Ancestors Converting From EC to RC

  • Thread starter Thread starter hjig22
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
H

hjig22

Guest
My great grandmother came from Jakubany Slovakia. Everyone that lives their is Greek Catholic and has been for generations. When my grandmother can to canada she started attending a slovak church in the RC rite even though their was a Ukranian church right across the street. I think she must have had a change of rites since her wedding certificate said Roman Catholic.All her sisters except for one became a part of the RC church in USA even though they married men from their village. One other sister attended a Ukranian Catholic Church in canada or in those days it would have been considered a mission since they met in the basement of an RC church.Anyone have any thoughts? Simillar experiences with ancestors?
 
Because it is Saturday morning, and everyone is either sleeping in or cleaning house!
 
They probably opted to become RC upon their marriage to RC men. The “option” may not have been entirely voluntary, either.
 
hjig22 said:
My great grandmother came from Jakubany Slovakia. Everyone that lives their is Greek Catholic and has been for generations. When my grandmother can to canada she started attending a slovak church in the RC rite even though their was a Ukranian church right across the street. I think she must have had a change of rites since her wedding certificate said Roman Catholic.All her sisters except for one became a part of the RC church in USA even though they married men from their village. One other sister attended a Ukranian Catholic Church in canada or in those days it would have been considered a mission since they met in the basement of an RC church.Anyone have any thoughts? Simillar experiences with ancestors?
Click to expand...
My ancestors on my mom’s side made the switch from Ukrainian Catholic to Roman Catholic when they immigrated in the 1800’s. I think they were just trying to become more Americanized. They then abandoned the faith altogether only to be picked back up by me.
 
hjig22 said:
Anyone have any thoughts? Simillar experiences with ancestors?
Click to expand...
This was extremely common in the past, and will likely continue.

Being part of a religious minority in an area, the chances are pretty good that the family will be absorbed into the predominant rite.

At one time, I think this was a hoped for end to the ‘problem’ of multiple rites in north America. With our much greater appreciation for diversity today it we are bemoaning the process of assimilation. Some day we may see a Pope consolidate the remaining EC dioceses or even (if necessary) shut them down if they cannot sustain themselves.

It would be tragic.
 
hjig22 said:
I think she must have had a change of rites since her wedding certificate said Roman Catholic.All her sisters except for one became a part of the RC church in USA even though they married men from their village.
Click to expand...
They may have had RC on thier marriage certificate and gone to only Latin Churches but that doesn’t mean they did any sort of formal change and ever became indeed members of the Latin Church.

I don’t know what the process would have been back then, prior to the Second Vatican Council and certainly well before the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches came about in 1990. Priests in the Latin Church rarely know anything about ECCs and changing Churches these days and I’m sure they knew no more then. Write whatever you want on the baptismal, marriage, certificates and that makes it so. A very signficant change for us with V2 was the firm call for ECCs and OCCs to return to their sacred traditions. The coming in 1983 of the revisions of Code of Canon Law for the Latin Church and, the establishing of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches in 1990 has provided clarifications about changing of enrollment, but that hasn’t meant priests in the Latin Church know to get advise from their chancery about anyone coming from an Orthodox or EC background seeking sacraments of marriage or baptism.
 
Hesychios said:
Some day we may see a Pope consolidate the remaining EC dioceses or even (if necessary) shut them down if they cannot sustain themselves.

It would be tragic.
Click to expand...
Glad you feel that way, as do I. 🙂 Certainly BXVI would never “consolidate” us. Things haven’t been heading in that direction since V2, thankfully. Our super tiny parish is only still open we believe due to the protection of the Mother of God to whom our parish is dedicated.

(BTW your old pastor, Fr Loya, visited my parish this morning. 🙂 It was a treat for us! Today was the wild “Bay to Breakers” race and so Fr Tom and his ride got stuck in traffic but arrived by the tail end of the Preparation. A number of our regular folks didn’t come knowing it would be so hard to get across town to the church. On the other hand a priest we haven’t seen much lately came, so we had three priests. 👍)
 
5Loaves said:
They may have had RC on thier marriage certificate and gone to only Latin Churches but that doesn’t mean they did any sort of formal change and ever became indeed members of the Latin Church.
Click to expand...
I don’t remember the name of the encyclical offhand, but Pope Leo XIII forbade priests from attempting to induce Easterns or Orientals to switch Rites under pain of censure.

The old Latin Code recognized that Eastern and Oriental Catholics would often have their children baptized in the Latin Rite by a Latin Rite priest because they had no access to a priest of their own Tradition. In such instances, the old Code affirmed that the child should be regarded as belonging to the non-Latin Rite of the parents. Many (both priests and laity) were probably never aware of that provision.

Blessings,
Marduk
 
hjig22 said:
My great grandmother came from Jakubany Slovakia. Everyone that lives their is Greek Catholic and has been for generations. When my grandmother can to canada she started attending a slovak church in the RC rite even though their was a Ukranian church right across the street. I think she must have had a change of rites since her wedding certificate said Roman Catholic.All her sisters except for one became a part of the RC church in USA even though they married men from their village. One other sister attended a Ukranian Catholic Church in canada or in those days it would have been considered a mission since they met in the basement of an RC church.Anyone have any thoughts? Simillar experiences with ancestors?
Click to expand...
This may be because her husband was Roman Catholic and at the time, tradition said a bride followed the Rite of her husband.

It may also be because it was a Ukrainian church and she didn’t speak Ukrainian and felt more comfortable speaking Slovak with Slovaks.

As for the sisters, it may have depended on where they lived and how far away the Greek Catholic church was. It was probably easier to attend the Roman Catholic church if the Greek Catholic church was too far away. This was in the days before super highways and private cars remember…

My great-grandfather was Greek Catholic but there was no Greek Catholic church near where he lived so my grandmother was baptized in the Slovak Roman Catholic church and was raised in the Roman Catholic church even after she was taken back to Slovakia.

Hope this helps…😃
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top