www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization Telling Roman Catholics Eastern Catholics...

What is the best way to explain to my Latin/Roman Catholic family that my Ukrainian Catholic Church is Catholic. It doesn't seem to always sink. How can I explain it? After I try to explain that we are all one church they still don't understand. I tell them that we all accept the Pope as our leader, and our Sacrements are the same, but i have a feeling some still wonder.
how can I explain? My daughter goes to Roman Catholic School, and they don't get First Communion until 2nd grade, but she gets Communion at our church. My Grandfather had a fit when he knew I was going to the Ukrainian Catholic Church. He was upset that I told him that my daughter could recieve communion without first communion classes and the big Roman Ceremony. But I am from both Eastern and Western Catholic roots, but my Western Catholic roots don't understand or even know about their Eastern family. We are all one, how can I explain this. I think it is a big hurdle, and I think if more awareness existed, it would be better for all of us Catholics. And I would love to teach both East and West about each other, and raise awareness in the West about the
East. I think both have AWESOME things to teach each other. I want to mention that one side of my family is East, the other side is western Catholic.

We are Catholics because we are in communion with Rome. We are Orthodox in communion with Rome. Also, go this this website www.byzantinecatholic.com [byzantinecatholic.com] click on "radio" then begin listening to the broadcasts titled "The Light of the East". The purpose of the program is to explain our Church to the world but especially to Roman Catholics.

Dan L

I assume (based on similar experiences) that their idea of Catholicism is, for lack of a better word (and not to condescend) "cultural". That is, "Catholicism" means unmarried priests,
Rosary, daily Mass, Gregorian chant (or 70s-type "folk music"), statues, Fulton Sheen, Catholic Answers, scholasticism, devotions to various European saints of the past few hundred years, etc. This is the way we Catholics do things and other things belong to other religions.

If so, that's the root of the problem. Those things are Roman-rite Catholicism; and though of course it's 100% acceptable, to say that only "Roman-rite" Catholicism is Catholicism is actually uncatholic. It's like stating that the Rosary is the only suitable daily prayer because everyone we know does it, while remaining ignorant of the Liturgy of the Hours, the various Carmelite traditions, etc [yes unfortunatley people like this do exist, and I see no need to burst their bubble if it works for them and if they don't say someone's a heretic for not praying the Rosary].

Unfortunately, this is exacerbated by the schisms between Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, etc - resulting in the impression in many minds that their own local Church is the only correct one and that the others are "other religions". You saw a lot of this from many local Churches in the "medieval" period. That's NOT Catholic - in Rome's eyes, the
"Roman", "Byzantine", "Coptic", "Assyrian", etc. traditions are ALL perfectly Catholic and equal (at least in ecclesioligical theory, if not in policy implementation).

The solution I guess would be to slowly educate your family. Unfortunately, some of these people are essentially "cultural Roman Catholics" and you're lucky if their interest in their Faith is only to fulfill their weekly obligation.

Some talking points that might be useful:

- Aidan Nichols, OP is 100% right that "[Eastern] Fathers and other ecclesiastical writiers, their liturgical texts and practices, their iconographic tradition - these remain ... authoritative sources to which the Catholic theologian can and must turn his or her intellectual construal of Catholic Christianity". A Catholic who thinks of the patristic era MUST read about and appreciate the Eastern Fathers.

Of course, not everyone is destined to be a patristics expert. Still, they should have some appreciation or openness towards the patristic era and Church history.

- along those lines, tell them about your Faith. For instance, last Sunday was the Sunday of Orthodoxy. When talking to them, tell them about the procession and the icons. From there, explain to them that this is the celebration of the victory of the Church over the iconoclasts and that the Byzantine Church was the primary battleground and defeated the heresy with the help of Rome.

- show them various Pope's discussions of the East, particularly the current one (if they're that kind of Roman Catholic) or previous ones like Innocent III (if they're the other kind).

- [more general, and not really appropriate for evangelising your family] Go to/get involved in Catholic events and explain that you're Byzantine rite to everyone you meet when they ask what Parish you go to. Become active and involved, so that they know that these people do exist and are good Catholics.

Other thoughts?

[sorry for the EXTREMELY broad generalizations. You've got to do this when you don't know/won't know the people in question. I also hope at least some of that was helpful]

Where to start...
The Decree on the Eastern Catholic Churches from Vatican II( Orientalium Ecclesiarum) : http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_...19641121_orientalium-ecclesiarum_en.html

The Apostolic Letter "Light of the East" ( Orientale Lumen) by Pope John Paul II: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/j...-ii_apl_02051995_orientale-lumen_en.html

The U.S. Catholic Bishop's Conference document on Eastern Catholics in the USA: http://www.cin.org/east/eastcathamer.html

The Knights of Columbus have a PDF version of their pamphlet in the Veritas series on the Eastern Churches written by Bishop Basil Losten that can be downloaded: http://www.kofc.org/rc/en/publications/cis/publications/veritas/Veritas_CIS342.pdf

Also Fr. George Appleyard wrote a book specifically for Roman RCIA programs as a primer to the Eastern Churches called Light of the East. That can be obtained from the St. Josaphat Eparchy Bookstore: http://www.stjosaphateparchy.org/bookstore.htm

I'm still in "seeker mode"; hence, while I can't expound eloquently on the faith, at least I can point you to some things I've discovered. For example...

