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

Scotty,

Is there an Eastern Catholic parish in Dearborn Heights? Some of my aunts and uncles moved there decades ago and I don't think any of them remained Greek Catholic.
Fr Deacon Paul

Nelson,

Actually, there is no Knanya Catholic Church - rather, it's a distinct usage within (chiefly, but not exclusively) the Syro-Malabar Catholic and Syrian Orthodox Jacobite (Indian) Churches.

The Knanya are Oriental Catholic and Orthodox descended from 72 families of Christian Jews, comprising about 400 persons, who emigrated to India in three ships about 345 AD under the leadership of Knaithomman or Thomas the Cananite.

The immigrants are said to have been accompanied by a bishop, whom history records as Uraha Mar Yausef (Joseph), four presbyters, and deacons. They are a strictly endogenous community and retain particular liturgical, devotional, and cultural practices unique to themselves.

Pope St Pius X, by the Apostolic Brief Universi Christiani, erected a personal jurisdiction (now the autonomous Metropolitan Arch-Eparchy of Kottayam) for them within the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. Although formal Knanya jurisdictions exist only in that Church and the Syrian Orthodox Jacobite (Indian) Church, there are Knanaites within every Indian ecclesial community (other than that of the Latin Catholics) and, officially or otherwise, provisions are made to accommodate their praxis in all of the Churches that style themselves as being 'Saint Thomas Christians'.

This can result in a few incongruities. The Syro-Malabarese - who serve according to the Chaldean Rite maintain parishes in 2 of their eparchies for Syro-Malankara Knanaites, who utilize the liturgical forms of the Malankarese's ancestral (Antiochene) Rite.

Many years,

Neil

Deacon Paul,

You can see the existing (and at least some of the) historical) Michigan parishes here. The Melkite and Ukrainian parishes aren't listed there as yet.

The Ukrainians have 2 (St Michael the Archangel and Holy Ascension) in Dearborn and 1 (Our Lady of Perpetual Help) in Dearborn Heights. The Romanians have St Mary in Dearborn. There aren't currently any Ruthenian parishes in either Dearborn or Dearborn Heights; not sure if there were any historically.

Many years,

Neil

You also have a newly-minted entry in our online Directory

Many years,

Neil

We're not invisible, but that's about all I can say......every once in a while we get visitors who ask, as they stand uncertainly in the narthex looking sideways into the nave "are you sure this is a Catholic Church?" And a couple of times visitors have left in the middle of the Divine Liturgy, convinced we must be an Orthodox parish. A friend of mine was once in the narthex when this occurred and not even pointing out the large framed portrait of the Pope could convince them to stay.
Stumbling blocks seem to be the leavened bread as matter for Communion, the Creed minus the filioque, and just the general not-like-the-Romans of it all.

That is pretty much our experience with off-the-street visitors. We frequently have visitors who come specifically to experience the Byzantine Divine Liturgy, and they are always intrigued. Every once in a while, though, we get visitors who come because we are the nearest Catholic church. We also have a large framed picture of the pope, and we have literature in the narthex. They frequently leave in the middle of the liturgy, in spite of the fact that our priest has taken to making an announcement prior to the liturgy that they are, indeed, in a Catholic Church.

I think this is a problem with Catechesis on the Roman Churches part. My wife, a cradle Roman Catholic, never knew that Eastern Catholics (or Orthodox for that matter) exsisted.


I am sad the visitors left during the middle of the Divine Liturgy. Even though they though it was an Orthodox service it seems kind of disrespectful to leave in the middle of a Divine Liturgy. Also, did they not here the Popes name during the Liturgy? But I will say that our Eastern Catholic Parishes should be just like Orthodox parishes. The only difference being that we commemorate the Pope of Rome.


Sadly, I think this again comes back to the lack of Catechesis about the nature of the Catholic Church as a communion of Churches not just the Roman.

What's been said is sad, but true.

However, I could not help but chuckle when I read the above. A large, mosaic, portrait of Richard Cardinal Cushing, of blessed memory, hangs in the narthex of the Melkite Cathedral, above a small bronze plaque which reads simply, 'In memory of our beloved benefactor'.

