metropolitan cannot convoke the council of hierarchs or ordain bishops.

This requirement is not present in TITLE 4 about Patriarchal Churches and in TITLE 5 about Major Archiepiscopal Churches