www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall The "Culture Wars" and Byzantine Catholics

Is it safe to assume that many Latin Catholics who are coming to the Byzantine Rite, searching for sacred and reverent Liturgies without Liturgical abuses, are often the Latin Catholics most involved in the Culture Wars, i.e., the battles against the secular embrace of contraception, abortion, euthanasia, and the homosexual agenda?

In searching Byzantine forums and websites over the last several months, it seems that the Culture Wars are not as often a subject of debate among the Eastern traditions.

One would hope this is because there is little dissent among the Eastern traditions on issues like contraception, but the relative paucity of such debates makes it difficult to discern whether there is unanimity of opinion among the Eastern traditions on the Culture Of Life issues, or whether they are overshadowed by debates on the Revisions planned for the Divine Liturgy, whether there should be pews in Eastern Churches, etc.

I hope as a Byzantine Catholic to be able to continue to fight the Culture Wars, and to find Byzantine resources and websites devoted to defending the Culture of Life. And I hope that these issues are as important to the Byzantine hierarchy as they are to commited lay Latin Catholics.

Do the hierarchy and laity of the Byzantine rites get as deeply involved in these issues as their Latin counterparts? If so, how can I find them/join them?

As a Latin Catholic, I don't know how to respond to your question. I am a little surprised that none of the Eastern Rite Catholics have responded . . .

In the meantime, the only suggestion that could give you is to participate in whatever Catholic pro-life organization is operating in your area; or, if none, to start one yourself. Priests for Life ( http://www.priestsforlife.org ) or Heartbeat International ( http://www.heartbeatinternational.org ) might be good places to check (if you haven't checked already). You could email them and ask for local pro-life opportunities to serve in your area. So too, I'm sure, your local pastor could direct you.

God Bless.

--John

It is disconcerting. It seems there may not be much emphasis on moral theology in the eastern churches...

Thanks John.

I already do this, but I was hoping to find like minded Byzantine Catholics here on this forum, who share a passion for fighting/winning these Culture Wars. The response so far is disheartening.

CIX!

Dear DocBrian:

Don't know if this will help shed any light on your concerns... or possibly raise some neck hairs, but this is opinion based on my non-cradle born BC observations.

Eastern Christianity, to include both BC's and OE's, is by it's nature passive... and I don't mean that in any bad respect. Westerners, RC and the Prot. denominations, have an active, results-oriented bent. I don't know if that's due to their theology and/or just part of Western culture. In addition, although the Catholic Church (i.e., Roman...since that's what most secular and nonsecular folks are familiary with) still is subject to misunderstanding and attack, it is in the "mainline." It has power and it has influence.

The EC's on the other hand have a bent to their theology that is more contemplative and inward seeking. In addition, they (we) still function within a "siege" mentality. Relatively speaking the BC's and the EO's are new to this country. They/we have suffered from a good deal of misunderstanding and outright religious prejudice and persecution by the Roman Church (we all know the stories).

Also, the godly people that brought their religion to this country were for the most part very poor, under educated, and persecuted in their native lands. The us-them paradigm remainded strong (i.e., union v. management), so strong in fact that it still lingers with subsequent generations.

So, as noble and righteous as a cause may be, EC's can often feel "uneasy" (for lack of better term) about overt social action and stirring up the pot.

Just my humble two cents...

I see this here in this old rust belt area of western PA. It is a very strong sentiment, and causes consternation to pro-lifers who cannot comprehend why the older Catholics and eastern church members overwhelmingly re elect pro-abortion candidates. Union loyalty is strong.
A very worthy two cents, that is very helpful to me. Thank you. Do we just have to await younger generations of Byzantine Catholics who will be willing to follow the lead of the likes of Pope John Paul II and Fr. Frank Pavone, who call(ed) for overt social action and stirring up the pot?

Pope Benedict XVI has already gone so far as to instruct Catholics in Spain to engage in civil disobedience against the culture of death there. How do we bring forward the Byzantines into this mindset?

I do not think there is much difference between the ways Byzantine Catholics and Latin Catholics in Western Pennsylvania see things. The mindset towards supporting certain political candidates is very strong. This is to the detriment of the future of this area.

I do a smidgen of volunteer work at Mt. St. Macrina each summer for the Pilgrammage. I noticed one pro-Kerry bumper sticker, on a car owned by an older man.

