A couple of questions for Eastern Catholics

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followingtheway

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  1. *]Do you believe Guadalupe, Fatima, Lourdes and all the other Marian apparitions that we Western Latin Rite Roman Catholics do?
    *]Do you believe Sister Faustina Kowalska saw Jesus?
    *]Do people in the Eastern Catholic Churches pray the rosary and the divine mercy chaplet?
    *]Do you believe in the scapular?
    *]Do your priests get married?
 
followingtheway said:


  1. *]Do you believe Guadalupe, Fatima, Lourdes and all the other Marian apparitions that we Western Latin Rite Roman Catholics do?
    *]Do you believe Sister Faustina Kowalska saw Jesus?
    *]Do people in the Eastern Catholic Churches pray the rosary and the divine mercy chaplet?
    *]Do you believe in the scapular?
    *]Do your priests get married?
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  1. Priests don’t get married, but married men sometimes become priests.
 
Hesychios said:
Priests don’t get married, but married men sometimes become priests.
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Like converts from the Orthodox Church or a can regular married man just knock on the door and say “I want to be a priest”?
 
Married men who have been brought up Eastern Catholic may be ordained to the priesthood in many Eastern Catholic Churches (assuming they meet other requirements and all, of course). Married Catholic men who were brought up in the Latin Church and switched to an Eastern Church may meet with skepticism as to whether they are simply trying to get around the discipline of their native Church.

There are some exceptions though. The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church both have priestly celibacy I believe, as well as the Maronites in the United States. There may be other exceptions I don’t know about. In no Eastern Catholic Churches may priests marry or married men become bishops.
 
followingtheway said:


  1. *]Do you believe Guadalupe, Fatima, Lourdes and all the other Marian apparitions that we Western Latin Rite Roman Catholics do?
    *]Do you believe Sister Faustina Kowalska saw Jesus?
    *]Do people in the Eastern Catholic Churches pray the rosary and the divine mercy chaplet?
    *]Do you believe in the scapular?
    *]Do your priests get married?
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    1. There are, undoubtedly, Eastern Catholics who have devotion to one or more of the Marian apparitions you list. (There are, as well, Latin Catholics, who do not have devotions to or believe in one or more of those same apparitions, as none of them are required beliefs, although they are accepted by Rome.) You can, in fact, occasionally, find Eastern Catholic parishes named for such - Our Lady of Fatima Byzantine Russian Catholic Church in San Francisco comes to mind and there are Byzantine chapels at both Lourdes and Fatima, if I remember correctly.
    Our Lady of Guadalupe has some following among both Eastern Catholics and Orthodox, particularly those of Mexican and Spanish heritage. There are, in fact, those Eastern Christians who consider the Tilma to be an iconic image, an Acheiropoieta, an icon ‘not of human hands’ - like the Napkin or Veil of Veronica, the Shroud of Turun, and the Holy Mandylion (or Image of Edessa).

    But, if you are asking whether any of these are particularly promoted by the Eastern Churhes, the answer is no.
    1. I know little to nothing about Sister Faustina and I suspect that is equally true of the majority of our peoples (and true of some Latin Catholics, as well) although, again, I am sure that you could find Eastern Catholics who are devotees of Sister Faustina. (Again, it should be noted that private apparitions are not a required belief in either East or West, albeit accepted by Rome).
    2. There are Eastern Catholics who pray the Rosary and the Divine Mercy chaplet as private devotions. You will, occasionally, find the Rosary prayed as a public devotion in an Eastern parish - you should not. In some of the Oriental Churches, most notably the Syro-Malabar, I believe, you may find more instances of it, as they do not seem to consider it to be contrary to their tradition. The same comments that I made to the first two points apply here as well.
    3. I have no idea what you mean by ‘believe in the scapular’. If you are asking if it is a common part of Eastern spiritual practice, the answer would generally be no - with the same caveats expressed previously.
    4. Hesychios has explained this point well. In response to the post by another member, I’d note that married Latin men who have canonically enrolled in an Eastern Church may be ordained as presbyters. Skepticism enters into it when there is reason to suggest that the ability to be ordained a priest, despite having married, appears to be a factor - absent any reason to believe that, it is not.
    We are not Latins and our Catholicity is not to be judged by how much we resemble Latins in spirituality, theology, or liturgical praxis. We are who we are - Eastern and Oriental Catholics.
 
followingtheway said:
Like converts from the Orthodox Church or a can regular married man just knock on the door and say “I want to be a priest”?
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How about a seminarian having a girlfriend and engaged to be married by the time they graduate and receive ordination.
 
followingtheway said:


