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Eastern Catholics have much to offer US church, cardinal tells bishops

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
May-15-2012

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While their numbers are small and their material resources are few, members of the Eastern Catholic churches in the United States have much to offer the country in terms of their fidelity to Christ despite persecution and their deeply religious cultures, said Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches.

Eastern Catholics "are a bridge" supporting Catholics in their homelands with prayers, advocacy and financial support while at the same time enriching the United States with their cultural and religious identity, Cardinal Sandri told U.S. bishops from the Chaldean, Ruthenian, Maronite, Ukrainian, Armenian, Melkite, Syriac and Romanian Catholic churches.

The cardinal met with the 14 bishops May 15 to discuss a wide variety of common concerns at the beginning of the bishops' "ad limina" visits to the Vatican. Earlier in the morning, the cardinal was the main celebrant and homilist at a Mass with the bishops in St. Peter's Basilica.

The heads of every diocese or eparchy -- as the Eastern Catholic jurisdictions are known -- send detailed reports on their dioceses to the Vatican before the "ad limina" visits.

Summarizing what was common in the reports of the Eastern Catholic dioceses, Cardinal Sandri said, "Your territories are enormous, and your communities often find themselves far from each other. Some of the eparchies are young and still in need of adequate structures." Many of the dioceses -- some of which cover the entire United States or even the United States and Canada -- have few financial resources and the situation has been "exacerbated by the economic crisis," the cardinal said.

The arrival of new immigrants, many fleeing persecution in places like Iraq, have increased the size of several of the Eastern churches, like the Chaldean Catholic Church. But the cardinal said other Eastern churches, whose membership is composed largely of people who have been in the United States for several generations, "are experiencing a dramatic fall" in their numbers.

"You are not immune to the same corrosive effect on morals and family life as are your fellow Latin Catholics," Cardinal Sandri said.

All the churches are hurting for clergy, he said. Even those that have a relatively high proportion of clergy to faithful are stretched by the great distances those priests must travel to minister to the faithful.

The cardinal urged care in helping young people discern their vocation, "maintaining formation programs, integrating immigrant priests (and) embracing celibacy in respect of the ecclesial context" of the United States where mandatory celibacy is the general rule for priests.

During his homily at the morning Mass with the bishops at the tomb of St. Peter, Cardinal Sandri said, "Many people today have come to doubt that there is still holiness or honesty in the church and in the clergy. We must prove them wrong. We can be a true community of saints who shine as models of chastity and charity before a culture in great need of this witness."

The Eastern Catholic bishops formed the last group of bishops from the United States making their visits "ad limina apostolorum" (to the threshold of the apostles) to pray at the tombs of the apostles Peter and Paul, to meet with Pope Benedict XVI and to visit Vatican officials to discuss issues of common concern.

As they did with the other groups, seminarians from the Pontifical North American College served as lectors, cantors and servers at the Eastern bishops' Mass, but they were joined by Eastern-rite seminarians studying at the Pontifical Russicum College.

Cardinal Sandri told the bishops that sometimes they might feel like the first apostles who, after having spent time with Jesus, were sent out on mission "into a hostile world."

"You, dear Eastern bishops, as representatives of the diverse Eastern churches in the Catholic Church, are living symbols of the apostles who set out in all directions from Jerusalem to establish Christian communities. Like them you have encountered opposition, indifference and ignorance along the way," he said.

Jesus knew the challenges his disciples would face, which is why he promised them the Holy Spirit, the cardinal said.

He urged the Eastern Catholic bishops to join their Latin-right counterparts in the United States to "fight against the rising tide of religious intolerance. May your courage and confidence convince the multitudes that without God there is no peace, no prosperity, no salvation."

Someone wasn't there - I count 16 active Sees among the Churches named, only 1 of which (Passaic of the Ruthenians) is sede vacante; as well, the Malabarese and Malankara eparchs were apparently not present.


Good of His Eminence to remind them ...

Many years,

Neil

This one will never die, will it? Of all the things to highlight and ponder, why this?

Yet, we were all so very willing to accept married priests into the new Anglican Ordinariate.

I will admit my bias, as I grew up in a "rare for its day" Byzantine-Ruthenian Catholic parish with a married priest (with children). Frankly, especially in our smaller parishes, I feel strongly that we are missing an important element of our tradition, as IMHO there is no substitute for a well-respected Pani who keeps a parish family together.

Glad the Colonial Office has reminded us, once again, that we are second class citizens... Don't worry Orthodox if you come into communion with Rome nothing will change, except if you are in the US then you can't have married priests anymore but hey in the "homelands" knock yourselves out..


Classic example of Rome telling us "Do as I say not as I do." Then again why are they allowing this but denying us our legitimate Tradition?

And the Orthodox are supposed to believe us when we tell them that they would be able to retain their particular traditions if they were to enter into communion with Rome? Oh, I'm sorry, that should have said "submit to Rome," not "enter into communion with Rome."

