www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Disappointed with EWTN's Journey Home last night

Responding to anti-Catholic polemics is another matter. In the case of the really weird kind, it is sometimes best to pay no attention (one of my favorites of that genre was the accusation against Governer Al Smith of New York that he was supporting the project for the Holland Tunnel so as to be able to bring the Pope from Europe via this tunnel! - for those who are unfamiliar with access routes into and out of New York City, the Holland Tunnel goes from Manhattan to New Jersey).

But when anti-Catholic polemics become more serious, or at least more credible, then it is time for a measured response. Such a response is best given by a public or semi-public scholarly encounter between qualified people on both sides of the topic (whatever the topic may be).

I could give examples, but that would not make for edifying reading.

Another possibility exists in places where Catholics are being targetted by this, that, or the other anti-Catholic group (when I was living in Toronto in the nineteen-eighties, somebody was flooding the place with Jack Chick's anti-Catholic propaganda). When that occurs, it becomes necessary to alert the faithful and provide whatever specific information is needed.

Fr. Serge

With these observations of Easterners on the ambivalent treatment of Orthodoxy in the episodes featuring 3 Orthodox converts thus far, I think we should start a call-in or e-mail campaign requesting Marcus Grodi and his staff to set aside one "Open-Line Monday" guesting back James Likoudis, Fr. Dcn. David Hess, and Fr. Dcn. Joseph Pasquella. I think it takes from 1 to 2 years to get a slot in the weekly broadcast.

Included in this panel should be Fr. Mitch Pacwa and/or Fr. Thomas Loya and other priests connected with EWTN and who are knowledgeable about the Eastern Churches.

Marcus Grodi has done this for the Anglicans, Presbyterians and the Baptists.

Amado,

I agree with the suggestion of Fr. Loya, but Fr. Mitch Pacwa is bi-ritual, in his encounters interviewing both the Maronite Patriarch and the Apostolic Visitator for the North American Malankarese, he has been less than helpful toward Eastern Churches. He has been more of an apologist for the Latin Rite, while leading the interviewee to answer in a way that would not emphasis the Eastern Tradition. Instead of asking questions such as 'why are Eastern priests not ordained in N. America', he suggests that celibacy is better. Instead of asking if the Malankarese are working of removing latinizations and westernizations he suggests that these are the norm.

By the way, for those who missed to watch or listen to the worldwide broadcast by EWTN TV/Radio/Internet of Rev. Dcn. Joseph Pasquella's conversion story on "The Journey Home," it is now available in audio at:

http://www.ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/...0t=&T1=journey

Being the newest archived episode, it's #1 on the list. If the "Listen Now" button does not function, click on the "Download" button instead.

This should provide a common reference point in the on-going discussions.

EWTN does evidently have an "Eastern" program (or at least at one time they had it). Part of what we seem to be asking is not for some compartmentalized approach to the East but rather that all programs would, in the spirit of Orientale Lumen, breathe with both lungs. Anyone who presumes to stand and speak knowlegeably about Catholicism should at least be conversant in the Eastern perspective. That seems to be one of the goals of the CCC, and VII for that matter!

I don't know what happened to the program hosted by Fr. Sopoliga and Fr. Bertha(?). It used to be on air every week! Both Fr. Sopoliga and Fr. Bertha are Byzantine Catholic priests and know what they are talking about.

While agreeing with you that there seems to be a dearth of programming devoted to the Eastern Catholic Churches, I would like to think that it is NOT premedidated. The main culprit are production costs and the personnel required to air Eastern Catholic programs.

In this regard, Fr. Loya's "Light of the East" on radio is thriving over at "Relevant Radio" and his commentaries on the "Theology of the Body" is now broadcast nationwide weekly in the morning! It seems Fr. Loya's entire parish (kudos to Forum member Katie) is working behind the scenes!

Michael:

The suggested list is by no means restricted to Fr. Pacwa and Fr. Loya. Both came to mind only because they are "more" visible than others right now.

I am certain priests from the Maronites, Syro-Malankaras, Melkites, et al. can do the job as well. Our Forum has very knowledgeable priests (and laity) who can be tapped by EWTN!

But first, time constraints should be dismantled and the needed funding made readily available!

I'm still recovering from the time a few months ago when Father Pacwa had one of the hierarchs of the Syro-Malankarese Church on his program - and Father Pacwa announced for all to hear that it makes no difference whether a Local Church uses leavened bread or unleavened bread for the Eucharist.

Just so I don't sound totally negative, I've noticed that Father Groeschel goes out of his way quite often to refer to the Orthodox and the Eastern Catholics in positive terms; he genuinely seems to appreciate us.

