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Glory to Jesus Christ!

Could someone shed some light on what is going with the Melkite parish in San Jose? There seems to be a schism within the parish, with a group forming a church outside the eparchy of Newton served by a bi-ritual Latin priest? What canonical priest would serve a group breaking away from their lawful bishop? It seems crazy.

Here is the website Mar Elisa Community [mareliasba.org]

I don't know the exact details, but I do know their priest and he is one of the most godly, devoted, and spirit filled men I've ever met. I can't imagine a better priest!

The dispute is over several things, among them the people's desire to remain an ethnic group and not try to grow the church with converts or members not from their ethnicity.

There are also disputes over having women readers and altar servers. The priest says, "No." The people say, "Yes, or we'll leave." Which they did.

It's very sad. Pray for them all.

This quote from the schismatic website says it all. If we are not to evangelize what type of Catholic Christians are we?

What a sad, sad website. I also know their priest. Any parish would be blessed to have such a prayerful, knowledgeable priest. I was even a bit jealous when I heard that they were getting him in San Jose, though I love my own pastor. His bishop must have great trust in him, sending him to straighten out this mess. Prayers for everyone involved.

And I thought that only we Rusyns were crazy,wow, that is sad stuff and hateful words.....Prayers for all.

One complaint of the schismatics against Fr. Sebastian is that he doesn't have a TV. That seems rather a blessing to me.

Clearly these people are to be pitied. They think that just because something was done one way, that this must be the correct and only way. Their complaints are absurd, it's no wonder the Bishop won't meet with them. The fact that they'd rather attend a Roman Catholic parish, rather than an Antiochian Orthodox one is telling, the practices these folks want are in contradiction to their Patristic Tradition. Their definition of success is $ in the bank account, not souls properly educated in their Faith.

There are people like this in every Eastern parish, they view the Church as their personal social club. How dare this educated priest change the way things have always been.

How does this happen? Is the bi-ritual priest doing this without his own bishop's permission? I can't believe that the Latin ordinary is blind to this. After all, it's his man in the middle here.

Bob

My thoughts exactly.

Isn't it usually good form for a priest to wait at least one year before making any changes?... if according to the splinter group is true. Hmm.

perhaps that is wise but not required and ultimately he is the priest and the bishop supported him. Creating a schism over parish praxis is absurd and shows that the schismatics are more interested in being an ethnic club than spreading the Gospel.

Never heard of this. But if it were true, it might have saved many people voting with their feet in other parts of the Catholic Communion. Each time our parish has had a change of pastor, there have been families leave in short order.

Bob

I suppose that's a very nice thing to do, make a smooth transition, etc.

But why wait a year to correct bad practice? Repentance should happen as soon as possible, in my opinion.

I've never met the bishop but I do know the priest. Any of us would feel tremendously blessed to have such a priest....unless we were determined to have our daughters serve at the altar or become deacons....in which case we would find ourselves in opposition to our priest.....unless we refused to evangelize or welcome anyone to the church who wasn't either a blood relative or from the same districts in the Middle East.....in which case we would find ourselves in opposition again.