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Dear Subdeacon Peter,

Which Byzantine Church ( Ukrainian,Slavic etc ) in America would someone of Polish ancestry attend ?

James

Please keep in mind that what is today called the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church can be dated to the Union of Brest-Litovsk in the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania in 1596. The Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church is similarly dated from the Union of Uzhhorod in Hungary in 1646.

Piotr,

While doing family research I found that out. I have copies of his enlistment papers. I received that information from the Polish Genealogical Society of America on Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago.

Nicky's Baba

What information do you mean? About Haller's
army fighting "Russsians for Galicia"?

Sincerely,
subdeacon Peter

As I am Polish citizen of Ukrainian ethnicity, have lived in Poland since my birth and never was
in America, I cannot answer such a question. However, my opinion is that - as there is no
"Polish Byzantine Rite Catholic Church" - Polish
American would attend the Church (parish) he chooses, be it Melkite, Ruthenian, Ukrainian or else.

Sincerely,
subdeacon Peter

Drugej Jakub,

Niech bedzie pochwalony Jezus Christus!

I think you'd be most at home in the Ukrainian Catholic Church!

All our Latinizations are from Poland, so I think you'd feel most at home, culturally speaking, with us!

Up here, we even have Ukie priests from Poland who speak Ukrainian with many Polish accents.

Could one ask for anything more?

Alex

Dear David:

I have said it once, and I will say it again. I have NEVER advocated joinder of the Byzantine Catholic Church f/k/a the Ruthenian Catholic Church with the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in any way, shape or form.

Disagree with what I say - but please be so kind as to make sure that I have actually said what you think I have said.

As far as I'm concerned, let's BOTH have a Patriarch. You can have yours in Pittsburgh or wherever you want and we will happily continue under the jurisdiction of the Kyivo-Galician Patriarch.

Yours,

kl

Dear Peter:

My parish in Chicago has quite a few immigrants from the political territory of Poland. They consider themselves ethnic Ukrainians, so they attend a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church.

Others may see themselves differently, I guess.

Yours,

kl

I have long advocated the merging of the ethnic Byzantine Catholic Churches in the United States into one Church under a patriarch (or at least a major metropolitan archbishop to start off with) on an equal footing to other patriarchs. Such a move would effectively demonstrate unity in Christ and not division based upon the ancestral ethnicity of the founders of the parish. It would allow for greater pooling of resources in witnessing the Gospel to America. Such a move would be a wonderful gift to the universal Church.

...and, dear administrator -

would teach the Orthodox a few lessons in canonical unity!

Dear Admin:

You appear to discount the fact that it is not only the ethnicity of the fouders of a particular parish, but also the decendants of those founders that want to maintain a connection to their own Patriarch.

As much as we may love the Byzantine Rite, it is our ethnic background that determined our expression of faith, not vice versa.

Of course, the fact that we remain "Ukrainian Catholics" is becasue we still consdier ourselves a part of the Ukrainian community.

Those of Ukrainian decent who choose to assimilate into mainstream "American" society do not go searching for an ethnically-neutral Byzantine Rite church. They go RC, or protestant or, as mentioned above, no religion at all.

Why? Becasue that's more "American."

Yours,

kl

Dear Fr. Mark:

I respectfully submit that the Orthodox model of a loose communion of churches is far superior than the tight-gripped "Roman Empire" model over both East and West advocated by the Vatican.

Yours,

kl

I appreciate the desire to maintain a connection to one�s own ethnic patriarch but uniting together to effectively witness the Gospel is far more important. A united Byzantine Catholic Church under an American-based patriarch would also be more canonically correct. We would still remain in communion with the Ukrainian patriarch and our American patriarch would be on an equal footing with him.

I may have been born and raised in the Byzantine Catholic Church but I remain Byzantine Catholic because I choose to. I do not choose to remain Byzantine Catholic because I have a Slavic heritage. I choose to remain Byzantine Catholic because this is where I encounter Christ and where He wishes me to be. Ethnicity has nothing to do with my decision to remain Byzantine Catholic.

Yes, at the exclusion of your neighbors who need Jesus Christ but are not part of the Ukrainian community. I know some very welcoming Ukrainian Catholic parishes. Sadly, I also know of many parishes that do not welcome people who are not Ukrainian. The Church is for the worship of Jesus Christ and the witness of the Gospel. It is not for the preservation of an ethnic community. Those wishing to preserve ethnic communities should do so, but not at the expense of inviting all of America to become Byzantine Catholic.

This has happened in the Byzantine-Ruthenian Church as well. Those who wished to assimilate into the mainstream American society no longer felt welcome in our Church and went elsewhere to find Jesus Christ. Even in our Byzantine-Ruthenian Church there are few really ethnically neutral parishes. It is our preservation of ethnicity that has driven them away. When we learn to witness Jesus Christ and allow others to bring their legitimate ethnic customs into our parishes and put them on an equal footing with Slavic ethnic customs we will have learned something.

Sorry to be strong spoken but I see our respective Churches being killed by those who see ethnicity as an important element of faith.

Fr. Mark,

Thank you for your comments.

--

KL,

I believe that Fr. Mark was referring to the canons directing that there only be one bishop over a specific geographically territory.

Admin

Indeed, I was!