As I've mentioned before, Saint George's Greek-Catholic Church (Eparchy of Newton) is right there in Birmingham, not far from EWTN headquarters. It would not take much of an effort, for instance, to broadcast various services from Saint George's from time to time.

So far as matters theological are concerned, it is also possible to invite people who are well qualified in different areas of Orthodox theology (not to mention history) and Orthodox liturgiology to come and say something of value. Metropolitan Kallistos is in the USA at least a few times a year; have they ever invited him? Father Archimandrite Robert Taft is in Rome, and is a native speaker of American English. EWTN obviously is well able to do interviews in Rome and programs from Rome; have they ever invited Father Taft? Both men are excellent speakers.

We have several beautiful churches in Rome; would EWTN care to have someone who knows these things (Father Taft comes to mind, but there are others in Rome as well) care to show these churches and explain them? That could make several lovely programs.

It's not a lack of material, or a lack of access to material. But is the will to use what is available present?

Father Serge

Being mainly an evangelization tool of the Latin Church, EWTN and its staff will not go out of their way to stack its programming with things Eastern.

Programming inclusion should be achieved by an interest shown by Eastern Catholic apologists, clergy and laity, of the value of evangelization through modern media. The nudge should come from Easterners and not the other way around.

It is well known that EWTN's subsistence comes from the support of private donors and patrons, many anonymous. For the Eastern Catholic Churches to have a slot in the programming schedule, they have to come up with their own self-funded productions and have the qualified personnel to interface with Mother Angelica's myriad helpers.

Personally, I would not say that they would need to "stack" their programs with exclusively Eastern services and speakers. To be sure, it would be wonderful if they did! But that is not what I am suggesting. And, BTW, the last time I checked, EWTN is very clear they are a Catholic network - I have never seen them label themselves as an apostolate of the Latin Church exclusively!

My point is that perhaps the speakers, producers, directors, writers, etc etc of the various programs should go through an intensive training workshop on Eastern Christianity...maybe even attend an Eastern Catholic Church (or an Orthodox Church) once in a while. Read our books and pray our prayers! Meet with and visit our people. If they really take seriously the call of both Vatican II and Pope John Paul II of blessed memory and his writings such as Orientale Lumen, they will realize that the Latins stand to gain in their own understanding of their faith by breathing with both lungs! If they just give us a show, that is a good start, but I guess what I am asking for is more systemic. I am almost asking for a form of...conversion!

Truthfully, I don't want the East to be compartmentalized anymore than we already are. We don't need another "ghetto", even if it is on Catholic television! I guess I won't be happy until every Latin Catholic (or at least everyone on EWTN!) can look and speak to things Eastern as Western as if BOTH traditions were part of his or her patrimony.

On this last point, well I have to agree, and state that I don't have a problem with that, per se.

If all things are equal, and all bets are off, and I percieved Orthodoxy to totally offer all the elements of the fullness of the faith that I believe are present in the Catholic Church and communion with the See of Peter, I would have joined up at the gorgeous OCA parish in my city LONG ago. But in spite of some of the many trials and indignities suffered by Byzantine Catholics in the US, I stay for a reason.

Hopefully the days of the worst vitriolic polemics are behind us - I don't want to go back to days when parties on either side saw the other as "the enemy" and "uniate" and "apostate" "schismatic" "heretic" and the like were routinely bandied about by folks otherwise accepted as respectable types. I rather enjoy the new spirit of detante and dialogue that now exists in many circles. (Not all, I know, but it is more prevalent in more places now than it has been in recent memory!) There was a time when if a Catholic - especially a Greek Catholic - darkened the door of an Orthodox church, the reception would have been chilly at best. Ditto for the Orthodox stepping foot inside a Greek Catholic parish. The last few times we have had EO at our parish or I have been to an Orthodox parish, the reception was warm and mutual respect was evinced by all.

(Most recently I was at the the consecration of a Macedonian Orthodox cathedral here in the US. Macedonian ecclesial autonomy is NOT - I came to understand - recognized by any of the 14 EO churches, and there were NO well wishing visitors at that parish, only the members of the MOC and ME. When they became aware of who I was - I was flat out asked - I trembled in my shoes for half a second. Was my uniate-butt gonna get tossed quicker than baseball? NO. He turned to the faithful and declared "He is like us with pope, very nice to have you visit!" The parish priest gave me the biggest smile, high-five, blessing & hug and did not ASK me to come to the reception afterwards so much as informed me I WAS going to do so, and I was going to get introduced to all the bishops, recieve there blessing, and have something to eat and a shot of whiskey to drink!)