I came across an online book which may be helpful:
The Byzantine Catholics by Basil Shereghy
http://www.byzantines.net/books/byzantinecatholics.htm
(See www.byzantines.net [byzantines.net] for other resources)

From the Introduction by the author:

"The Decree of Vatican Council 11 on the Eastern Catholic Churches states that 'the Catholic Church holds in high esteem the institutions of the Eastern Churches, their liturgical rites, ecclesiastical traditions, and Christian way of life.' (Ch. 1).

For Catholics and non-Catholics alike to acquire this high esteem for the Eastern Churches, demands awareness of the traditions, the history and the spirit of these Churches. Without such knowledge they cannot respect, let alone, love them. The late Patriarch Maximos IV Saygh loved to quote an old Arab proverb: 'Man only dislikes what he does not know.'

This booklet does not claim to be a work of deep scholarship. It was written with the intention of giving to those interested, in a most condensed style, some of the most essential information concerning the rites of the Eastern Catholic Churches. The booklet is meant for readers who, in a shortest possible time, would like to learn some necessary facts about the Eastern Churches."


Also, they may be better convinced if they read about the Byzantine Catholic/Eastern Rite Church from Roman Catholic Resources (as the starting point - begin with references they would be more open to reading):


ORIENTALIUM ECCLESIARUM Decree on the Catholic Churches of the Eastern Rite Second Vatican Council
http://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/V2EAST.HTM

Pope Prays for �Renewed Proclamation of the Gospel� Among Byzantine Catholics
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=2796
http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=1266

From the Q/A section at the EWTN website:

who are the Eastern Catholic Churches?
http://www.ewtn.com/vexperts/showre...p;Keyword=pope&pgnu=1&groupnum=0

Eastern Catholic Churches and the Pope
(consider the Pope to be infallible?)
http://www.ewtn.com/vexperts/showre...p;Keyword=pope&pgnu=1&groupnum=0


There are many others that the members here could direct you to! It might be as easy as saying to your relatives "Have you asked the priest at the RC parish about the Byzantine Catholic Church?". Does your diocese have a website with links to other Catholic parishes ... are the Eastern Catholic parishes included? If so, that also "speaks for itself", too.

I hope I been of some help (at least as much as a seeker/inquirer can be!)

Yours in Christ's love,

Woody

Alleghenymountains-

There is a lot of good advice here. I had to convince my 90-year old Polish grandmother that the sisters of St. Basil in Uniontown are really Catholic. She used to be in the Polish National Catholic Church!

By the way, there is someone at steelers.com that uses alleghenymountains. Are you the same person?

You can tell them it is the Church of the Pope's Mother!

LOL! I just brought that up this evening in our Saint Michaels' Outreach ECF class, which had 6 or so RC's who are interested in learning more about our Eastern Catholic faith.

An anology I like to use is ancient Israel. Israel was clearly one nation (for at least most of its history), but made up of twelve distinct tribes, each of which had some common family practices and some that were unique to that tribe. The Catholic Church, as the New Israel of God, is made up of many different spiritual families that share the same faith and the same sacraments, but expressed and celebrated in their own unique way.

Just a thought...

Gordo

Thank you all for helping me. It is just a few memebers of my family I am going to have a hard time explaining this to. I ran it by this person about a year ago, and this person wasn't too thrilled. My parents are cool with it, so it isn't them. My RC priest is cool with it, and when I switch officially, I still will keep in contact with him as he is a outstanding and awesome man.
I think I'm going to take the eggs I make at Pysanky up to this person when I'm done with them. This might break the ice, and I'll mention the Pope's Mom being Ukrainian Catholic, and if the conversation starts to go downhill, I will have read the mentioned articles and defend my side with them.
Thank you all

The big question is, how to explain to one's sister why a certain three words are whited out of the Creed in our parish's liturgy books...

Just tell her that it is just going back to original tradition!!!

Bring them to Church with you. When they hear prayers for the Pope of Rome, repeated more often than they hear it in their own parish church, they can hardly doubt it.

I tried!

Shlomo Lkhoolkhoon,

A great pamplet to get is "Eastern Catholics in the United States of America." The Catholic Conference prints it, and it will help Romans understand us better.

Poosh BaShlomo Lkhoolkhoon,
Yuhannon

Someday I wouldn't mind going to RC churches and giving some talks about the Eastern Churches to sunday schools, or even visiting the local Catholic H.S. No one EVER talked about the other Churches in Communion with Rome in ANY of my CCD classes or my Catholic H.S. The mission would be to educate and inform raise awareness about the Catholic Church as a whole. Not to evangelize, just to teach. Sound like a good idea?