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#286400 - 04/15/08 07:01 PM
Re: the future of the Eastern Church in the U.S.
[Re: Tom Lyman]
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Edmac
Member
Registered: 10/21/07
Posts: 260
Loc: Brooklyn, NY
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This is(need I say?)a very difficult topic. Ethnicity is not
unimportant, although it presents difficulties. Religion and
ethnicity are inextrincably linked for many people, and under-
standibly so. This is not the case with my own parish, but we
are probably exceptional.
Our numerous jurisdictions are just a result of the histories
of our various Churches in the Old World. We cannot pretend that
this is not the case. Moreover, many of our Churches serve
recent immigrants who cannot be expected to turn into culturally,
lingustically and religiously "integrated" Americans either overnight or for a generation or two.
Despite their originally common ancestry, Ruthenians are not
Ukrainians, nor Slovaks, nor Hungarians, nor Romanians, nor Russians,
and vice versa all around, and none of these are
Melkites or Copts or Assyrians or Malankarese or whatever.
The really big problem is how to prevent the children or grand-
children of these folks from ending up Latins, which it is
awfully easier (and more "American") for them to be, especially
as we can expect very large numbers of those offspring to end up
marrying Latin Catholics.
As the Latin-rite Church in this country and in much of the world
abounds in bishops, priests, religious and most of all laity who are apostate
or very close to it (and many of them having no clue that they are) this is
no small matter. The Latin Church DESPARATELY needs the
witness of the Eastern Churches, small as that witness may be.
My answer then must be not to worry about matters of church
organization, but to stick close to Christ according to the
our several traditons and to leave the rest to God.
Edmac
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