www.byzcath.org Forums Ban on evangelization

I have been told that there was a document issued from Rome (before Vatican II) that actually disallowed the Ukrainian Catholic Church outside of Ukraine from active evangelization. Is this actually true or is it a myth? If true, what is the name of that document, or the year it was promulgated and who issued this document?

It was probably the same department that issued the directives to seminaries prior to the council dictating that all classes were to be taught in Latin.

My father, who was a seminarian at the time, pointed out that the directive had to be translated into English so that all the seminarians could read it. The irony was lost on no one, and the directive was eventually (and happily) discarded.

Hopefully the UGCC filed that directive away as well - a sad testimony to the bias of some Latin hierarchs. There were so many kooky things like that that prior to the council. And the Traditionalists don't think the Church was in need of reform?!?

Pace e' bene,

Gordo

Father Michael,

Not sure of the answer to your question, but I suspect that one of our Ukrainian brethren will be able to provide one. I would note though, as we discussed somewhere here, very recently, the CCEO states:

which some have taken as representing a proscription against evangelization by the Eastern and Oriental Catholic Churches, except as specifically allowed by Rome - a point on which I disagree more and more, each time I read it and the canons preceding it.

Many years,

Neil

You have got to be kidden me!

I presume that this means that if the Byzantine Ruthenian church wished to establish a mission in Manilla, it could not do so on it's own authority.

Is that about right?

And if the Slovak Catholics of Canada wanted to establish a mission in Montana, that would also be a case where Rome would have to approve?

The Eastern churches already get a bum rap for not evangelising the four corners. This seems like a holdover from the bad old Praestantia ritus latini days.

If the Eastern churches are to recover their own traditions, I think that should include removing these shackles that inhibit the churches growth.

+T+
Michael

One place where it really hurts, is India. Where a large number of clergy are taken from the Kerala Church (Eastern Catholics) in the South where there are abundant vocations.

But when they are brought to evangelize elsewhere in India, they can only use the Roman Rite, and baptize converts to the Roman Catholic Church.

Dear Michael:

My compatriots would certainly welcome the Ruthenians in Manila!

However, you have been beaten to the punch by so many protestant sects, by the in-grown "Iglesia Ni Cristo," the Muslims, and, recently, the Orthodox when the EP himself blessed in 2001 its first parish in Manila (suburban Paranaque) with the attendance and tacit approval of representatives of the Archdiocese of Manila.

But, frankly, Manila (or the Philippines for that matter) is not mission territory. The capital and the country is overwhelmingly (Roman) Catholic having been missionized by the Spaniards and Portuguese way back in the 1500s. The Philippines has the 3rd largest Catholic population in the world, next to Mexico and Brazil, at nearly 69 million in a population of 85 million, or roughly 2/3 of the entire Catholic population of Asia! It is the first and the ONLY Christian (Catholic) country in Asia for a time until the Republic of East Timor seceded from Indonesia in May 2002, after a long and bloody civil war, and became the 2nd Catholic country in that region.

So, that country is not a mission territory, technically and realistically speaking.

Why don't Eastern Catholics target the other Asian countries with about 4 billion souls? Why don't you go to Indonesia (the largest Muslim country), Indo-China (Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia), China, Japan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia, etc? Filipino Catholic missionaries and intrepid European and North American Catholic missionaries are in these places.

Why don't everybody go to Africa? Latin missionaries are also busy there and everywhere in the globe.

So, I think the issue is not that Eastern Catholics are forbidden by Rome to missionize the world; it is that Eastern Catholics simply do not have the people and the wherewithals to launch missionary activities in distant lands!

Amado

Bless, Father Michael,

I do believe that Fr. Prof. Galadza would know this - he once told me about it.

Happily, Ukrainian Greek-Catholics have learned to accept ONLY what Rome defines in terms of faith and morals.

The administrative stuff that the Eastern Congregation likes to shove down our throats as it pertains to us Eastern Catholics often appears rather contradictory to both of the above . . .

(Forgive me, Father, for I may have sinned . . .)

Alex

Has anyone come up with any info about the alleged "ban"? I have not, and am curious if anyone else has.

What I don't understand is how such a ban could be justified. Wouldn't it directly contradict the Great Commission of Jesus Christ to proclaim the Gospel?

--John

Randy,

Nothing more than what was posted earlier but, by chance, I ran across this last evening

See [b] The New Evangelization of America[/b] [melkite.org] , remarks by Bishop John (Elya) from 2003.

Many years,

Neil

Dear Randy:

I am thinking on the same line as Neil's as the "New Evangelization" launched by John Paul II at the turn of the millenium called for all Churches in the Catholic communion to cast their respective "nets" for new believers.

The only limitation, if we can even call it that, is that there should be coordination in this massive worldwide effort. Thus, I think it is implied that Churches should avoid "overlapping" territories to missionize/evangelize.

To reduce (or eliminate) this duplication of efforts, rules (and the Codes) grant to the Apostolic See (Rome), through the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, the power to define mission terroitories.

It might help us clarify and confirm the existence of such a ban if Neil can get a word from the Most Reverend Nicholas J. Samra, Greek-Melkite Auxiliary Bishop of Newton, who currently represents the Eastern Catholic Churches in the USCCB's Committee for Evangelization.

Amado