www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology The term "Greek Catholic"

Dear Friends,

This is a question I've always wanted to ask about.

What can we say about the evolution of the term "Greek Catholic?"

Has it always meant an Eastern Christian in communion with Rome?

Why do Orthodox jurisdictions have this term in some of their titles?

What does it mean today?

Alex

I believe the term came from our patroness, Empress Maria Theresa.

Joe

"greko katholiki" was around before Maria Theresa, but she has been attributed for this phrase. She may have used it, but it pre-dates her. It was around at Florence even.

Most of the Orthodox Churches that I know of that have this name were originally formed largely by Greek Catholics who, as the phrase goes, 'doxed out'.

Dear Diak,

So the Orthodox jurisdictions that keep "Greek Catholic" do so as a "something" to their Greek Catholic converts?

Wasn't there a time when "Greek Catholic" meant "Orthodox?"

Alex

Dear Cantor Joseph,

What's up, Dox?

Alex

St. Theodosius OCA Cathedral in Cleveland has "Greek Catholic" on its cornerstone. This church/temple was used in the wedding scene in the Deer Hunter. One of our parishioners is in the dance scene.

Joe

Brethren--
It's all about the hyphen.

Greek Catholic,
or...
Greek-Catholic?

The hyphen, bratja, the hyphen.

St John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church in Minneapolis has St John the Baptist Greek Catholic Church on its cornerstone.

St Mary's Cathedral has St. Mary's Greek Catholic Russian Orthodox Chapel on its cornerstone at the chapel at its cemetery. But wasn't St. Marys orginally a Byzantine Catholic (Greek Catholic) since this is the church of Archpriest Fr Toth?

Greek-Catholic was in normal use everywhere in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so we find it today amongst Ukrainians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Romanians, Croatians and so forth. It was also in use in the Ottoman Empire (in the form Rum Kathulik - the "Rum" refers to Constantinople) so it is commonly used amongst those who speak Arabic, or who somehow derive from those who speak Arabic. In all these contexts, it means what most of us take it to mean: "Byzantine Catholic" in present-day American parlance.
However, when the Oxford Movement Anglicans developed their "branch theory", they (inadvertently, we trust) gave "Greek-Catholic" a new meaning, and decided that refers to Eastern Orthodoxy. This in turn crept into the Oxford English dictionary and from there to other dictionaries, and was used to advantage by those who resorted to the civil courts in the effort to detach themselves from the Catholic Church. That experience is among the reasons which convinced many Greek-Catholics that a new name was called for in America to avoid possible legal complications. Efforts to export this preference back to the various "Old Countries" have not met with much success; Greek-Catholics in those countries prefer to be known, surprise, surprise, as Greek-Catholics.
As to the hyphen, some people use it as a means of indicating that the reference is not to ethnic Greeks. I'm not sure how successful that efffort is!
There are a few exceptions. Our co-religionists in Bulgaria prefer to be called Catholic-Orthodox, and our co-religionists in Belarus prefer, to everyone else's surprise, to be called "Uniats" - so far as I know, they're the only community who apply that otherwise unwelcome word to themselves. The reason seems to be that this is what their Church was called when it was suppressed by Tsar Nicholas I in the 1830s.
However - a rose by any other name would smell as sweet; a chrysanthemum by any other name would be easier to spell.

As to the Eastern Orthodox, very few Eastern Orthodox communities outside the USA are likely to call themselves "Greek-Catholics". Offhand I can't think of any such communities at all (outside the USA) offhand, but it's a big world and no doubt one or two could be found somewhere. In the USA, Greek-Catholic was retained by the Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese and by the Russian Metropolia (now the Orthodox Church in America).
The phenomenon of people who think that "Greek-Catholic" is the name of a language (yes, such people do exist - I've met some) is another discussion! Incognitus

More common, however, is the perception that it refers to an ethnic group/nationality. This is the major reason the term was retained by the "Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church" / the Metropolia (now the OCA). The American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Diocese retained the term because they believed that they were the true "Greek Catholics". (The Diocese originally didn't have the term Orthodox in its title.)

What can we say about the evolution of the term "Byzantine" Catholic? If I am not mistaken, Byzantium was the pre-christian name for this city before Constantine the Great? Sounds like a pagan name to me? Maybe in 2000 years people will be wondering about St.Petersburg vs Leningrad, etc.

Okay, then, I'm sure we'd rather try to explain to everyone that we're "Constantinopolitan Catholics".

(Wasn't there such a movement to adopt that name a couple years ago?)

Dear Friends,

Just as an aside, our parish priest, Fr. Bohdan Lypsky (+memory eternal!) used to discuss the term "Byzantium" and said that it came to mean "New Rome."

He didn't like "Greek-Catholic" since Byzantine culture included both Greek, Latin and Slavic cultures in an amalgam and was, he said, derived from the culture of Elder Rome.

So we are, in effect, "New Romans" or "Romaioi," spiritual descendants of the Christian achievement of the Roman empire, or "Romania" whose official languages were both Greek and Latin - and later Slavic.

Fr. Lypsky also believed that we should call our Church "Orthodox" or "Orthodox-Catholic."

Alex

One bishop (not born in Ukraine) suggested at the UGCC synod that the name of the UGCC be changed to the "Kyivan Orthodox Catholic Church".

Some people might find "Catholic-Orthodox" a bit more palatable, and that term has the advantage that it was used by Saint Peter (Mohyla) of Kiev and therefore has a venerable history. Incognitus