I suspect the Roman nomenklatura continue to "forbid" the ordination of married men (by that I mean mean married to women) is because of their hypocrisy and a persistent disdain and distrust of Eastern Catholics in general, esp. here in N. America. Also their fear that the more numerous Roman clergy will take notice and demand the same thing. Which would be just peachy IMO.

If actions speak louder than words, non-actions are sometimes downright deafening.

that is what "marriage means"
On that we are agreed.

It's not entirely an anti-eastern thing. So much investment in the West has been poured into the idea that any contact with the holy requires celibacy. Recall the old "Song of Bernadette," when the priest is talking to her about her fiance? The priest takes it as a given, and presents it as such, and she accepts it as such, that if she has seen the Theotokos, her only option is a nunnery. Other than rulers (and even that is a short list), how many non-celibates make it onto the post and pre Vatican II Latin calendar?

Christ is Risen!
Greetings, All.
I've thought about this issue all day and my emotions have run the gamut. Ultimately I'm taken back to the Prayer of St. Ephrem, and I wonder what the state of our spiritual life would look like were Rome to give complete carte blanche to our eparchies/jurisdictions in this country? Would a spirit of minimalism be decreased? Would fasting, prayer, and almsgiving increase? Would a love of all things that are our native Eastern faith? Or is there something else besides the scarcity of married priests that might be the true issue that we need?

I tend to wonder whether Rome would be more excited about us, if we were more excited about us--our spiritual patronage, which is so much more broad than the concept of a married priesthood, could flourish even without married priests. We could flourish underground without buildings and under the duress of Soviet persecution. Nevertheless, I support contacting our Bishops and asking that they speak to the importance of a Married Priesthood as part of a holistic Byzantine Faith which has been watered down in the past, and could expand qualitatively and qualitatively in the present.


Another way to look at this is to focus on the words of the Cardinal. Do we truly embrace celibacy? If we did, I wonder if our monasteries would grow, in accord with the aforementioned defects in fasting, praying the services, and the like. I wonder if the ad limina visit would have a different feel if our Bishops came with news of monastic vocations that were flourishing, with faithfulness to our Byzantine Patrimony seeming nearly fully complete, save for the matte of a more common married presbyterate.

I also wonder what things would look like if we did have tens of young men who were pursuing the married presbyterate. Rome, to my knowledge, is not turning down scores of men. That those men would be fervent for our Byzantine faith, and open to the laying on of hands, all while embracing marriage and children, would be a different situation from our theoreticals of today.

May God grant us an increase in all of these things, so that when we come to the threshold, we might come with arms full of blessings, and hands open to receive even more with each passing year.

J. Andrew
p.s. My last comment on this would also be that we need to pray over the next few days, that the actual audience between our Bishops and the Pope of Rome would get to these kinds of issues of the reception of Tradition, and move beyond particular requests.

Off the top of my head, I can think of the following married people who have been either canonised or beatified recently by the RC Church:

St. Gianna Beretta Molla and Bl. Ladyslaus Batthyany-Strattmann and Bl. Franz Jaegerstetter; the parents of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Bl. Louis and Zelie Martin as well as Bl. Luigi Quatrocchi and his wife, Bl. Maria Corsini. Most of the beatified Martyrs of Pratulin were married family men, as was Bl. Voldymyr Pryjma and several other modern UGCC martys, some of whom were married priests, like Fr. Omelyan Kovch and Fr. Roman Lisko.

Not many. Yet.

I wonder if Sua Eminenza, the prefect of the Eastern Chuches Congregation but an apparent Latin by background, has done any homework on the disastrous effects of the 1929 Celibacy decree on the eastern churches in the USA....the way ahead will surely lead to extinction unless the marriage prohibition is overturned.

I pretty sure that the steam shooting out my ears isn't one of the usual hot flashes, but rather is my blood boiling.

J. Andrew -- Indeed, He is risen! I think you raise valid and interesting queries.

What a way to begin the ad limina

Prayers for our eparchs and bishops, and HH Benedict XVI entering into this ad limina. By the power of the Holy Spirit may their time together in the end strengthen our EC and OC Churches.

What kind of "Mass" was it?

Glory to Jesus Christ!
Does anyone know of a way to find more about the scheduling of the ad limina visit of our Bishops? I'm just wondering when we are likely to hear any more updates about audiences with Pope Benedict, etc.
In XC,
J. Andrew

Glory forever!

I've wondered the same thing. The only more recent info I've seen is Joan Lewis' blog, Joan's Rome [ewtn.com]. As she points out today was the Feast of the Ascension on the Latin Church calendar, and thus a holiday with no new coverage.


I emailed her saying we're eager to know more following the quote from Cardinal Sandri re "embracing celibacy in respect of the ecclesial context of the United States".

BTW those interviews will likely air on her weekly "Vatican Insider" radio programs which air Saturdays 9:30AM and 9:30PM Eastern time on EWTN radio and are archived.