www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Uhh... Hello

Hi GP,

Welcome. I have always said that the major difference between the Eastern Church and the Western is that we know that you guys exist, but the reverse is not necessarily true.

Definitely get acquainted with the community in Dublin, and give my warmest greetings to Archimandrite Serge.

Oh - I cannot claim a single molecule of Irish blood - I'm the Eastern European Jew here - but I owe a great deal to a number of holy priest of whom I lovingly and laughingly think of as the "Irish Orthodox Mafia."

Glad you found us~


In Christ,

Sharon

Lemko,

I basically agree with your last post. That's a real problem. Having said that, we should still be welcoming to all who are drawn our way.

David Ignatius DTBrown@aol.com

I had to giggle, GP. My brother and I are what my parent's used to refer to as Rus-micks. My father's parents were both Irish, he grew up in all Catholic boys' schools in Brooklyn, in a very religious and old school family. He was a daily rosary-pray'er, and a good old school, strict Roman Catholic. He, more than any of my Byzantine and Orthodox relatives, introduced us to Eastern traditions in a meaningful way. When he died, I inherited some of his old books, including a 1948 English/Slavonic prayer book for "Greek Catholics of the Ruthenian rite." It's the best prayer book I've found to date, as far as its comprehensive content.

Dear GP,

I have it on good authority that Bishop Pavlo (Chomnicky), Apostolic Exarch for the Ukrainian Greco-Catholics in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and the Occupied Territories (known to some as Northern Ireland) will be visiting the Dublin parish on Sunday, 16 November 2003.

Andrij
a sinner (and sympathiser )

Sharon!

I thought I was the Irish Orthodox Mafia!!!! :p

There are several Carpatho-Irish that hang around here.

By the way there are millions and millions of Eastern Orthodox that are unaware that there are Western Rite Orthodox using the traditional Latin Mass or the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.

I don't hear anyone here complaining about how Russians don't teach their faithful about the Anglican Use Orthodox.

These things take time. We should practice charity and not look down our noses at the supposed "ignorant."

in Christ,
Marshall

I used to attend a Byzantine parish like that (except the priest wore authentic Byzantine vestments). The Latin Rite diocese in the area was rather liberal and somehow the Byzantine parish became a haven for conservative RC, Tridentines and SPPX groups. The truly Byzantine parishioners were the minority. Quite a disconcerting mix! The Latin Rite transplants were pressuring the Byzantine-born priest to put up the stations of the cross in the sanctuary... the poor man was beside himself trying to follow the Bishop's mandate to "return to our traditions" with all this dissention. And meanwhile the parishioners were so excited that they were going to be "true Byzantines" because they were finally putting up an iconostasis.

We moved out of the area and I now attend a Latin Rite parish that doesn't pretend to be anything it's not!

Hi,

As one of the Roamin' Catholics in this forum, I also want to welcome GP aboard.

Two minor observations:

Yes, although once ordained, they cannot marry or re-marry should they become widowers.

Married priests need to be already married when they are ordained and are not elegible to become Bishops.

Well, the Catholic Church has a variety of rites, some of them Eastern and some of them Western.

However, I think that you meant to say that you became aware of the existence of Eastern Catholic CHURCHES.

Eastern Catholic Churches have a distinct Rite, yes, and that Rite is Eastern, yes. But they are full-blown Churches on their own right (Sui Iuris), and not merely Latin Catholics with a fancy mass.

The distinction is important, especially for us Romans, who out of ignorance, not always credit the Eastern Catholic Churches with the absolute equality to the Latin Church that is rightfully theirs.

Now, let me also point out, that among the 22 Catholic Churches Sui Iuris, there are more Liturgical/Spiritual/Canonical traditions in addition to the Latin and the Byzantine.

In this forum, "Eastern" is frequently used as synonimous to "Byzantine", but that is incorrect. Coptic, Syriac, Maronite and Chaldean Catholics, among others, are also Eastern, but not Byzantine.

Shalom,
Memo.

The last post by Lemko was awesome!

Way to go L-R, you really said it.

BTW, I find it extremely ironic that most big-O's are very aware Eastern Catholics exist (sometimes affecting their blood pressure!)and yet RC's seem to generally be clueless about Eastern Catholicism.

I know this is just a generality, but I'll bet that outside of hard coal country, you could stand in front of a Roman Catholic church on any Sunday and ask 100 departing parishioners if they know what an Eastern Catholic is and you will mostly get those blank stares.

Then try it outside of a Greek Orthodox church and stand back!

Michael

Hello!

I am new to this forum, but you guys seem to really get into your faith( be it RC, BC, or Orthodox). I must admit, as a Byzantine "Transplant", I can sympathize with alot of the people here, but now that I see and truly enjoy the Eastern Rite(please don't go into an argument over my phrasiology), I find it odd to go back to a RC Mass. I thoughly understand the dilema of RC's not knowing that the "Other lung"(does JPII have a copy write on that?) is actually the ENTIRE Eastern Church, and not just Orthodox,but also this small group of Catholics, who in my opinion, have the best of both worlds. Where I'm from, the word Byzantine provokes nearly a cardiac arrest from Orthodox(especially those who like to tell you everything that is wrong in the RC liturgy) Ok, or lack thereof. Or you have very devout RC's, who stare at you with a very dumfounded look(although that gets outranked by the stunned look from when when you mention the word 'Patriarch'. Anyways, I understand that this is a problem, and although I can offer no solution(except maybe trying to NOT kill those who ask 'So what did you convert to?'), we must go and evangelize, mainly through our life, using words if we must(although I think It would be a great help).

In Christ,

BekcyAnn

Dear BeckyAnn, welcome to the Forum, especially to another Kansan.

In response to that last post I believe it was St. Augustine, speaking about his own mother St. Monica, who said that the strongest influence to conversion was a good example, not fiery sermons or anything similar.

Along a similar vein, I had a long talk last night with a good RC friend friend who was a former Norbertine postulant for a while, who nearly keeled over when I told him as a Greek Catholic I didn't think St. Thomas Aquinas was the greatest theologian of all time...

Coalesco:

YOU'RE FUNNY!!! Ha ha. Your statement seem to be true! But the way you said it, it's funny!

SPDundas
Deaf Byzantine

I know this is just a generality, but I'll bet that outside of hard coal country, you could stand in front of a Roman Catholic church on any Sunday and ask 100 departing parishioners if they know what an Eastern Catholic is and you will mostly get those blank stares.

That is the truth, here in the Bible Belt they don't even think Catholics exist, we are less than 2%. No need to worry about the Eastern Catholics, all they know is we have funny food festivals. But, I remember up home(Steubenville, Oh), when my Italian friend was trying to tell me about this Catholic Church in Toronto, OH...she went on to describe, well they don't use Latin, they don't speak English in the Mass, but I know they are Catholic. She said she would find out and called a few days later and told me who they were, and I said Ok. Within a month we were attending full time, that was 24 years ago. But, at least she knew it was there, and I never had the opportunity to talk to her again after that day. So God prepared the way for where we were to go!