Shlomo Byzantine TX,

I have one better. I have been working with the Ethiopian Catholic Church on establishing an eparchy here in the States. When I called the Roman Chancery here in Las Vegas about the where Ethiopian Catholic meet. She stated that she did not know of any such group. She further informed me that they had to notify the Roman Bishop if they were using any Catholic Church in the diocese. I corrected her and stated that they did not have to inform the Roman diocese if they were using an Eastern Catholic Church.

The best part of the whole thing, is that the Ethiopian do meet at a Roman Church here in Vegas, with the Bishop's approval, but without the knowledge of the chancellory.

Poosh BaShlomo,
Yuhannon

Ah, the joys of chanceries - I used to work in one, so please don't remind me!

Abuna Sarkis

Shawn,

Actually, she was correct. Regardless of where they were meeting, within the geographic bounds of the Latin jurisdiction (and despite the extra-territorial nature of an EC temple belonging to one of the eparchial jurisdictions), an Ethiopian congregation would indeed have to notify (and have the approval of) the local Latin Ordinary since the establishment of a mission/community of a EC/OC Church without a canonical jurisdiction is sui alienos - subject to the law of another - in this and almost all other cases, the local Latin Ordinary.



My last understanding regarding the community in Las Vegas (which I understand to be principally Eritrean in make-up) was that, while organized, it is not presently pastorally served on any regularly scheduled basis. If you have more current info than what I presently have posted here, would you drop me an e-mail to ec_parish_webmaster@yahoo.com, so that I can update the entry accordingly. Thanks very much.

Many years,

Neil

I can easily think of some Rites I would love to switch - I won't name them because I don't wish to insult anyone in particular!

Fr Serge

May I offer, in semi-jest, the opinion that wrongs are more often in need of a switch than rites?

I completely understand your explanation, which is nicely complemented by your post in response to Shawn.

In the ordinary scheme of things, should the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston goes out of its way to trace down Arab-Americans within its jurisdiction or should it be incumbent upon Arab-American Catholics (whether Melkite, Maronite, etc.) to make known their presence and be assisted in their pastoral needs?

As you have said, where the U.S. eparchies of Eastern Catholic Churches have no presence in certain localities (like within the Latin Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston) Eastern Catholics in the diaspora should be under the temporary omophorion of the local Latin ordinary until they could stand on their own.

It should be clear to Eastern Catholics in the U.S. by now that Latin dioceses/archdioceses are also heavily burdened by the pastoral needs of other immigrants who belong to the Latin rite, which was my original point.

Amado

Amado,

I certainly don't think there is any argument to be made that any Latin diocese should go out of its way in this day and age to discover the presence of Eastern Catholics of the mid-East or other Churches (that have a hierarchical presence in the US) who are resident within its bounds. Nor do I expect that they would have the need or desire to make themselves/their presence known to a jurisdiction that has no canonical jurisdiction or responsibility for their pastoral care. In my experience, the eparchies are well aware of the un- or underserved "pockets" of their respective peoples and such communities are rarely reticent about reaching out to the eparchies and seeking, as presbyteral resources become available, the establishment of missions - albeit not all succeed.

If a Latin jurisdiction became aware of an unserved EC/OC group within its bounds and perceived that it was unknown to the relevant eparchy, I'd expect the Ordinary to make the fact known to his Eastern/Oriental counterpart and offer whatever assistance he might - use of a church until the community was established, etc (as was recently done in Boston for the Malankara) - perhaps even the loan of a priest to become biritual. But, I don't see the Latin responsibility as going beyond that - except to the faithful of Churches without their own hierarchy in the US - for whom they have formal responsibility.

[As a sidenote, the location of such "pockets" are generally known even to those hierarchs whose Churches are not formally established in the diaspora. The last visit by one of the Ethiopian/Eritrean hierarchs is an excellent example; he visited a significant number of the communities which are without regular pastoral care, as well as those in which formal missions existed.]




You misunderstand. EC/OCs should not be (and are not) under the omophor of the Latin ordinary except when their Church has no hierarchial presence anywhere in the US. That an eparchy has no pastoral presence (parish or mission) in the geographic bounds of a Latin diocese, does not remove its faithful from the omophor of their own hierarch. Neither I - nor I expect most of my fellow ECs/OCs - want to be considered under the omophor of a Latin hierarch because we lack a parish in travel distance.



Here, you lose me. Should we be concerned as to this? Are you suggesting that this represents a valid excuse why a Latin chancery should be unaware of the location of EC/OC parishes in its area? Shawn's comment seemed to suggest that it was somehow positive that the LV chancery was unaware of the Ethiopian/Eritrean presence and that they were meeting in one of the diocesan parishes. Frankly, it's not positive - particularly as that diocese has pastoral responsibility for those faithful. I think that - given the greater visibility of Latin dioceses to the public who might be searching for an EC/OC presence (the yellow pages are scant help - even before the breakup of Ma Bell and the proliferation of multitudinous 'independent' directories), the Latins have an affirmative obligation to be able to point folks to the appropriate resources (just as I'd expect any of our chanceries to be able to direct a lost Latin to the nearest Latin counterpart).

Many years,

Neil

I'd be stunned if the chancery doesn't know about them. The chancellor is Greco-Italo-Albanian, while the other full time active eastern priest in town (Fr. Marcus) now also works there one day a week. And I'm pretty sure that I've had brief conversations with Fr. Marcus about the Ethiopians (I know I've spoken with him about the Maronites).

The secretary not knowing all the rites by name wouldn't surprise me . . .

hawk