A Question To Latin Catholics

[Peter_J]

I never knew about all of the Churches until I joined CAF.

That seems to be common. I’m reminded of a few months ago when we had a “Which Catholic Church do you belong to?” thread/poll, and some posters expressed confusion that there could be more than one!

 

[Optimus_Prime]

I am a catechist for a confirmation class and I absolutely tell my students about the Eastern Catholic Churches. I explain the ancient and present Byzantine practice of having all three Sacraments of Initiation at the same time (and how I hope us Latins will at least start practicing them in the proper order again soon!).

 

[Cojuanco]

I was just curious, for those of you who have gone through Latin Catechism or ecclesiastical studies, are we Eastern Catholics ever mentioned?

Not when I was a kid - and we lived next door to a Maronite community, many of which attended the same Catholic school I did! And the same could be said for high school catechesis. It’s probably much better now, though.

I mean, I remember when EWTN showed an Eastern Rite Divine Liturgy and my mother even doubted they were ‘really’ Catholic! Then again, few Eastern Christians in the Philippines, where she grew up…

 

[MissRose73]

Only in the past few years have I learned bits and pieces about the various Eastern Catholic rites. Keep in mind, I was born and raised Roman (Latin). I hope when the weather gets better here in my state, I have the chance to go to an Eastern Catholic (Byzantine) church to experience a Divine Liturgy as it some distance from me.

 

[johnnykins]

First grade in a Latin Rite parochial school - one of the other kids was Melkite.

 

[SerbCath]

I did about 6 months of RCIA and it was never mentioned. It took me that long to figure out that I wasn’t supposed to be in RCIA at all (because there is technically no such thing as RCIA for a chrismated person).

I don’t get the feeling it is anti-eastern bigotry, but RCIA is to teach the basics of the Latin Rite.

Once the Byzantine priest took over my cathecesis, he told me I could go, or not but it was up to me. I stopped because it was all about the rosary (not the prayer rope/Jesus prayer), the Assumption (not the Dormition), the mass (not the liturgy) and on and on. I was being “latinized” and I didn’t even know what that meant.

It has been very difficult for me to plug into the Byzantine church because of a lack of it’s nearby presence, so I really feel like a pilgrim. I think it is worth it though.

 

[5Loaves]

I was just curious, for those of you who have gone through Latin Catechism or ecclesiastical studies, are we Eastern Catholics ever mentioned?

I don’t know if you’d call it “ecclesiastical studies” but a number of years ago I completed a 3 year non-degree program the (Latin) Diocese of Oakland has for catechists, those interested in the diaconate, etc. The year after I left an EC priest came in and taught the Liturgy class for two years, and more recently another EC priest taught it again.

I’m a catechist in adult RCIA in a Latin/RC parish. From time to time I’ll mention something about the Eastern Churches. When one of the 12 Great Feasts of the ECs is coming on I’ll put the icon of the feast on our center table and maybe read the troparion and kontakion so they get a sense of the nature/language of festal prayers in the East. The particular Church I’m of is more on the strict end of the fasting continuum so I’m fasting a lot of the year and that does come up. We’ve never had sessions devoted to the ECCs but no one comes away from their time with us without being aware of the Eastern Churches and knowing that I’m EC and they can come to me with questions. Catechumen and candidates have asked me questions in and outside the group. Since the catechumens and candidates 9 times out of 10 are parents hopefully they bring some of that back into their family.

A parish in the next town over which has celebrated the EF of the Mass for at least a decade and does so daily, the local go-to “traditional” parish, brings their teens once a year to the local Russian Greek Catholic Church for a Divine Liturgy and lunch visit.

The novice master for the local Dominicans has brought their students to Pascha at the Russian Catholic parish for a number of years. Several of the OP Brothers have close ties to the East. So hopefully their knowledge of the East does get shared. The Chaldeans have sent seminarians to live at the Dominican Priory for the semester or two that they study at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology. An Assyrian Orthodox priest has also lived at the Priory several semesters. An OCA priest very frequently has Sunday evening prayer with them, and recreation afterwards. Again, hopefully that filters out to those they catechize.

 

[AnthonyJ]

I never heard about Eastern Catholicism during my catechism classes. I was confirmed in the 8th grade in 1985. Maybe things have changed for the better since then. I even have a Byzantine Catholic parish right in the town I grew up in, but I never heard about it at the RC parish I went to about a mile down the same road. I learned of it all my own years after my religious education was over.

 

[Brendan]

I suppose it depends on area.

I grew up in a suburb of Detroit that had a Roman parish, and a Ruthenian parish. There was no lack of knowledge about the other, as we shared the same Catholic school system.

Likewise metro Detroit has a very large Chaldean community. There is a Chaldean Cathedral in metro Detroit, and our local seminary trains priests for both Churches.

