Christian Family

[sistermouse]

I’m not sure if I am in the correct place to ask this question or not. If I am not, please lead me to the correct section. Is the information on a site www.christianfamilyoutreach.com really Catholic?? I have read several of the pamphlets and they sound as if they are from the Church I remember as a little girl. I am also confused by the different forums ie. Eastern Catholic, Traditionalist Catholic and such…I thought there is only one Holy, Catholic & Apostalic Church. I really am not trying to ruffle feathers or hurt anyone at all…I just need to know.
Thank You for having a place to ask my questions,
mouse

 

[bostonboy23]

to answer your first question that website seems(i haven’t read the only thing) to be a radical anti vatican II website. is this really a “catholic” site? thats a matter of opinion. If you want to know mine no i think these people will go straight to you know where for advocating hate.
secondly the reason we have eastern catholic is because there is the western(which is where we live) rite and the eastern. The eastern is chinese Vietnamese etc. “traditional” catholic usually means people who don’t follow vatican II meaning they still follow the latin mass etc.

 

[DavidFilmer]

I have read several of the pamphlets and they sound as if they are from the Church I remember as a little girl

That’s probably because most of them were written some years ago (maybe when you were a little girl).

Unlike a previous responder, I found none of these pamphlets (among the dozen or so that I sampled) to be contrary to anything that the Church teaches (either before or since Vatican II). Some of these tracts advocate a return to pious traditions (such as the wearing of a veil by women) which have never been discouraged by the Church, but have fallen out of general practice. Others advocate a return to authentic Catholic moral and liturgical principles which have been sorely neglected in recent times. And others encourage teens to uphold Catholic sexual morality in their relationships (I don’t recall reading the word “condom” anywhere).

Overall, I found the site refreshingly orthodox and absolutely consistent with the Catholic Faith as espoused by our Holy Father, Benedict (and his predecessors of happy memory) and the whole of the Sacred Magesterium.

 

[NHInsider]

secondly the reason we have eastern catholic is because there is the western(which is where we live) rite and the eastern. The eastern is chinese Vietnamese etc. “traditional” catholic usually means people who don’t follow vatican II meaning they still follow the latin mass etc.

One small correction - Eastern Rite Catholics are not Asian. The Eastern Rites are branches of the church that have their own liturgical traditions (rite). They are very similar to the Orthodox churches but they are in union with the Pope. Most trace their roots back to the ancient churches of the immediate post-apostolic age and the Ecumenical Councils.
For the most part they carried on their faith in relative isolation after the collapse of the Roman empire and so did not, for example, shift to the use of Latin for the liturgy (which is why the large western branch is called the Latin rite).

The Byzantine rite is the largest of the Eastern rite and is what most people mean when they say “Eastern”. It traces its roots back to the bishopric of Constantinople which was the eastern capital of the Roman empire. There are a number of national churches within the Byzantine rite.

The Coptic rite traces its roots back to Alexandria. The Syriac rite comes from Antioch. The Armenian rite and Chaldean rite are regional. The Maronite rite is from Lebanon and traces its origins to the 4th century monk Maron although the churches of Lebanon did not follow him into heresy. There are a couple of others that have been recently (meaning within the last 100 years) reunited with Rome.

There is a whole forum here for Eastern Rite catholics who could certainly do a better job of explaining any of this than I can!
forums.catholic-questions.org/forumdisplay.php?f=119

 

[Rolltide]

Most people are not aware that the “Catholic Church” is actually comprised of twenty-three independent Catholic Churches, all in union with the pope. The Western, or Latin Catholic Church, is so large, however, that many people, even Catholics, are completely unaware of the other twenty-two churches, which make up the Eastern Branch. (Some have from only a few thousand members to a few million.)

Originally, there was only one denomination… the Catholic Church (the word Catholic meaning “universal”). However, there were five cities that were singled out as being important centers of Christianity. They were Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and of course, Rome. Each developed its own unique traditions and liturgy, but ALL shared a common theology and were in communion with each other and the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope. However, about 1000 years ago, due to a variety of unfortunate problems, the other four cities, allied with the Byzantine Empire, mutually broke off from Rome, forming the various Eastern Orthodox Churches. Although doctrinally, they are virtually identical to Catholics, they refuse to acknowledge that the pope is more than a “first among equals”. (A couple groups broke of much earlier in the 400s AD also, to form what are known as the Oriental Orthodox Churches).

What has happened is that over time, some portions of each of the various Orthodox groups have decided to reconcile with the Catholic Church and come back into communion with Rome. When they do, they are allowed to keep all of their traditions and much of their independence, although they acknowledge the authority of the Pope. They become truly Catholic, in that anyone from ANY branch of the Catholic Church can participate in the liturgy and ceremonies of any OTHER branch of the Catholic Church. The only two Eastern groups that never fell out of communion with the Catholic Church were the Maronite Catholic Church, and the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church. So… for every branch of the Orthodox Churches that are NOT in communion with Rome, there is a corresponding and virtually identical branch of the Eastern Catholic Church that IS in communion with Rome. Since their customs and liturgies date from before the Council of Trent, they are allowed to remain. In other words, these Eastern Churches have ceremonies, liturgies, traditions, and ways of expressing theology that are different, but still united, with the Latin branch of the Catholic Church.

