www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Need for more Unity among Catholic Churches

I might have posted something like this before -

but I think we need to have more unity among the Catholic Churches first, and them maybe we can then reach out to the Orthodox Churches.

When I first started going to some Eastern Rite churches I was very confused - parish listings for the Diocese of Scranton did not list Byzantine - The Ukranian Catholics operated in a diff Eparchy than the Byzantines. I have spoken to some Latin Rite Priests that were never in a Byzantine Rite church.

This past summer there were some Ecumenical talks among local Catholic and Orthodox clergy at St. Tikhon's Monastary in South Cannan, PA. His Beatitude Metropolitan Herman allowed St. Tikhon's to be used for the talks.

It seems that in some respects churches are talking, but the ones that should know more about each other do not.

One would think that because the Byzantine and Ukie Catholic Churches are under the Pope there would be more ties to the Roman Catholic Diocese.

Amy ideas and comments ????

What would be the definition of unity? The different rites would not change their Liturgies to fall into a universal union. I'm not sure what you are looking for.

Those parishes were not listed in the Diocese of Scranton because they are not a part of the Diocese of Scranton. Why would parishes, say in the diocese of Harrisburg be listed there? They are in a different diocese. Yes, the Ukranians and Ruethenians each have their own diocese. Why not? Also the Melkites, Maronites, and other Eastern Churches. Each have their own customs and traditions.

I'm not shocked that most Latin priests haven't even been in an Eastern church. The choir and priest from Holy Ghost in Philadelphia used to have a liturgy at St. Charles Seminary so that the seminarians would be educated in both Eastern and Western traditions. I don't know if they still do that or not.

Asking the Eastern Catholics for "more" unity than as it is right now might just add incendiary bomblets (no, not yet "bombs" ) to the angst and grief of some sui iuris Churches I know because of mistreatment by the bigger Latin Church, mistakenly perceived or not!

I surmise there is a need for "more" cooperation and understanding, these terms to be defined first by them this time!

Amado

Hi,

While I agree that we need much more mutual knowledge, especially educating Latins about the Eastern Churches, I think that I am not entirely sure I agee with the precise meaning of your quest for more unity.

Each Church Sui-Iuris has its own hierarchy, and therefore, it is not only acceptable, it is the whole point of the Autonomous status of the various Catholic Churches that the Ukrainian parishes are under the authority of the Ukrianian bishop, and the Byzantine (Ruthenian) parishes are under the authority of the Byzantine (Ruthenian) bishop, and the Latin parishes are under the authority of the Latin bishop.

Ideally, a local bishop could have parishes from more than one liturgical tradition under his authority, and that way we could return to the old "one city = one bishop" practice. But in reality, we cannot raise the bar that much higher for our bishops, who already have enough trouble handling single-Church jurisdictions.

Now, should there be more cooperation between Sui-Iuris Churches working in the same area? Absolutely!!!

The web site of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles does have a listing of the various Eastern Catholic parishes within its territory, we do have parish churches being shared by parishes and missions of different Sui-Iuris Churches, but it does so separately, making it very clear that although they are fully Catholic, they are not under the jurisdiction of our Metropolitan Archbishop.

My own parish of St. Jude the Apostle is the temporary seat of the Maronite mission for the San Fernando Valley while they pick the site for their own building and build their facilities.

The Maronite pro-pastor, Fr. Pierre is an associated pastor of our Latin parish (He is currently back in Lebanon for the funeral of his father, who died suddenly last Saturday night, so please pray for him and his family).

Our own pastor, Fr. Bill runs the Maronite Eparchy's Tribunal, and he is not only a Latin Protonotary Apostolic (the "highest" officialy title for Monsignori), he is also a Maronite Chor-Bishop.

So yes, this kind of close relationship and cooperation should be happening everywhere, but that doesn't mean that the jurisdictional structures of the various Sui-Iuris Churches need to be affected.

Shalom,
Memo

I'm not sure I catch your drift... I already feel we have unity among the Catholics.

I certainly would not like to see Eastern churches look or feel more like Roman churches or do some of the more modern things that Roman churches do. To me, that would be horrible. As a kid who grew up with an Orthodox parent and a Catholic one, I definitely am more attracted to the Orthodox traditions - but I am definitely a Catholic. Even though I grew up entirely post-Vatican II, the modern Roman Catholic church is not a spiritual home for me at all. I feel like a visitor from another planet sometimes. I believe the same spiritual truths, but there would not be so many types of church if everyone expressed faith in precisely the same way.

I wouldn't go too much by what your parish priests know about other types of Catholics. Sadly, many Roman Catholic priests are really lacking in understanding the many flavors of Catholicism. I really think it is not their fault - they seem to miss that emphasis in the seminary and parish priests in particular are so very busy and overworked it is difficult for them to focus beyond their many duties and get to thinking about learning about those "other" Catholics.

The local Roman Catholic bishop did visit the Byzantine parishes within the geographic area of his diocese. They aren't under him (we're not part of the Roman diocese after all), so he did this in cooperation with the bishop for the eparchy. He received a very nice reception at my parish. We saw more visitors after that, probably because parish priests mentioned our existence.

When I first started going to Eastern churches the one priest told me that there are 22 Rites in the Catholic Church - Pick one.

Some of the things that came out of the talks between the Diocese of Scranton and the Orthodox is that we are more the same than different.

The differences in Rites and ways of worship is what make us distict - any kind of unity or unification would have to preserve these differences.

The one Orthodox Bishop wrote an article on the Pro Life issues and some of the Catholic clergy said they could not have done a better job addressing these issues.

It kills me that some Latin priests have know knowlege of any rite other that the Latin Rite.

Honestly, If I did not have a parent and relatives in the Byzantine Rite, I might not have any knowlege of it or desire to learn about it.

Some of my cousins are Latin Rite, some are Byzantine Rite.

Some of my forerunners may have been Orthodox. My grandmnother, although Byzantine and later Latin Rite always remembered the Orhtodox holidays.

My grandfather was Russian - Ukranian. I think he was the Orthodox one.

I was told my great grandmother was able to converse in something close to Church Slavonic or Russian - she was mostly Slovak.

It is kind of intersting to see how thru marriage, and choice and change in life's circumstances they changed churches.