So I can’t say that I received any formal instruction during my time at school, but it was just something that everyone knew.

 

[ByzCathCantor]

I suppose it depends on area.

I grew up in a suburb of Detroit that had a Roman parish, and a Ruthenian parish. There was no lack of knowledge about the other, as we shared the same Catholic school system.

Likewise metro Detroit has a very large Chaldean community. There is a Chaldean Cathedral in metro Detroit, and our local seminary trains priests for both Churches.

Metro Detroit has an unusually well represented population of Eastern & Oriental Christians. It is one of the least well appreciated gems of community.

 

[Thomas48]

Thanks for the replies, it is good to see that at least in some areas Eastern Catholics are mentioned. I’m curious if it is the same situation vice versa, are Eastern Catholics taught about other Eastern Catholics and Latin Catholics in catechism?

I can say that from my youth catechism in the Syro Malabar Church there was not many mentions of other Eastern Catholics or Latin Catholics. Syro Malabar catechism strongly stressed everything except church structure and different rites. Although, this could be regional just like many of the previous posters stated. I do not think we have a strict set of rules for catechism.

However, socially in Kerala we knew of the other churches, in example since I am Knanaya we called other St. Thomas Christians Vadakhumbagar (Northists) and they called us Thekkhumbagar (Southists), these were our very traditional names for each other. I know that locally Syro Malabar Catholics called Syro Malankara Catholics, Reethakar (Catholics of another rite) which is a very interesting misnomer since we’re all Catholics of different rites. In Kerala there are so many major churches cloistered together with a shared history and culture, its hard for us not to know each other, even with the lack of catechism.

 

[Vivat_Christus]

Eastern Catholicism was mentioned on a handful of occasions in my RCIA classes but we never delved into it or anything. I really wished we would have, I’ve always been fascinated by Eastern Catholicism and I want to learn more about it.

 

[Duane1966]

Eastern Catholicism was mentioned on a handful of occasions in my RCIA classes but we never delved into it or anything. I really wished we would have, I’ve always been fascinated by Eastern Catholicism and I want to learn more about it.

Where do you live? If it is near a larger US city chances are that there will be an Eastern Catholic Church there, and you can go experience the Divine Liturgy. I loved it.

 

[Vivat_Christus]

Where do you live? If it is near a larger US city chances are that there will be an Eastern Catholic Church there, and you can go experience the Divine Liturgy. I loved it.

There is one Melkite church near my city (which only has a population of about 200,000) and a Maronite one about half an hour away in a larger city. I’ve been wanting to go to Divine Liturgy for a really long time to see what it’s like!

 

[Draper]

I was just curious, for those of you who have gone through Latin Catechism or ecclesiastical studies, are we Eastern Catholics ever mentioned?

Nope.

Nor does the local Byzantine/Ruthenian Catholic parish do anything to make itself known to other Catholics or people in general in the local community.

I offered to coordinate divine liturgies for local Latin Rite confirmation classes at our Eastern parish. The pastor wasn’t interested. That was that.

 

[ByzCathCantor]

Nope.

Nor does the local Byzantine/Ruthenian Catholic parish do anything to make itself known to other Catholics or people in general in the local community.

I offered to coordinate divine liturgies for local Latin Rite confirmation classes at our Eastern parish. The pastor wasn’t interested. That was that.

BTW - that may not be for lack of desire. There are some local churches that have been warned about attracting too many Latin Catholics to their parish.

 

[babochka]

BTW - that may not be for lack of desire. There are some local churches that have been warned about attracting too many Latin Catholics to their parish.

True, but somehow people have found us on their own. If it weren’t for Latin Catholics and former Latin Catholics, our parish would be in sad shape, indeed.

We’ve had RCIA classes come to visit, and an 8th grade class from a local Catholic school has come every year for the past 5 years or so. Our pastor teaches theology at a local Catholic high school, so they become aware of our churches through him, if nothing else. Their curriculum includes brief references, I believe.

 

[thequeen]

I am a convert and the priest who took me through private instruction also taught me about the Eastern Catholic Church in union with Rome. In fact he had me attend an Eastern Catholic liturgy one Sunday a month as part of my instruction either a Byzantine or Ukranian Catholic Church

 

[Peter_J]

True, but somehow people have found us on their own.

Yup.

 

[Draper]

BTW - that may not be for lack of desire. There are some local churches that have been warned about attracting too many Latin Catholics to their parish.

I have never heard that one. Not ever.

It has absolutely nothing to do with that in this case. I asked the director of youth catechetics at my very large Latin Rite parish if they would like to attend a Divine Liturgy at my small Byzantine Rite parish. “Absolutely” was the response.

When I asked the pastor of the EC parish if this was something he wanted to do he said “no!” I asked again later and the answer was the same. He wouldn’t provide an explanation.