The following liturgies are used by the Eastern Catholic Churches:

• The Liturgy of St. Basil
• The Chaldean Mass
• The Order of the Divine and Holy Liturgy of Our Father Among the Saints Gregory the Theologian (or Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts)
• The Liturgy of St. James
• The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom
• The Liturgy of St. Mark
• The Holy Qorbono

The Latin branch of the Catholic Church generally uses just the “Ordinary Form of the Mass”, although it has some variants, (some of which are substantially different, like the Extraordinary Form). The different versions are listed under the Latin tradition in the post below. Note that these are really considered different forms of the SAME Mass.

continued…

 

[Rolltide]

Here is a listing that includes EACH of the twenty-three Catholic Churches in union with the Pope. Do not confuse “churches” with “rites”. A rite is a series of traditions, that includes different customs and liturgies. Several different churches may use the exact same rite. A Church has its own rules and separate line of authority to the Pope. It may also have a figure in charge, like a Metropolitan or a Patriarch (like an Archbishop), since these churches are generally very small and work very hard to preserve their unique traditions. The major rites are the Latin, Alexandrian, Antiochian, Armenian, Chaldean, and Byzantine.

**The Western (Latin) Catholic Church

Latin liturgical tradition**

1. Ordinary Form
2. Extraordinary Form
3. Ambrosian Rite (Only permitted in the Archdiocese of Milan)
4. Mozarabic Rite (Only permitted in the Cathedral of Toledo, Spain and a few surrounding churches of the diocese)
5. Bragan Rite (Only permitted in the Archdiocese of Braga, Portugal)
6. Anglican-Use Mass (This form is permitted in the extremely rare circumstance in which an Anglican priest converts to Catholicism and brings his entire parish with him. In that event, a parish may continue to use the Anglican liturgy, with corrections to make it conform with Catholic teachings This is currently meant as a transitional liturgy, and upon the death of the pastor, the church reverts to the Ordinary Form.)

Rites of Religious Orders (These are not technically rites per se, but rather small variants of the Roman liturgy. The Ambrosian, Mozarabic, and Bragan Rites fall into this category too.):

1. Dominican Rite
2. Carthusian Rite
3. Carmelite Rite
4. Cisternian Rite

**The Eastern Catholic Churches

1. Alexandrian liturgical tradition**
2. Coptic Catholic Church (patriarchate): Egypt (1741)
3. Ethiopian Catholic Church (metropolia): Ethiopia, Eritrea (1846)
   2. Antiochian (Antiochene or West-Syrian) liturgical tradition
4. Maronite Church (patriarchate): Lebanon, Cyprus, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Argentina, Brazil, United States, Australia, Canada, Mexico (union re-affirmed 1182)
5. Syriac Catholic Church (patriarchate): Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Palestine, Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, United States and Canada, Venezuela (1781)
6. Syro-Malankara Catholic Church (major archiepiscopate): India, United States (1930)
   3. Armenian liturgical tradition:
7. Armenian Catholic Church (patriarchate): Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Jordan, Palestine, Ukraine, France, Greece, Latin America, Argentina, Romania, United States, Canada, Eastern Europe (1742)
   4. Chaldean or East Syrian liturgical tradition:
8. Chaldean Catholic Church (patriarchate): Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, United States (1692)
9. Syro-Malabar Church (major archiepiscopate): India, Middle East, Europe and America.
   5. Byzantine (Constantinopolitan) liturgical tradition:
10. Albanian Greek Catholic Church (apostolic administration): Albania (1628)
11. Belarusian Greek Catholic Church (no established hierarchy at present): Belarus (1596)
12. Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church (apostolic exarchate): Bulgaria (1861)
13. Byzantine Church of the Eparchy of Križevci (an eparchy and an apostolic exarchate): Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro (1611)
14. Greek Byzantine Catholic Church (two apostolic exarchates): Greece, Turkey (1829)
15. Hungarian Greek Catholic Church (an eparchy and an apostolic exarchate): Hungary (1646)
16. Italo-Albanian Catholic Church (two eparchies and a territorial abbacy): Italy (Never separated)
17. Macedonian Greek Catholic Church (an apostolic exarchate): Republic of Macedonia (1918)
18. Melkite Greek Catholic Church (patriarchate): Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Jerusalem, Brazil, United States, Canada, Mexico, Iraq, Egypt and Sudan, Kuwait, Australia, Venezuela, Argentina (1726)
19. Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic (major archiepiscopate): Romania, United States (1697)
20. Russian Catholic Church: (two apostolic exarchates, at present with no published hierarchs): Russia, China (1905); currently about 20 parishes and communities scattered around the world, including five in Russia itself, answering to bishops of other jurisdictions
21. Ruthenian Catholic Church (a sui juris metropolia, an eparchy, and an apostolic exarchate): United States, Ukraine, Czech Republic (1646)
22. Slovak Greek Catholic Church (metropolia): Slovak Republic, Canada (1646)
23. Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (major archiepiscopate): Ukraine, Poland, United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Germany and Scandinavia, France, Brazil, Argentina (1595)