www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Assistance for a New member

Please offer some assistance for a new member to these boards.

I am a cradle Roman Catholic as is my husband. We are both from the New Orleans area. With the exception of a brief two year visit with a Russian Orthodox Church which we understand was not in communion with Rome, we have always attended Roman Catholic services. However, my husband and I enjoyed the Eastern services so much we were married in both east and west.

Reading in this month's Clarion paper, there is a Byzantine Mission, St. Nicolas of Myra, in New Orleans that offers a 90 minute divine liturgy that is in communion with Rome. How can this be? All that I have found in research has lead me to believe that Eastern Christianity and Roman Catholics are not in communion with on another?

I am very confused now and am not sure of what I am reading anymore. There are so many terms out there. When you ask someone there are so many answers. Old Catholic, Angelican, Orthodox, in communion, not in communion....now Byzantine is being advertised in a Roman Clairon Herald?

Can someone in a Byzantine Forum clear this fog up for me any?

Thank you,
Stacy

Hi Stacy, and welcome to The Byzantine Forum!

Byzantine Catholics are Eastern Orthodox Christians who have established full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. We are one of the twenty-one different Churches that together make up the entire Catholic Church. Many Roman Catholics are not aware of our existence. This is because there are over 1 billion Roman (Latin) Catholics and less than 20 million Eastern Catholics. The vast majority of Eastern Christians (about 200 million) are Orthodox. Sadly, our communion with Rome means that we are not in full communion with our mother Church, the Orthodox Church at Constantinople (Istanbul).

It�s a bit late now so please forgive me for providing some links for reading:

Who are Byzantine Catholics? - (A short introduction to our Church)

The Eastern Christian Churches [eastern-christian-churches.net] - (Fr. Ron Roberson�s book published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops)

The Eastern Catholic Churches [eastern-christian-churches.net] - (the section of the book on Eastern Catholics)

I'm sure that some of our participants will provide you with lots of information. Please check back over the next day or two.

Admin

Administrator,

I hope this does not go off topic, but can you clarify something for me?

So, how do you know the numbers of Catholics? Like 1 Billion Roman Catholics, 20 million Byzantine, etc.?

I wonder if it's grossly inaccurate since there are maybe around 6 million Byzantines in Ukraine alone. If you add up with Byzantines in the world like in America, Melkites, etc. Plus there are other Eastern Churches like Maronites, Syro-Malobar, etc.?

I kinda wish there is more accurate and up to date census report on that. It's all so blurry.

Thanks for your patience.

SPDundas
Deaf Byzantine

Dear Shane,

You may want to look at this website:

http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/country/sc1.html

It is listed in order of Catholic population. You can click on the Country name to get a breakdown by diocese. And you can get info about the diocese and its Bishops.

John
Pilgrim and Odd Duck

SPDundas,

The 1 billion figure for Roman Catholics comes from the Catholic press.

The 20 million figure for all Eastern Catholics comes from Fr. Roberson�s book (see the links above). Of this 20 million figure about half are Byzantine Catholics (Greek Catholics) of various ethnic groups and the rest are other Eastern Catholics. Among the Byzantines the Ukrainians have the most people (5.1 million) followed by the Romanians (1.3 million), the Melkites (1.2 million), the Ruthenians (663,000), the Hungarians (278,000) and the Slovaks (212,000). The other Byzantine groups are all less than 100,000. Among the rest of the Eastern Catholics the Syro-Malabars are the largest (3.4 million) and are followed by the Maronites (3.1 million). If you click on the listing for each Church you can see the population figure.

Admin

Dear Stacy, you have found the orthodox in communion with Rome right here on this forum. Welcome.

The current Pope has repeatedly stated the need for the Eastern Catholic churches to be faithful to their authentic Eastern spiritual, liturgical, and ecclesiastical traditions. He used the metaphor that the Church breathes with both lungs, East and West.

Any Catholic can receive the Eucharist in any ritual tradition of the Catholic church, whether it is Roman, Byzantine, Armenian, Maronite, Melkite, etc.

The church and liturgy will be very different than you are used to in your Roman parish. Go and experience it if you can and be assured that they are in perfect communion with Rome.

thank you very much!

I welcome you to our mission, Stacy.

Dmitri

Dear Stacy:

There you are, I forgot Dmitri was from New Orleans.

He is Russian Catholic.

But don't you be daunted by the word "Russian," unless he is still suffering from a hang-over because of your Mardi Gras!

AmdG
An ageing Roman Catholic