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Joined: Aug 2022
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V
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V
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Hi everyone!

I have a question about weather I am actually under the jurisdiction of the Ruthenian Catholic Church. Here’s the background. I was baptized as an infant in a Latin Rite Catholic Church in Southern California. My father was as well, and so was my paternal grandfather. Here’s where the question arises. One of my cousins was doing genealogical research to determine the origins of our family and our unusual family name. She uncovered a baptismal record showing that my great grandfather in the paternal line was baptized in a Byzantine Rite Catholic Church in Krizevac Croatia, now called Krizevci. It was and still is part of the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Krizevci. He then immigrated to the United States and established residency in Southern California. My grandfather was born there and baptized by a Latin Rite Catholic. Then my father was born and also baptized by a Latin Rite Catholic, and then I was as well.

According to Canon law, the rite of the child is determined by the rite the father belongs to no matter who did the baptism unless the child was baptized after the age of 14. There is no evidence of anyone changing to the Latin Rite. It would be very highly unlikely for this to happen at that time. And so my great grandfather, and then my grandfather, and then my father, and then I would inherit membership in The Greek Catholic Church of Croatia and Serbia. does this sound right? Is there a limit to how many generations unknowingly inherit membership in a sui jurisdiction church in the setting of immigration to the United States?

This could have implications for myself and my children. I married a non-Catholic. My marriage could be invalid since it was done in a Latin Rite church and not the proper Byzantine rite church. I am now civilly divorced. I got an annulment from my local diocese where the wedding took place. Did they even have jurisdiction? Thank you in advance for reading this and considering my questions.

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Christ is in our midst!!

Virtue55,

Welcome to the forum!! We hope your time with us is fruitful spiritually.

I am not a canon lawyer. My guess is that no matter what your marital status is, you are now a person free to marry--wherever it might be in the future. You married in the Latin Church; the Latin Church gave you an annulment. Your slate seems to be clean, no matter what your ritual church turns out to be, now or later. For the answer to where you belong, I believe it would be best to put this in the lap of a canon lawyer in the Latin diocese you are in, unless you can find a Ruthenian canon lawyer close by. I'm sure either one could clarify this matter for you.

Bob Moderator

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I think I have answered my own question. The history of Ruthenian Catholics in the US is complicated. Pope Leo X issued an apostolic letter, Ea Semper Fuit, which addressed the pastoral care of Ruthenian Catholics in the US. Among several other issues, it addressed the rite of a child being baptized in the US. If I understand it correctly, if baptized in the Latin Rite, the child was a Latin Rite Catholic even if the father was Ruthenian. Of course, a Ruthenian baptism would make the child Ruthenian. This makes sense as it would remove any confusion that may arise.

"Art. 35 But if the father be a Ruthenian, and the mother a Latin, it shall be free for the same father to baptize the offspring either in the Ruthenian rite, or even in the Latin rite, if he himself consented in favor of a Latin wife.

Art. 36 Infants belong to the jurisdiction of the parish priest in whose rite they are legitimately baptized, when by baptism the Latin or Ruthenian rite is received by profession, so that those baptized in the Latin rite look to the Latin rite; But those who were baptized in the Ruthenian rite are to be reckoned among the Ruthenians.

The case is accepted when baptism was conferred on them by a foreign rite due to grave necessity, when they were presumably close to death, or in the place where the parents were surprised at the time of the birth, and the pastor of the proper rite was not present; for then the rites, which the parents profess, will belong to the priest, according to the above statutes."

https://www-vatican-va.translate.go...tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

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Ea Semper was by Pope St. Pius X (not Leo). Thanks for the link. Also, the translation should be checked. For instance, the date at the end is garbled "one thousand and ninety-seventh" for millesimo nongentesimo septimo, that is 1907.

In Ea Semper the Pope describes how he is going to kill us with his love. The eventual stake through the heart would take until Cum Data Fuerit, 1929.


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