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CIX!

I was thinking about some of the orders in the Latin Catholic Church. My favourite type is the Canons Regular. They live in a community and are devoted to the solemn celebration of the liturgy. But, at the same time, they have an active apostolate, i.e. they have a 'parochial' ministry in working with the people, hearing confessions, preaching, giving retreats and conferences etc.

Is this type of 'monastic' living alien to the traditional Eastern method?
Are Eastern monasteries able to have a pastoral focus and work with the people?

I don't know much about the Ukrainian Redemptorists, for example. I admire the Order for their good work with the most poor and abandoned. But it seems like they are a 'Byzantinised' version of a Latin order, and thus consequently will have a heavy 'Latinised' element.

Also, the Basilians...One told me: "We are monastic", but they also have an emphasis on working in parishes.

Are Byzantine monks and monasteries restricted to the 'cloistered' way of life?

P.S. Apologies for the Latin terminology

Monastic life in the Orthodox Church allows for the full expression of the Christian life. It is spared the various classifications of western religious life. There are only monks and nuns. Monastercism is not a 'doing' thing, it is a state of being.

As for Basilians I think a few here would regard them as slightly byzantinised Latin order. After all the various transformations since the union where they were once monks and are now a clerical institute. You might notice the reference to Basilian fathers and not monks these days. The Italian Basilians are still monks thankfully.

Hopefully Fr Anthony who is an Orthodox Monk will be able to enlighten you further about monastic life in the Orthodox Church

ICXC
NIKA

I think even in the RC church the active/contemplative labels are all but gone. The DOminicans among others interestingly consider themselves canon's regular, FYI.

The bit I find most interesting is that religious brothers/lay sisters have always been contemplative, in that were always in the house doing manual work, regardless of which order they belonged to. Since VII, no brothers join a lot of orders now, as they are like "almost priests", because lay people now do a lot of the work.

That I think is one of the most pressing issues in religious life, it's clericalistaion. It is becoming a priesthood option rather than a distince vocation in many orders. There is no asceticism, it can often be like diocesan priesthood in Australia, at least. Diocesan priest with a different form of dress living in community out of convenience. No offence meant, that's my experience/observation.


Ned W

Just to muddy the waters some more the only Benedictine Abbey was in it's own "Abbey Nullius" and the monks had the status of Canons in their own Cathedral until the Abbey Nullius was merged with the enighbouring Archdiocese. They also wore birettas pre Vatican II at times and no one knows why. The only other monastery known to do this was in the north of South Africa.

ICXC
NIKA

Dear Friends,

It was Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky who brought in the Redemptorists and some other Orders from the West into the EC Church to perform certain needed ministries.

The Redemptorists such as the New Martyrs Bl. Nicholas Charnetsky, Bl. Basil Velichkovsky et al. were VERY Eastern and they did NOT dress as western Redemptorists etc.

The Locum Tenens of the underground UGCC until the resurrection of the UGCC was my great uncle, Archbishop Volodymyr Sterniuk - also a Redemptorist.

The Redemptorists with their devotion to the Mother of Perpetual Help/of the Passion became an immediate "hit" with our Ukrainian people as a result . . .

I think one can be TOO hard on our Basilians. They have suffered persecution at the hands of the Russian Orthodox authorities for their promotion of Eastern Catholicism. A number among them became great leaders of the Eastern traditions of our Church, including Met. Andrew Sheptytsky.

Alex

A history of the Redemptorists in Canada.

http://www.yorktonredemptorists.com/html/from_the_beginning.html

If you would like to go on a pilgrimage:

http://bvmartyrshrine.com/

Are the Canadian Byzantine redemptorists in with all those religious congregations in Canada that have openly declared they don't agree with the Church's teachings on homosexuality, contraception, etc.

CIX

Yes, I've been told the Redemptorists are quite 'progressive' and the Basilians more 'conservative'. For example, I've heard the Redemptorist Liturgies are the 'happy-clappy' liturgies of the UGCC (have never seen one personally). But, on the other hand, I hear the Redemptorists in Ukraine are becoming quite eastern.
Respect to the blessed Redemptorist martyrs of Ukraine!

Alex (and others),

Do you think that the introduction of the western-style religious orders into Ukraine to perform these needed ministries was a good thing, or did that contribute to further Latinisations?

Are Eastern monks allowed to have any active ministries with the people?

Dear Byzantine Latino,

There are many among us who will say it was a good thing, or seemed to be, at the time, but it did lead to further Latinizations.

The fact was that the Studites were, at the same time, developing as a true Eastern monastic community. And such communities don't have active mission outreach.

Met. Andrew saw that his people needed missionaries who would relate to the Western cultures in which they were going and to the Latin Church there.

In Saskatchewan, there were and are the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, as well as the Redemptorists and the Salesians elsewhere.

The Basilians were active missionaries themselves and published a great deal of Catholic literature.

Their function was to prevent UGCC'ers from becoming Orthodox. Let's remember that 90% of the Ukr. Orthodox in Canada were originally Eastern Catholics.

In their zeal to keep the floodgates from bursting forth into Orthodoxy, the Basilians and Redemptorists tended to promote Latinist practices, even in the liturgy and architecture etc.

As one very Eastern Catholic priest told me when I discussed Eastern saints with him, "The problem is that our people only know about St Josaphat!"

I served for six years at a Basilian parish. When an Ethiopian Orthodox priest moved in next door, he referred to that parish as "Latin Catholic."

I assured him it wasn't but was EC.

He disagreed and said, "No, I know because I was in there and saw for myself . . ."

Alex

Dear McNabb,

No, happily, EC's have their own Particular Churches and so we don't get so contaminated by liberalism as the Latins do . . .

Keeping one's distance from the Latins can be a good thing!

So much for your Church in Canada, eh?

Alex

Lord please help the Church in Canada!

Dear McNabb,

You mean "the Latin Church in Canada!"

Alex

CIX

Does anyone have any experience of the Studites...do they really pray for 8 hours, work for 8 hours, and rest for 8 hours?

Alex, you seem to know a lot about the orders in the UGCC. Which other ones exist apart from those you mentioned (i.e. Basilians, Redemptorists, Studites, Oblates of Mary Imm., Salesians)?

I've heard there are Jesuits. Funny, I always thought the UGCC Jesuits are the Basilians! Wouldn't it be ironic if the Eastern Catholic Jesuits turned out to be more Eastern than the Basilians.

I've heard some upsetting things, for example, about the Basilians in Brazil (even the UGCC there as a whole). One Basilian told me that the UGCC in Brazil will eventually become "it's own monster", because it has changed so much and is so Latinised that it is unrecognisable, and that it will probably be absorbed into the Latin Church.

Well its only a matter of time until the liberalizations seep over into the eastern Church.