www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Converts From Eastern Catholicism

Posted elsewhere:
http://www.euphrosynoscafe.com/foru...ostdays=0&postorder=asc&start=90

Then,

:rolleyes:

"In Christ" ????

Daniel,

It's bad enough that folks make snide remarks about Churches outside the Catholic/Orthodox communions. Cheap shots at Sister Churches, whether by Orthodox or Catholics, really test the concept of Christian charity, to say nothing of the precepts which we all agreed to when we became members of this Forum.

Many years,

Neil

Daniel,

If you can not speak charitably about our brothers and sisters in the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese please refrain from posting on this Forum. Your sarcasm reflects only on yourself.

Admin

The number of people moving from an Eastern Catholic to an Eastern Orthodox Church or from Eastern Orthodoxy to Eastern Catholicism per year in America is tiny (probably no more than a few dozen a year, given our small size of our respective Churches). More often than not the reasons for the movement are not theological. Most change Churches because of marriage or simply because they find a community they are attracted to and feel at home in.

There are far more people moving from Eastern Orthodoxy and Eastern Catholicism to Roman Catholicism. This also is not usually primarily for theological reasons. Most often it is due to marriage to a Roman Catholic (and the Roman Catholic Church is seen as the multi-ethnic or non-ethnic Church while the Eastern Christian Church is usually fairly ethnic). Fairly frequently it is due to relocation of the individual to an area with no Eastern Christian parish.

I would switch to the Eastern Catholic Rite in a minute if there was a Church near, closest one is 50 odd miles away.

james

Daniel, I was received by Baptism.

All the best,
Woody Jones

daniel!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am surprised at you for that comment! If you are seriously considering the Orthodox Faith, you don't go about it by making comments like these. Terrible.

DJS,

Wasnt judgeing the EP just expressing my opinion.

Irish Melkite,

I dont believe that the Catholic church is a sister church, to say that would be to support a modern day heresy.


Admin,

Sorry to Sound uncharitable, wont happen again.


Poor Sinner In Christ
Daniel

Sure. :rolleyes:

But seriously Daniel, as you are working out your salvation, not with fear and trembling, but by relying on your own opinions about the truth, then you really would be well advised to improve your capabilities for discerning it.

No one ever said that the "Catholic Church" was the sister Church of the Orthodox Church, neither John Paul II has said that. It has been said that the Church of Rome is the sister church of the Antiochian Church or the Serbian Church as individual churches.

And receiving people by Baptism has never been the only licit way of receiving converts. Why do some people think it would be "nicer" that way? Baptism is performed when the person was not Baptized or was Bapized incorrectly. Baptism by triple immersion in the Greek way is no longer seen as a condition si ne qua non for the recognition of Baptism unless it's performed by a gravely heretical community (JW's, Mormons, some Potestant sects). There's no real difference between the way both Orthodox and Catholics see Bapism.

What about the Balamand Agreement?

Thats calls Orthodox and Catholic to recognize each other as sister churches?

Also, the earlies Canons of the church say, that
Heretical sacraments are worthless PERIOD.

Poor Sinner
Daniel

DJS

you dont know me personally so dont pass your
judgement on me. You know nothing about my
Spiritual life or my life period.

I only know what you are posting Daniel...

If you see the two post of yours that I cited as somehow not contradictory, you are lacking in your ability to discern the truth.

You have explictly stated that your current change of churches is explained by your becoming aware of the truth in matters that you have studied. I can think of scores of reasons that might justify or even necessitate such a change. I don't have a problem with that per se. (And if there's more to the story than you are posting here and there, well I can only say that I find that to be a relief.)

In general (not directed at you in particular), however, I am very suspicious of "truth" claims. Generally, they amount, IMO, to a weird narcissism. I am shocked at the manner in which people exalt brief readings and study as sufficient to cut through Gordian knots that have vexed seriously thoughtful people for centuries. Humility, in what we can hope to know, is an approach that is so much more obviously advisable - especially if one has little training and experience in study, from which this lesson would be clear. It's one thing to cultivate opinions as hypotheses, to explore them, and to learn from discussing them; it's quite another to take them so seriously as to act, precipitously, on them. How easy it becomes, then, to become incoherent in one's path, and so susceptible to getting off-track.

Just an opinion, not a judgment.

Daniel,

I am sorry to hear that you have decided to leave Byzantine Catholicism. Isn't this rather sudden? I seem to recall you joining us just last year!

Also, please share with us how you suddenly came across the "truth." I've been studying these issues for years, and it seems to me that things are more complicated than most people are aware. To suddenly come across the "truth" that the Church that you just joined is wrong after only a few months of membership strikes me as improbable.

Your friend,
Anthony

Dear Anthony,
I was just about to ask him the same thing. I am a convert several times...first time to Roman Catholicism, then to the Old Catholic Church and back to Ukrainian Catholicism and none of those changes were like that either...all took time, a process of years. I'm always suspicious of overnight conversions...they may be true, but often there are other factors involved. Don