I'd be rich if I had a nickel for every time that I've seen a visitor point at it and whisper to a companion, 'See, Cardinal Cushing, they must be Catholics!' (Ironically, photos of the Cardinal - a beloved ecumenist when the word was unknown outside theological circles - can still be found in the vestibule of several non-Catholic houses of worship in Boston.)

Many years,

Neil

I think there are 4 Ruthenian, 1 Ukrainian, 1 Melkite, 2 Maronite, and 3 Chaldean parishes in the Detroit Metro area. I attended St. Nick's when we lived there. It's a good mix of praxis between them. St. Nicks was fairly middle of the raod, St Stephen's seemed to have many Latinizations (such as a public rosary service), The Ukranian parish in Warren had a spoken liturgy, St. Sharbel's (Maronite) in Warren had a beautiful liturgy (first time I head Aramaic in person), and the crown jewel of them all was the Ruthenian parish in Flushing, MI outside of Flint. Floor to Ceiling, wall to wall iconography; what a beautiful church it was.

But all and all no one in Detroit new what a "Byzantine" Catholic, all the old timers knew it as "Greek" Catholic. My grandfather who attends the Slovak Roman parish in Sterling Heights used to tease me when I invited him to church. He would say, "Oh hell no, I'm not standing up for three hours at your Greek Catholic church." Always got a kick out of that! LOL!

Pavloosh is in Slavic Greek Catholic (and not coincidentally OCA and ACROD) central: the rust belt, Pennsylvania and Ohio. It's where The Deer Hunter was set and filmed.

In this part of Pa. they're not as many but better known than in most of the rest of the country. (I've met an older born Roman Riter from out West who'd never heard of them.) Philly has the Ukrainian Catholic archbishop's cathedral, and the first people of this tradition I met were from the WWII Ukraine by way of Philly.

But they seem to be slowly dying here. (The cathedral and at least one parish have lost their schools.) Similar attrition as the Roman Rite (parish and school closings and mergers) but it hits the smaller group harder. Their kids move away and go Roman Rite, and they seem not to have had a boost from post-Soviet immigration (the way Mexicans prop up the Roman Rite churches out West, thus keeping US RC numbers up, and Poles keep British and Irish RC parishes going).

Utroque, are you Melkite? Such seem more likely to worship with Greek Orthodox than are Slavic Greek Catholics (born ones, not converts/'Orthodox in communion with Rome').

Nelson, when I converted to Catholicism in 1991 I didn't know there was anything but the Roman Church either. I'd never heard of Eastern Catholicism as a protestant, and the RCIA program I endured attended didn't mention it. I wish I'd known; I wouldn't have had to spend 15 years thinking "well I'm Catholic, so why don't I feel at home?" and then another 3 years waiting for my Transfer of Ritual Church to be finalized.

As to whether or not these visitors who think we are not Catholic, hearing the Pope commemorated in the Litanies: I have an acquaintance who seems to doubt the "Catholicity" of my Church. When asked this very question, the answer is "well, yes, but what about the filioque?"

sigh.

Very true. It would be nice if at least one Latin parish in each town had, as part of their mission statement, something about educating Catholics concerning differing traditions in the Church.

No, it is our mission as Eastern Catholics to inform them of our existance. I'm trying to get something going with the Archdiocese of our area to have a catechisis on Eastern Catholicism. Hopefully it pushes through and the program becomes successful.

I do this because I feel bad that being a lifelong Roman Catholic, I was never aware of the Eastern Churches, especially Eastern Catholic Churches. I had an idea of the Orthodox some while ago but never really learned much about them. Now that I have not only learned about Eastern Catholicism but joined a UGCC parish as well, I want to share my excitement and joy about Eastern Christianity.

It's been my experience that parishes with mission statements are generally quite unconcerned with education or tradition of any sort.

"Is there an Eastern Catholic parish in Dearborn Heights? Some of my aunts and uncles moved there decades ago and I don't think any of them remained Greek Catholic."
Fr Deacon Paul

Sorry for lateness of reply. There are at least two between Dearborn and Dearborn Heights.