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I think it is clear that there is great desire among the Eastern Catholics to take up this missionary endeavor, and I think, after reading up here, that the Church is missing a great opportunity by limiting the Eastern Churches from this endeavor when the Church as a whole needs missionaries very badly. I think it is time for Pope Benedict XVI to rescind this limitation, which IMO was made so as to lessen the "competition" with the Latin rite. Again, IMO that should not be the thinking, since we are all Catholics, and what we must strive for is to work in harmony and help build our Catholic Church up.

Yuhannon,

I'm going to take a tact that Incognitus once took with regard to the Italo-Greico-Albanians' complaint about the lack of a jurisdiction and parishes in the US. His comment (which I thought cold at the time, but now appreciate):

The Ukes are in Dublin, the UK, and all over Europe; the Maronites and Melkites are less pervasive, but they each have a European presence; the Belarusians are in London; everyone is in Oz; and the Maronites, Melkites, and Ukes are in South America. Those foundations exist because they were established to serve communities of the faithful.

Do you really think anyone in the Curia is monitoring who attends Liturgy there, who are being baptized, chrismated, communed, reconciled, married in and buried from those temples?

What a Maronite priest is doing in Taiwan as a missionary is beyond me, but since he is, who is stopping him from taking in any curious inquirer and why is he there as a missionary if he can't do mission work?

As to why the Latin and not the Coptic or Ethiopian Churches took the lead in African mission lands, that question lies more with our Oriental Orthodox brethren than it does with their Catholic counterparts. By the time evangelization in Africa was underway, Oriental Catholicism was essentially non-existent in North Africa - Latin missioners were there trying to bring about a reunion of communion; there wasn't a viable Oriental Catholic institution to effect mission work.

There is a sizeable Lebanese population in Africa [lebanese.co.za] ; it doesn't take much to figure out that a goodly percentage of it is likely Maronite. There's been a Maronite parish in South Africa since the turn of the 20th century, but

So, let Berke send out clergy to service its faithful and, if others come to worship with the community, bingo! You will have evangelized without contravening Canon 594

Don't complain about the weakness of the Eparchs - look to your Patriarch, get over being enraged, and do something for yourselves. We of the East and Orient, whether Catholic or Orthodox, do not have the evangelization opportunities or resources or history of the Latin Church. We haven't got the massive network, the institutions of higher learning, the infrastructure of a Society for the Propagation of the Faith, and so on. What we are going to achieve in this area is going to depend entirely on having the initiative and wherewithal to get out and do things, instead of whining and waiting to be told that it's ok to do so.

In another of Incognitus' words of wisdom, he once observed something to the effect that

or something similar. We need to be embarressed if we are going to forego sharing our Faith with others for the sake of one line in the CCEO. Our hierarchs may not be able to establish canonical jurisdictions in the diaspora, but they don't need Rome's permission to send forth clergy - just the chutzpah and moral and intestinal fortitude to do so.

Many years,

Neil

My thanks to Neil for remembering and quoting my golden words of Pure Wisdom. He's quite right, as far as it goes. But there is a crucial difference between a parish for an already-existing group of people, who cannot canonically be denied "their right to the rite" as an RC bishop put it to me, and an actual mission, which seeks to evangelize the non-Christians and/or the unchurched Christians. In Shenandoah, Father Voliansky had a large group of faithful who were not about to close up shop, or to allow him to go away, and who were sublimely unimpressed by the pretensions of some Latin bishop in Philadelphia (said Latin bishop did not appear to be overly supplied with Brotherly Love). After that experience, Father Voliansky evidently decided that he simply didn't give two hoots for the Latin hierarchy, and went around founding more parishes, most of which are still going. Back in L'viv, the Metropolitans found themselves saddled with the equivalent of "stauropegial" parishes in North America, whether they wanted them or not, and the Metropolitans were just sufficiently farsighted as to realize that throwing these parishes in the rubbish bin would be remarkably unwise.

Incognitus

No problem remembering them, but they weren't easy to find, believe me

Incognitus,

Yes, there is a difference but, with the former in place, it's a short step to using that same temple and resources to achieve the latter.

Many years,

Neil

Yuhannon,

In re-reading my post from yesterday, I realize it sounds harsh and, for that, I apologize and ask your forgiveness, but I stand by the comments I made in regard to the fact that there are things we can do to evangelize, the Canon aside.

Many years,

Neil