www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization How visible and known are Eastern Catholics in your area?

Just wondering. It seems that in my area there isn't a lot of awareness of Eastern Catholicsm, even though there is a presence of the Ukrainian Church here.

Here in the ultra-scenic Dallas/Ft. Worth region we ECs are much more visible & known about than, say, 35 yrs. ago, when the first small tentative steps were being made toward the establishment of St. Basil's parish in the Dallas suburb of Irving.

Since that time, there are now 2 Greek Catholic parishes in the area (1 Ukrainian; 1 Ruthenian); a Maronite parish in the suburb of Lewisville, a Syro-Malabar parish & a Syro-Malankara parish, both in the Dallas suburb of Garland; and a Knanaya Catholic mission parish, in another Dallas suburb, Farmers Branch.

More prominent than you might think. The CIA, for instance, is crawling with us. And we're very prominent in both law enforcement and the military. So don't cross us. We know where you live, and we control the black helicopters.

Here in southern Maine we rather like our invisibility, and without giving scandal to our Latin brothers and sisters, are able to worship clandestinely with our Greek Orthodox brothers and sisters in Saco and Portland. The black helicopters are focused on Walker's Point.

Is being under the radar good? The problem I see with our situation is that many of the parishioners are older people. Not enough young blood. And all of them are Ukrainian. So the only way to repopulate the parishes are through immigration. There are other places with larger Ukrainian settlements in Canada. There are thousands of Catholics coming in from the Philippines every year, me being one of them 4 years ago. It would be nice if we can fill our parishes and get some programs going. I hear a lot of chatter about problems with attendance. So I was hoping getting some higher profile would get other Catholics interested, and maybe even a few converts.

edit:
By converts I mean non-Catholics becoming Catholic. The problem I see is how can we get converts if the Roman Catholic populace aren't even aware of Eastern Catholics, much less the non-Catholics

We have 2 Ukrainian parishes, 1 Ruthenian parish, 1 Melkite parish, and a large Chaldean church under construction (its congregation holds services at a local parish). In spite of this presence, we regularly have visitors to our parish leave in the middle of the Divine Liturgy because they believe that we are not Catholic. It happened just yesterday. I overheard them say "Eastern Orthodox" on their way out, but I was busy changing a diaper and I wasn't able to catch them and try to convince them to stay.

Overall, I would say awareness is pretty low, but better than it used to be, and growing. The local Latin clergy have a good relationship with our priest. The Latin Bishop once invited our former pastor to have a Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral, but he declined for unknown reasons. Each of our last three priests have been interviewed on Catholic radio. We have a thriving and knowledgeable church in our area and the people are eager to learn about tradition from all sides. For that reason, people are generally very open to learning about the Eastern Churches.

Several of the eastern priests have a presence around the area, aside from their parishes. Our priest has bi-ritual faculties and says Mass several times per week at a local Latin parish. His brother-in-law is the pastor there and his children attend the parish school. His presence there certainly causes questions, which provides an opportunity for education. Another is a member of a local Knights of Columbus council and attended their Religious appreciation dinner last week. I'm sure numerous people have been exposed to the Ukrainian Church through his activities. One parish used to have Divine Liturgy on Sunday at a Catholic hospital. Amazingly, there was no Mass on Sunday. They used to get quite a few visitors that way, many of whom had no previous experience with the Eastern Churches.

Elizabeth

I echo the statement of ConstantineTG, and babochka's first paragraph. I find the wider community has no idea about the parish beyond the vague notion of some Slavic social club. "Maybe Russian... Perogies, right? What's a Greek Ukrainian?"

I'm hoping a website and facebook page are steps to changing that perception.

By the way, I still need five more "likes" before facebook unlocks the feature allowing you to replace this complicated URL with an easy-to-remember one. Feel free to click:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/St-John-the-Baptist-Ukrainian-Catholic-Church/177792195591579

In the counties of Northeastern Pennsylvania we have many active and well known Ukrainian and Rusyn Catholic parishes as well as numerous Ukrainian, Rusyn and Russian Orthodox parishes. In addition, we are also blessed with Melkite and Maronite parishes.
The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton area is indeed uniquely proud of its multi-ethnic communities.

JDC,

Done - now 2 questions ...

Does the parish have a website? (I couldn't find one)
Can you please add a photo of the iconostasis to the FB page?

Thanks

Many years,

Neil

Most RC and non Catholics in the Detroit Metro area have a very poor idea what Greek Catholics or Orthodox Christians are. Things are better today among Catholics vs twenty years ago but interest in religion general is declining.

Thank you for your kind interest.

There is no website yet. It is under composition and I hope to publish it within a week or two.

I have held off on putting very much on the facebook page yet. Once I have secured the simple url (one of these /stjohnbrantford type, instead of the impossible-to-remember series of numbers) I intend to publish it in the parish bulletin (and other places). Then, I hope, some of the younger offspring of our parishioners may see it, possibly click, perhaps only to satisfy granny or curiosity, and then I'll start to post regular content. I have a lot of pictures sitting here waiting.

You're up to 23. Do you need 25?

Hey, thanks everybody. We've got:
http://www.facebook.com/stjohnbrantford

Glad to be able to help!

Forgive my for my ignorance but what is a Knanaya Catholic Mission? I have never heard of the Knanaya Catholic Church. Thanks.