Churches that are non-Catholic no longer

[Racer_X]

Heretics and schismatics get so much of our attention, we forget that there are also cases of churches coming back into communion with Mother Church after having been away for awhile.

Let us pause for moment to celebrate them.

The first that comes to my mind is the ChurchThe Syro****Malabar. Never really a schismatic, it was historically out of touch with Rome simply because it was too far away. Formally reunited with Rome in 1599, but with a lot of bumps to smooth over. In 1962 the old Chaldean Rite Liturgy was restored after being almost supplanted by the Latin. Now the second largest non-Latin rite after the Ukranian.

What are some other success stories?

(I didn’t put this in the Eastern forum because it is not clear that the question is restricted to Eastern churches, unless by “Eastern” we mean “all non-Latin rite.” And of course, there may be former schismatics that have been brought back into the Latin rite and were never “Eastern.”)

 

[Racer_X]

Apparently the **Chaldean Catholic Church ** descends from a faction in the Assyrian Church which broke off in 1552 and sent their selected Patriarch to Rome to enter into communion.

See! Everyone thinks “Reformation” when they hear 16th century, but we had (at least) two ancient churches come back home in the same period.

I hope to hear about more. The more recent, the better. I am sure there are a lot of surprises in this topic.

 

[Ghosty]

That sad thing is that if the Latin Catholic Portuguese hadn’t been so snotty to the Syro-Malabar, there’s a good chance the entire Church would have re-entered Communion, rather than just part of it.

It’s a good tale of unity, and at the same time a good warning against over-emphasising Latin mentality on Eastern Churches. A good example all around, IMO.

Peace!