www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Father, how and why you became priest?

Since I am thinking on be a priest (of the Melkite Church), I would like, if possible, to know those things about the priests of our forum.

Asking your blessings, Fathers,
Philippe

Assuming if a Roman Catholic wanted to be a Melkite priest (or a priest in any of the Eastern Churches), would it be possible? Of course, let us assume this RC chap is single.

To be an actual "Melkite priest" you'd have to switch sui iuris Churches, from the Latin Church to the Melkite Church.

But you could become a priest with bi-ritual faculties without having to switch, I would imagine.

Alexis

The candidate's marital status is a matter for the specific Eastern Church and the specific Bishop to consider.

The "bi-ritual" business is a hangover from the experience of the Assumptionists and some other communities about a century ago.

On the one hand, it is probably better for the priest to be a member of the community which he is to serve. On the other hand, the nomenclature of the canonists does not always fit too well with reality. It is not unusual to find candidates who discern a vocation to the Greek-Catholic priesthood but no vocation to accept compulsion in the matter of ethnic identity. On the level of laity, it is not unusual to find people who will have no truck with attempts to compel them by legislation to attend any church that they do not choose to attend. Sometimes the canon lawyers would do well to open their eyes and ears, shut their mouths, and find out what actually goes on.

Fr. Serge

Collin, Alexis is correct.
If an RC wanted to become a priest in the Melkite or another Eastern Catholic church, he would first have to change rites.

The process has been described several times on this forum, so you'll find ample information on it here, and elsewhere. (It is essentially permission coming from an agreement between the two [arch-]bishops concerned. If both rites are not represented in the place where the transfer is requested, however, permission must be sought from Rome.)

Thus there are really two things happening: changing rites, and then discerning your priestly vocation from within the new rite. Two vocations, in fact.

Though there are apparently biritual priests in the US, they do not exist everywhere. We do not have any RC priests in Australia, for example, with faculties for the Byzantine-rite Eastern churches. We have one RC priest who has faculties to concelebrate with Maronite monks within his parish boundaries--as the parishioners turn up at either church. Our Melkite archdeacon has biritual faculties to serve in RC churches for similar reasons.

As Fr Serge says: many of our people do not attend a single church (or rite). The Nativity is the liturgy attended by only a core of our people, as it differs markedly from the Latin celebrations replete with carols. During Holy Week and Easter, we've got people hanging from the rafters.

Fr. Mitch Pacwa of EWTN fame has, for example, bi-ritual faculties (Maronite and Roman).

Alexis

If you have discussed your vocation with the RC diocesan vocation director, then it might be very hard to transfer over to the Melkites.

I knew a young man who did try to discern his vocation with the diocesan RC vocation director. Then he entered the RC seminary and asked permission to obtain biritual faculties but was denied. When he attempted to transfer to the Melkite seminary, he was also denied because Mahony simply would not allow it.

I lost contact with him after I headed East and was chrismated in the Orthodox Church, but he was not a happy camper in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Phillippe,

Cherish your discerned call to the priesthood, may the Holy Spirit guide you.

First, priests are not initially trained to be bi-ritual; they become a priest in their Church in which they were baptised, or to which they canonically transferred to.

According to your profile, you are already Melkite; please correct me if I'm wrong; so the "bi-ritual comments are not valid (regarding a vocation in the Melkite Church.)

If you haven't already done so, speak to your pastor about your call; he can make arrangements for you to meet your Eparchial vocations director or seminary.

Regarding the call, from your posts it appears that you will be a good vocation candidate. Continue to pray for guidance.

I and most of my deacon brothers have answered the call because we are grateful to God for the wonderful gifts and belessings that He has bestowed upon us and want to do our best to offer ourselves in gratitude. The difference here is that we are generally older vocations with families and lay jobs, so we have had time to experiences many of life's ups and downs.

I hope that these comments are helpful.

Fr. Deacon Paul

Elizabeth Maria,

Being a Catholic in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles would be a fate worse than death!

Alexis

Thank you, Fr. Deacon Paul!

Yes, I am melkite. Why those commentaries about bi-ritualism invaded my topic I don't know.

Here in Brazil we, melkites, don't have eparchial vocations director, neither seminary, but I have already talked my Bishop. He counselled me to wait until my 24, 25 years (I'm 19 now) and not to go to the East, because it is dangerous (having to go at a latin university). My will, however, is to go to Lebanon...

Might I suggest some other possibilities?

1) The Andrew Sheptytsky Institute at Saint Paul's University, Ottawa.

2) The Pontifical Greek College, Rome.

3) The Canisianum, Innsbruck, Austria.

Nominally, the Eparchy of Newton in the USA has a seminary, but it has not functioned for several years - pity; it was doing good work.

To some degree, it makes a difference whether you wish to be married or celibate or monastic, and whether you wish to serve in Brazil or elsewhere. Don't be in too much of a hurry to close any doors.


Fr. Serge

Fr. Serge, what's the Canisianum? I spent my entire summer in Innsbruck and never visited it! Do you know what area of town it's in?

Alexis

Thank you very much, Fr. Serge for the suggestions!

The problem is that I would like to to be a melkite priest of the root, having the experience of the oriental culture and dominating the arabic. I am in such a hurry?

Maybe it is just me, but I don't think that anyone has answered Philippe's question, which was:

"Fathers, how and why did you become a priest"?

I believe that Philippe is asking for personal stories of 'callings' or 'decisions' of clerics on the forum, as well as how they proceeded once they decided.

Alice

Wow, still have to change rite? Interesting. Looks like I'll have plenty of time to do that seeing that I need to be in an Eastern parish for one year before discussing options with a priest.

Referring to Matta, I am aware of changing rites and I have a rough idea of what the procedure is like. Most importantly, its gotta be an honest transfer.

Anyways, to concur with Alice, we'd like to know how some priests on this forum became priests. This discussion should go to another thread and lets talk about the priesthood. Perhaps the priests on the forum would like to share their vocation stories?