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Well this is a prayer thread I didn't want it to turn into a debate thread. Without going into it much further the issues I have are with the heresy of papal supremacy (the Pope is not infallible by himself, no such thing as speaking dogmatically ex cathedra and the pope has never held universal jurisdiction over the entire church, something Rome admits herself in several documents that can be read on the vatican website).

Trump resumed providing military aid and intelligence a few days later.
He is now abrogating the free trade deal he agreed to a few years ago with Canada and Mexico.
He is not respecting the US pledge made to Ukraine when it gave up its nuclear arms.

yet

He wants to make deals with Ukraine.

One has to really be naive to believe he'll respect any deal he makes.

I am also curious about the history of this.

From the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, St. Volodymyr Parish Established in the Chicago Eparchy
"On March 22, 2025, the parish of St. Volodymyr was officially established at St. Volodymyr’s Church in Santa Clara, California. Parishioners, together with church administrator Fr. Roman Bobesiuk, Fr. Denys Smoliarsky, and Deacon Oleh Zatvarsky, solemnly welcomed Bishop Venedykt Aleksiichuk of the Eparchy of St. Nicholas in Chicago. They greeted the bishop with bread, salt, and flowers as a sign of respect and spiritual unity." St. Volodymyr Parish Established In Chicago Eparchy [ugcc.ua]
It's nice to see good news! I don't live anywhere near California (nor do I plan to), but, it's nice to see out east, out west. I actually had the privilege of getting to know a priest (now a Hieromonk) who is based in a different part of California, when he was in Augusta, Georgia.
So, I am aware that the Eastern Church already has a presence there. But, California is a big state. I'd imagine some people still have to go quite the distance to find the nearest Eastern Catholic (or, in some cases, even Eastern Orthodox) temple.
I just felt like sharing good news, you know?

Regardless of its orthodoxy or heterodoxy the Latin Church did not have the authority to unilaterally alter the creed and Rome MUST return to the actual creed. It is rightly called the Symbol of Faith in the Orthodox/Byzantine Catholic tradition. How can we say we have the same faith when we don't even recite the same creed?

This is double for me as a Ruthenian since our church continues to use an adulterated creed that was altered to appease feminists. Getting rid of "For us men and for our salvation" changed to "For us and for our salvation" all to appease feminists who were triggered that the word "men" was used and it excluded women. Lord have mercy!

from the Holy See Bulletin:

Seems to me that it is taken for granted that he knows Italian

Can we not acknowledge even here on a specifically Byzantine Catholic forum, that Patriarch Shevchuk is indeed a PATRIARCH? Rome continues to disrespect the UGCC by referring to its Patriarch as a mAjOr aRcHbIsHoP in their efforts to appease the Russian Orthodox Church/Patriarch Kirill. We do not need Rome to recognize Patriarch Shevchuk for him to be acknowledged as Patriarch. To my knowledge all of the Eastern Catholic heads refer to him as a Patriarch. So let's give his office the respect it deserves, yes?

That said I "do" believe it weird how we promote Orthodoxy so much. Our gift shops are full of Orthodox icons, books from Orthodox saints and monastics, we adopt Orthodox spirituality, etc All coming from people who would not even view us as Christians since we are outside the Orthodox Church. Some of those we call saints were unapologetic in their condemnations of the heresies of Rome/"papism" as they'd call it. It's weird for us to cling to that and still maintain communion. Why venerate a saint who doesn't view us as being inside the church? If we want to venerate them, why not return to communion with them?

Christ is in our midst!!

Francis W.,

Have your physicians suggested surgery to straighten your spine? I have heard of successful results from such attempts.

Meanwhile prayers go up for the easing of your pain.

Bob

As long as they do it out of sight of everyone else, so as not to become a distraction/spectacle, then sure. Although there is a difference insofar that Rome allows all manner of variation whereas the Byzantine churches do not. On the Lord's Day we stand for prayer and never kneel per canon 20 of the First Holy and Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. Rome allows standing, kneeling, communion by one or both kinds, in the hand or on the tongue, etc. So there's room for us to express ourselves as Byzantine Catholics without "breaking the rules" (for lack of better words) whereas the Latin practice does not enjoy that same luxury with our "rules".

I believe Jay Dyer has them linked on his x account (I first became aware of them on a livestream he did talking about the CIA leaks around JFK). I don't take Jay as Gospel by any means but he is far more intelligent than his critics let on and he almost always does a good job of citing his sources. I just had the stream on as background noise while I was doing laundry over the weekend and going about the house. I would think if it were proven to be true, that the CIA elected certain popes via their influence who would fit their secularist (and particularly anti communist) agenda, then this would invalidate their pontificates. Especially how drastically the Latin Church has changed since John XXIII opened Vatican II. It would call literally everything into question from Vatican II on. And it would also, in my personal opinion, explain a great deal about the general decline of the Latin Church since Vatican II.

Thanks Mockingbird.

It was hard enough as a 25 min. talk (I'm a detail person.) but it is now just 20 min. with 5 for questions. I'm still working on getting it down to size while not having it become disjointed, and it's still a speed read. I will post it "as given."

Let your voice be heard! God bless.