  1. *]Do you believe Guadalupe, Fatima, Lourdes and all the other Marian apparitions that we Western Latin Rite Roman Catholics do?
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  1. We are free to believe since they are Church approved private revelations. Its up to the individual people to believe. Although the following may be sparse because first of all I don’t know if there are icons of those Marian apparitions that Byzantines would have of at home. Also there are other depictions of the Theotokos that have Eastern following
    followingtheway said:
    *]Do you believe Sister Faustina Kowalska saw Jesus?
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    Again this is in the realm of private revelation that people can choose on their own to believe or not. Although the Divine Mercy is not a publicly practiced devotion in the East (but one can follow it privately)
    followingtheway said:
    *]Do people in the Eastern Catholic Churches pray the rosary and the divine mercy chaplet?
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    Yes and yes. But again as private devotions individuals choose to follow on their own and not something done publicly in church. Although it does happen.
    followingtheway said:
    *]Do you believe in the scapular?
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    Again, private revelation, can be chosen as a private devotion. Its the same for Latin Catholics actually, private revelations do not require belief.
    followingtheway said:
    *]Do your priests get married?
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    No. But married men can become priests, as noted in the above posts.
 
How about a seminarian having a girlfriend and engaged to be married by the time they graduate and receive ordination.
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Very frequently in my church (UGCC) one will often see a pause between subdiaconate and diaconate in non-monastic clergy formation as the candidate discerns marriage. Once one is ordained to the diaconate in any Eastern church, the status at ordination (married or celibate) becomes permanent.
 
followingtheway said:


  1. *]Do you believe Guadalupe, Fatima, Lourdes and all the other Marian apparitions that we Western Latin Rite Roman Catholics do?
    *]Do you believe Sister Faustina Kowalska saw Jesus?
    *]Do people in the Eastern Catholic Churches pray the rosary and the divine mercy chaplet?
    *]Do you believe in the scapular?
    *]Do your priests get married?
Click to expand...

  1. In the Ukrainian Catholic Church, the western Marian apparitions are quite popular, especially that of Fatima and Lourdes. I’ve seen icons of the Divine Mercy and this devotion is promoted by various groups in our parishes. We do not have “Divine Mercy Sunday” but the chaplet of Divine Mercy and the Novena is certainly widely practiced among our members - my grandmother, a wife of a priest and whose father and several uncles were all married priests (14 in total and all with doctorates in theology) prayed it daily at 3:00 pm, something I remember with great fondness.

    The rosary is popular not only in the Ukrainian Catholic Church but also in the Russian Orthodox Church. The Russian Saint Seraphim of Sarov prayed it daily and expected his spiritual children to pray it daily. He said that the Rosary appeared first in the East in the 8th century by way of an apparition of the Mother of God to a monk of the Thebaid. From there, it spread throughout the entire Church.

    The Scapular is likewise very popular and I know Russian Catholics (“Catholic Orthodox”) see in the scapular a symbol of the mantle of Protection of the Mother of God - which is a very Eastern devotion.

    Our Church allows for the ordination of married men for the secular priesthood (obviously, monastic/religious priests are celibate and so are the bishops).

    In this, our Church follows the tradition of the early Church that allowed married men to become priests. St Patrick of Ireland was the son of a married priest, as an example of the West.

    There are now married Western, Latin-Rite Roman Catholic priests, usually Anglican and Lutheran converts.

    For a long time, the Church of the first Millennium allowed for married priests in the West.

    Perhaps the Roman Catholic Church can allow all seminarians the option of getting married before ordination. Perhaps it could also do something about the thousands of Roman Catholic priests who have left active ministry to get married and have families.

    I come from a married priestly family and I think the RC Church is missing out on the many gifts and good experiences that married priests could bring to its beleaguered priestly ranks.

    Alex
 
Alexander_Roman said:
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There are now married Western, Latin-Rite Roman Catholic priests, usually Anglican and Lutheran converts.
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In fact there are more married latin rite priests in the U.S. than of the combined eastern Catholic Churcches in the U.S. . .

hawk
 
ThatOneGuy92 said:
It is a bit strange, isn’t it?
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Numerically yes. Percentage no. The sum total of eastern Catholics is about 1.5% of the Catholics. The number of Orthodox are ten times the number of eastern Catholics in the world.
 
Vico said:
Numerically yes. Percentage no. The sum total of eastern Catholics is about 1.5% of the Catholics. The number of Orthodox are ten times the number of eastern Catholics in the world.
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I can certainly understand that. However, I was merely commenting on the irony of their being so many married Latin Rite priests nowadays, even though the official practice is still celibacy. Sorry if I wasn’t clearer in my comment; some things get lost in translation on the Internet :o
 
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