Having said that, there still comes a point where a Byzantine Catholic has to take a serious look around and answer both the Latin and EO parties as to why we DO and SHOULD exist. As much enamored as I am of EO communities, theologians, priests, laity and the like, at some point, like Lucy, I have "some serious 'splaining to do!"

Am I just an unfortunate accident of history - the bi-product of an imprudent judgement made in the "hey day" of "uniatism"? A living relic - by accident of my family's history - that the Latins and EO are to be embarassed of? Or is there a legitimate reason for the practice of my Eastern spirituality and my attachment to the Roman see?

I say that there is, but these days, perhaps this is a good thing, that apologetic is more frequently silenced or downplayed. The benifit has been perceptibly less hostility. The downside has been that our silence frequently allows people to assume assent when non-Catholic parties offer an apologetic - and they frequently do - against the papacy and the direction of the Catholic Church in the past millenium.

We all have dealt with it - from http://byzantineevangelization.com:



While there are hundreds of testimonials of ex-Catholics who went Orthodox - some of it rather triumphal - in 300+ episodes we have seen 3 to 5 folks who were either Orthodox or from fanilies that had ancestoral ties to Orthodoxy, but did not grow up with it. (I believe there have been two Russian converts who were never Orthodox or only nominally exposed to it for a short duration of their spiritual journey).

Still I believe that even the nature of the interview and the tone it took with Father Deacon was deliberately intended to focus on this man's desire to be in communion with the See of Peter rather than present any sort of laundry list of polemics against Orthodoxy. More succinctly put, the interview took a more clearly pro-papal view than an anti-Orthodox one.

In the end, I think the interview did as much good as harm for a net effect of not being very effective. It has upset some who were bothered that the issue would even be broached, it has made magninimous some others who are (unsuprisingly) unsatisfied with his reasons for communion with Rome and, thinking this is the best that can be offered, are more convinced of Roman error than ever. An ineloquent interviewee is sometimes just that - someone who is not with out good reason, just without a good ability to articulate in front of a live audience on live national TV.

A very thoughtful post. Thank you.

Joe

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree then. When we spend our time trying to convert one another, I think you'll find we'll remain locked in the same patterns of conflict you expressed a desire to move away from.

Assuming my impression of the intent of the show is correct, and it would match the statement earlier that EWTN is "mainly an evangelization tool of the Latin Church"; I would further disagree with the whole assertion of the show. Someone born in to and culturally rooted in Orthodoxy to me would not be "coming home" by converting to Catholicism, nor can I honestly think that it would be wise to counsel someone to do so for a number of reasons. In the particular case of the deacon, he falls in to a different category and was indeed "going home", but the fact remains to me he never should have left Roman Catholicism in the first place.

Generally speaking, I don't identify with people like Mr. Grodi or his counterparts in Orthodoxy, and I am always troubled by such people's exhortations to "come home" to one side or another. Fundamentally I consider spending our time "evangelizing" each other to be a case of the proverbial re-arranging of the deck chairs.

I don't think EWTN is out to compartmentalize Eastern Catholics or to relegate them into a Catholic "ghetto!"

Yes, EWTN has grown to be the "Global Catholic Network" that it is (and it is now recognized as the "largest" Christian media network in the world). It does not say that it is owned and run by a Roman Catholic religious order for women (assisted by a Roman Catholic religious order for men) but the viewing public probably knows now that it is.

The programming at EWTN therefore reflects this Latin bias, if we call it that, and it's up to you our Eastern Catholic brethren to request, or demand if you have the gumption, a "share" in the evangelization onslaught unleashed by this wonderful and very successful group of Roman Catholics, spearheaded by an old Poor Clare nun!

From the very humble beginnings of EWTN, Eastern Catholics were not shut out of the picture. Remember Fr. Sopoliga?

EWTN is open to all Catholics. However, Eastern Catholics have to also share in the burden, in whatever form, of sustaining this re-evangelization drive as called for by the late Pope John Paul II at the turn of the millenium.

You cannot if you expect a free ride.

Last night, sorry I can't remember his name, but he is on EWTN quite a bit and for a long time, from NY - is very soft spoken - maybe Fr.Rutler (?), anyway he was showing the inside of his Church and explaining the icons. They are having the Church redone with a good many icons apparently. He pointed out, and wonderfuly so, that western art tantalizes the sences and comes down to us, while the iconography draws us in and up to heaven(not exact words) but I thought it was a really neat visualization in words. The fact is, he could well have been comparing a church steeple to a church dome.