I don’t fit any of those sufficient reasons! I’m at home in the East…that’s all I can say…I can’t go back and be spiritually fed in a Roman church…I can’t unlearn and unexperience all that I’ve learned and experienced. I was a pretty content Roman Catholic who was always curious about the East. The first time I attended Divine Liturgy I was hooked…I can’t explain it…but it’s my home. I’m not sure what I would do if I couldn’t’ transfer…
yes there are overlapping jurisdictions…I would be in the Eparchy of Chicago UGCC.
I know that not all transfers are approved. A Catholic canonical norm is to follow one’s own Church
sui iuris rules which include:- Holy days and penitential seasons.*
- Fasting and abstinence.*
- Proscriptions for baptism, confirmation, first confession, first communion, marriage, holy orders, and anointing of the sick.
- May receive Holy Confession and Holy Eucharist in any Church sui iuris.
- Contribute to the support of universal Church and Church sui iuris.
** *CCEO Canon 883
- The Christian faithful who are outside the territorial boundaries of their own Church sui iuris can adopt fully for themselves the feast days and days of penance which are in force where they are staying.
- In families in which the parents are enrolled in different Churches sui iuris, it is permitted to observe the norms of one or the other Church, in regard to feast days and days of penance.
Here is the rescript that allows Latin Church faithful to transfer if both bishops approve in overlapping jurisdicitons:AAS 85 [1983] 81:
Acta Ioannis Pauli Pp. II
SECRETARIA STATUS
Fit facultas licentiam de qua in can. 112, 1, 1 C.I.C. legitime, in casu, praesumenda.
RESCRIPTUM EX AUDIENTIA SS.MI
Ad normam can. 112, 1, I Codicis Iuris Canonici, quisque vetatur post susceptum Baptismum alii ascribi Ecclesiae rituali sui iuris, nisi licentia ei facta ab Apostolica Sede. Hac de re, probato iudicio Pontificii Consilii de Legum Textibus Interpetandis, Summus Pontifex Ioannes Paulus II statuit eiusmodi licentiam praesumi posse, quoties transitum ad aliam Ecclesiam ritualem sui iuris sibi petierit Christifidelis Ecclesia Latinae, quae Eparchiam suam intra eosdem fines habet, dummodo Episcopi diocesani utriusque dioecesis in id secum ipsi scripto consentiant.
Ex Audientia Sanctissimi, die xxvi mensis Novembris, anno MCMXCII.
ANGELUS card. SODANO
Secratarius Status
CIC Can. 112 §1 After the reception of baptism, the following become members of another autonomous ritual Church:
1° those who have obtained permission from the Apostolic See;
2° a spouse who, on entering marriage or during its course, has declared that he or she is transferring to the autonomous ritual
Church of the other spouse; on the dissolution of the marriage, however, that person may freely return to the latin Church;
3° the children of those mentioned in nn. 1 and 2 who have not completed their fourteenth year, and likewise in a mixed marriage the children of a catholic party who has lawfully transferred to another ritual Church; on completion of their fourteenth year, however, they may return to the latin Church.
§2 The practice, however long standing, of receiving the sacraments according to the rite of an autonomous ritual Church, does not bring with it membership of that Church.
Canon 112 (NCCCL, Beal, Coriden, Green)
“… because ascription to a ritual church is definitive, it belongs to the status of persons.”
“In effect, the canon distinguishes membership from liturgical practice. This means that change of ritual church membership occurs in one of the three ways provided for in paragraph one.”