I see the energies coming from EWTN, Fr. Pavone, Archbishop Chaput, Bishop Bruskewitz (sp), etc.

I do know that the Eastern Orthodox participate in the Annual March for Life each January in Washington.

Shlomo DocBrian waHamon3110,

As a Maronite our Church is not passive in nature, but we are complative and holistic. That is we do not just treat the symtoms, but the disease.

What many of us in the East see, are the Western Churches using the Church as a club to beat people over the head with it. We see it as a hopital which everyone is in need to use. Let us look at some of the issues that you brought up.

On contraception, we teach why people should wait until marriage to engage in sex, how it is a gift to be used in a loving union, and that one must be receptive to the miricle of birth. But we also understand that not everyone is going to listen, and we need to understand and correct them gentle. Not cast them out into the street for being a sinner, since that is were we would all be if we followed through on such thoughts.

As to abortion, we teach not only the digity of the life in the womb, but also life as it is being lived. We seek to help those that are born as well. Many seem to fall off the Life Agenda after the birth of someone. They do not seem to see the proverty in the States and the World. These very same "Pro-Lifer", also seem to be the very same people calling for lower taxes, and the Church to take on more charity, but they give very little for either the government or the Church to do anything effective. Below is a chart showing what some communities here are giving as a percentage of their incomes:

Muslims 2.5%
Jews 15.0%
Mormons 10.0%
Assembly of God 5.0%
Southern Baptist 2.7%
Presbyterian 1.6%
Lutheran 1.6%
Catholic 1.2%

This is a case of people need to put their money were their mouth is. How many are willing to adopt Children spared death? At present their are over 80,000 children waiting for a family. Almost 60% of Waiting Children Are Black or Hispanic. 60 Percent of Children in Foster Care Waiting for Adoptive Families Are 6 Years of Age or Older.

How many Western Catholics are working to abolish the death penalty? How many are working with the Church on its campaign to abolish the death penalty? How many understand that the Church's position that the death penalty is rarely, if ever, justified in modern societies, and it does not need to be used. Below is a prayer to soften the hearts of those that do not understand fully the Church's Total Life position.

A Prayer to Abolish the Death Penalty

God of Compassion,
You let your rain fall on the just and the unjust.
Expand and deepen our hearts
so that we may love as You love,
even those among us
who have caused the greatest pain by taking life.

For there is in our land a great cry for vengeance
as we fill up death rows and kill the killers
in the name of justice, in the name of peace.

Jesus, our brother,
you suffered execution at the hands of the state
but you did not let hatred overcome you.
Help us to reach out to victims of violence
so that our enduing love may help them heal.

Holy Spirit of God,
You strengthen us in the struggle for justice.
Help us to work tirelessly
for the abolition of state-sanctioned death
and to renew our society in its very heart
so that violence will be no more. Amen.

--Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J.

As to the Homosexual agenda, the Church does support those items which every human being is entitled: employment, housing, public accommodations, public services, education, credit and business. Above and beyond that the Church has stated forcefully its position, and been successful in most matters. Further, the Church teaches that Homosexuals are to be treated with digity.

In closing, my point is that we see no war with our fellow man, but with Satan. Our fellow man is like us, sinful, and in need of Jesus' healing power. And it only through our actions that others can see the Church in the World.

Poosh BaShlomo Lkholkhoon,
Yuhannon

I worry when any Christian draws a moral equivalence between opposition to abortion, and opposition to thedeath penalty.

The former, abortion, is intrinsically evil, and ALL Christians are called to fight it, by prayer and, if possible, by prayerful resistence and activisn.

However, capital punishment is not, has never been, and can never be, declared intrinsically evil. The Church still recognizes the right of the state to have recourse to capital punishment, and this Papacy will likely see a decoupling of the Culture of Life issues from the opposition to the death penalty.

There have been 45 million innocent babies murdered by abortion in the USA since 1973.

There have been less than 1,000 put to death by capital punishment.

We Christuians need a better sense of proportion if we honestly believe that capital punishment is anywhere near the importance of the abortion issue.

Shlomo DocBrian,

Well that group of Christians named the United States Catholic Conference is drawing that moral equivalence.

Wrong is wrong no matter how many have died.

Poosh BaShlomo,
Yuhannon

But capital punishment is NOT inherently wrong. It is not evil. Only certain modern circumstances make it imprudent, but those circumstances do NOT make it inherently evil.

