Can an Eastern Catholic parish be put up

[ConstantineTG]

If you are interested in the Eastern Rite then just attend their Mass and learn their Liturgy. A formal process of becoming Eastern Rite Catholic is not necessary unless you want to become an Eastern Rite priest or other consecrated apostolate. We are all Catholic, therefore we can attend each others Mass. You do not have to go through a formal process of being an Eastern Rite Catholic just to attend their Mass or participate in their Liturgy, prayers or spirituality.

I know, thanks.

I’m just curious because from where I come from, most people are not aware of Eastern Catholicism. The place is mostly Catholic and there would be very few immigrants there to bring Eastern Catholicism, so I was wondering if an Eastern Rite can set up a mission parish there for those who would love to experience, and eventually become part of the Eastern Church. While the faith is the same, the approach is different and I think this may suit some people. Its just a feeling, and I just wanted to ask this out of curiosity. Who knows, maybe one day it might happen.

 

[ConstantineTG]

Even the unbaptised my baptise validily per canon law, baptism is the losest such sacrament. As you say, it must be an emergency however, in that case all things being equal there’s really no difference between what you describe, and grabbing a bottle of water at the hospital in an extreme emergency case.

In either case, the baptism is not to be performed unless there is some such exceptional reason to do so outside of your rite (indeed parish).

While anyone can validly baptized, first of all its forbidden for the laity to baptized if its not out of necessity. Secondly, again if not out of necessity, one should be baptized in their own sui juris Church because Baptism doesn’t only make one a Christian, the Rite used also makes the person a part of that sui juris Church. So unless you do not have access to your sui juris Church, only then could you go to another sui juris Church.

 

[Vico]

…
so I was wondering if an Eastern Rite can set up a mission parish there for those who would love to experience, and eventually become part of the Eastern Church.
…

To get a parish started, I believe there must be some members of the ritual Church domiciled at a location, that can make a request to their bishop (or the local Latin Church bishop if there is no eparch for their ritual Church) to start a parish, because only they have a** right** to their ritus.

In the US there are eparchies for 9 Churches and 1 exarchy for the Syro-Malankara CC:

1. Ukrainian Greek CC:
   Metropolitan Archeparchy of Philadelphia, PA
   Eparchy of Stamford, CT
   Eparchy of Saint Nicholas of Chicago, IL
   Eparchy of Saint Josaphat in Parma, Ohio
2. Byzantine (Ruthenian) CC *:
   Metropolitan Archeparchy of Pittsburgh, PA
   Eparchy of Passaic, New Jersey
   Eparchy of Parma, Ohio
   Eparchy of Holy Protection of Mary of Phoenix, AZ
3. Maronite CC:
   Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, NY
   Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles, CA
4. Melkite Greek CC:
   Eparchy of Newton, MA
5. Armenian CC:
   Eparchy of Our Lady of Nareg, New York (USA and Canada)
6. Chaldean CC:
   Eparchy of Saint Thomas the Apostle of Detroit, MI
   Eparchy of Saint Peter the Apostle of San Diego, CA
7. Romanian Greek CC:
   Eparchy of Saint George’s in Canton, Ohio
8. Syrian CC:
   Our Lady of Deliverance of Newark, New Jersey
9. Syro-Malabar CC:
   Eparchy of St Thomas of Chicago, IL
10. Syro-Malankara CC:
    Exarchy of United States of America (Hempstead, NY)

• Croatian CC, Slovak CC, Hungarian CC, and Italo-Greek-Albanian CC in Las Vegas, join the Ruthenian eparchies.

And then there are some other parishes under the care of a Latin Church bishop:

Coptic CC has two parishes: LA, NY (some may have closed)
Russian CC has three parishes: SF, LA, NY (some may have closed)
Belarussian CC has one parish: in Chicago (may have closed)

There do not seem to be any parishes of these:

Bulgarian, Albanian, Macedonian, Hellenic, or Ethiopian-Eritrean.

 

[ConstantineTG]

Vico, so not even a mission?

 

[Vico]

Vico, so not even a mission?

There are so few priests nowadays, especially for the Eastern Churches, it would be difficult to support a mission I think, without existing ascribed members in the area. (I will look in my reference for missions, I think I saw something there on them.)

Hre is a list of Byzantine Catholic missions in the US:
byzcath.org/index.php/find-a-parish-mainmenu-111/start-a-parish-mainmenu-113

I believe the basic idea is that one’s Church is based upon one’s heritage, and you can see this from the fact that baptism is into the ritual Church of one’s guardian (usually the Father if Catholic, or Mother if Catholic, or else the one responsible for Catholic up-bringing). But also there is the intention to preserve the Eastern Churches so it is difficult to transfer out of one, but it can happen through marriage or adoption.

 

[ConstantineTG]

There are so few priests nowadays, especially for the Eastern Churches, it would be difficult to support a mission I think, without existing ascribed members in the area. (I will look in my reference for missions, I think I saw something there on them.)

Hre is a list of Byzantine Catholic missions in the US:
byzcath.org/index.php/find-a-parish-mainmenu-111/start-a-parish-mainmenu-113

I believe the basic idea is that one’s Church is based upon one’s heritage, and you can see this from the fact that baptism is into the ritual Church of one’s guardian (usually the Father if Catholic, or Mother if Catholic, or else the one responsible for Catholic up-bringing). But also there is the intention to preserve the Eastern Churches so it is difficult to transfer out of one, but it can happen through marriage or adoption.

Many are falling away from the faith back home. I was hoping that perhaps a fresh perspective on the same faith might be something that will help them stay in the Church. There are many reason why people fall away back home and one of those reasons would be the hierarchy itself of the Church in the country.

I know a lot of my scenarios are hypothetical. Thanks for taking time and effort to respond to them.

 

[Aramis]

Vico, so not even a mission?

It’s a theoretical possibility, but not a practical one. There would need to be compelling reason.

And to be blunt, the old (pre-V.II) rationale for so doing is no longer valid post-V.II, and would violate the Ravenna agreement.

 

[Diak]

…in places that there are Catholics but not Eastern Catholics?

In general the impetus for Eastern Catholic bishops to bless the foundation of new apostolates or missions has been pastoral need normally expressed by a request from a group of faithful of a particular ritual Church to the Eparchial bishop, metropolitan or exarch as the case may be. Technically, since all Catholics (including Eastern Catholics) have an equal share of the evangelical mandate, even pastoral need would not necessarily be a limiting factor.

As I found out in my own mission experience, there is certainly Latin interest once the mission gets going. There are few urban places in the US where at least a couple of Eastern Catholics or families descended originally from Eastern Catholics can’t be located.

In several places in the US it has occurred that when an Orthodox priest who has employment comes into communion with the Catholic Church as a Greek Catholic priest, he “starts from scratch” a mission that may not necessarily have any Greek Catholic presence in order for him to exercise his priestly ministry.