And insofar as individual bishops of the USCCB, or even the USCCB itself, drawing a moral equivalence between abortion and capital punishment, they are wrong.

The Holy Spirit does not protect individual bishops of the USCCB, or even the USCCB itself, from error.

Furthermore, the USCCB itself holds no canonical doctrinal authority whatsoever. No Catholic is bound by any pronouncement by a national council of bishops. And in this particular circumstance, insofar as individual bishops of the USCCB or even the USCCB itself is drawing a moral equivalence between abortion and capital punishment, they are to be opposed and corrected, because if they are doing so, they are teaching error.

I have never supported capital punishment and never will. But there is no teaching by the Catholic Church that states can not use capital punishment. We can thank Cardinal Bernadin and his "seamless garment" for teaching otherwise. I would love to see capital punishment end for a host of reasons, but it is not forbidden by the Church.

Amen.

Shlomo DocBrian,

A prime difference between Westerners and Easterners is that we would not be as disrespectful of our Eparchs as you are to yours.

But since you do not wish to respect our Eparchs maybe you will respect the words of John Paul the Great.

The new evangelization calls for followers of Christ who are unconditionally pro-life: who will proclaim, celebrate and serve the Gospel of life in every situation. A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform. I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary. (Evangelium Vitae)(also in St. Louis, MO, January 1999)

Punishment cannot be reduced to mere retribution, much less take the form of social retaliation or a sort of institutional vengeance. Punishment and imprisonment have meaning if they serve the rehabilitation of the individual by offering those who have made a mistake an opportunity to reflect and to change their lives in order to be fully reintegrated into society. (Pope John Paul II, Jubilee Homily to Prisoners, Rome, July 2002)

The Holy Father calls recourse to the death penalty �unnecessary� and painfully reminds us that our �model of society bears the stamp of the culture of death, and is therefore in opposition to the Gospel message.� (Pope John Paul II, World Day of the Sick, Washington, DC, February 2003)

May the proclamation of Christmas be a source of encouragement to all those who work to bring relief to the tormented situation in the Middle East by respecting international commitments. May Christmas help to strengthen and renew, throughout the world, the consensus concerning the need for urgent and adequate measures to halt the production and sale of arms, to defend human life, to end the death penalty, to free children and adolescents from all forms of exploitation, to restrain the bloodied hand of those responsible for genocide and crimes of war, to give environmental issues, especially after the recent natural catastrophes, the indispensable attention which they deserve for the protection of creation and of human dignity! (Pope John Paul II, Christmas Day Message, 1998)

Nowadays, in America as elsewhere in the world, a model of society appears to be emerging in which the powerful predominate, setting aside and even eliminating the powerless: I am thinking here of unborn children, helpless victims of abortion; the elderly and incurably ill, subjected at times to euthanasia; and the many other people relegated to the margins of society by consumerism and materialism. Nor can I fail to mention the unnecessary recourse to the death penalty when other "bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons. Today, given the means at the State's disposal to deal with crime and control those who commit it, without abandoning all hope of their redemption, the cases where it is absolutely necessary to do away with an offender 'are now very rare, even non-existent practically'". (Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia in America January 1999)

The primary purpose of the punishment which society inflicts is "to redress the disorder caused by the offense." Public authority must redress the violation of personal and social rights by imposing on the offender an adequate punishment for the crime, as a condition for the offender to regain the exercise of his or her freedom. In this way authority also fulfills the purpose of defending public order and ensuring people's safety, while at the same time offering the offender an incentive and help to change his or her behavior and be rehabilitated.

It is clear that for these purposes to be achieved, the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: In other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare if not practically nonexistent. (Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 1995)

So please tell me how the Holy Father is also wrong on this.

Further, we Eastern Catholics are bound by the authority of our Holy Synods and Patriarchs which have also called the Death Penalty immoral and unjust.

Poosh BaShlomo,
Yuhannon

I am quite grateful to God for the late Cardinal's teaching on the "seamless garment" and Pope John Paul II of blessed memory spoke out strongly against the death penalty as well.

Shlomo Lkhoolkhoon,

Here is the website on the Church's campaign to end the Death Penalty in the United States.

The Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty [usccb.org]

Poosh BaShlomo Lkhoolkhoon,
Yuhannon