Eastern Christendom

[Hesychios]

GAssisi:

I disagree that the forums as currently presented makes it easier to integrate Eastern Christianity into the Catholic paradigm. I really don’t like the fact, as someone else has written, that people come to the “Non-Catholic” forum to talk about Eastern Catholicism. When Eastern issues come up, it automically becomes presented as a faith foreign to, instead of compatible with, Catholicism.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Thank you Greg, you are a great promoter of the Eastern Christian churches, it shows in everything you write!

But the only reason those threads get started in the non-Catholic section is because people haven’t learned to put them where they belong: a question about Eastern liturgy can be in the Liturgy section, a question about Eastern prayer life and devotions can be in the Spirituality section, and apologetics?..

I still believe a separate section entitled “Apologetics for Eastern Catholicism” would help people learn more about the other “lung.”

How about, apologetics for Catholicism? We are yoked together, an Eastern Catholic apologist cannot get away with defending and promoting only Eastern Catholicism, we have to carry the whole kitbag and defend the Western church too! When we declare publicly that we are Catholics, they hit us with everything, every blessed complaint, misconception and criticism of the church you ever heard, we have heard. We don’t walk away and say “that’s not us, you’ve got us confused with that other church”. We say we are Catholics, and we defend the Catholic Communion, it is in our terminology, we are yoked together! I would like to see Roman Catholic apologists think of us as their own, promote and defend us too!

With all respect and great appreciation for what you are trying to say (I know it comes from your heart), we don’t want a separate anything, we don’t want a special anything. We want to be thought of like everyone else here. Nec Plus, Nec Minus, Nec Aliter.

Perhaps the administrators will be willing to provide links to Eastern Catholic sites on their main page.

That sounds like a nice idea.

God bless,
Greg

God Bless you and keep you always!

 

[Edwin1961]

…How did THIS thread get buried for such a long time!

It is apparent that when this poll came out, CA Forums were under the old titles. So the answer of having a seperate Forum did NOT happen. Thanks God!

I do not like the idea of a ‘them’ vs. ‘us’ mentality. I have found a good number of Latin Rite Catholics who have asked me online here about the Byzantine Rite. All I say is go out there and check it out…we don’t bite! LOL.

But I do get offended when I hear people used the term “Roman Catholic” to describe ALL of the 'Catholic Church". I heard it today by a speaker at the Right to Life Rally on ETWN. So this generalization of the term ‘Roman Catholic’ to describe ALL Catholics is in error. Let us be ONE in Christ’s Church, we just have a unique way of expression our reverence for Him that ALL people came learn and appreciate and express.

God IS with Us!
Edwin

 

[Pug]

Edwin1961:

But I do get offended when I hear people used the term “Roman Catholic” to describe ALL of the 'Catholic Church". I heard it today by a speaker at the Right to Life Rally on ETWN. So this generalization of the term ‘Roman Catholic’ to describe ALL Catholics is in error.

I am a Latin rite type, and I have often used the phrase “Roman Catholic” to describe myself. But it is not intended in any way to exclude Byzantine or Maronite etc. Rather, it is a response to particular non-Catholics (perhaps a Protestant or an Evangelical) out there who insist on calling me that as a way to say that I am a lunatic in communion with Rome (the pope) and by saying it they are trying to tell me that they are the real catholics (they are the ones who are really part of the universal one church) and that I need to be designated differently so no one gets confused. Thus the other rites are naturally included in the term, because it is in reference to communion with the pope.

If I say Latin Rite, then I don’t mean Byzantine. It is possible to use Latin Rite and Roman Rite interchangeably, but because of what I explained, Roman Catholic in my neck of the woods usually means any actual Catholic of any rite. At least that is how I hear it used.

I mean absolutely no offense by the term to Eastern Catholics! Rather, it is conditioned by dialogue with some Protestants, etc. I will try to keep your view in mind and not offend.

 

[boppysbud]

It is true as someone else has already said that this site is Western Catholic by default. Too many are unaware that Eastern Catholics even exist.

When Eastern Rite Catholics first began arriving in numbers in this country they were treated abysmally by the Irish and German Bishops. Not only were they treated as second class Catholics by the Latin Rite bishops, they were expected for the most part to join Western Rite parishes, lose their identity and blend in. Faculties were denied to married Eastern Rite priests.

This was the cause of Fr. Alexis Toth of Minneapolis and his parishoners leaving the Catholic church and founding the still seperate Orthodox Church in America, at the time called the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in America. Due to this treatment of Eastern Catholics as second class Catholics it was many years before Eastern Catholics were allowed their own Bishops (Exarchates). It is only recently that Eastern Catholics were allowed to have married priests, and to begin to re-express thier own traditions after many many years of iconostasisless, heavily Latinised churches.

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

Pug:

I am a Latin rite type, and I have often used the phrase “Roman Catholic” to describe myself. But it is not intended in any way to exclude Byzantine or Maronite etc. Rather, it is a response to particular non-Catholics (perhaps a Protestant or an Evangelical) out there who insist on calling me that as a way to say that I am a lunatic in communion with Rome (the pope) and by saying it they are trying to tell me that they are the real catholics (they are the ones who are really part of the universal one church) and that I need to be designated differently so no one gets confused. Thus the other rites are naturally included in the term, because it is in reference to communion with the pope.

Pug, you are right to call yourself a Roman (or Latin) Catholic as you are a member of the Roman (or Latin) Catholic Church, you are not a member of the Latin (or Roman) rite as people do not belong to rites, Churches do.

What Edwin is commenting on is when others use the name Roman Catholic as a blanket term to describe all Catholics. That is wrong, not all Catholics belong to the Roman Catholic Church. To describe all Catholics one should just call us Catholics.

 

[hlgomez]

There have been misconceptions between the Western and the Eastern Orthodox Churches in particular that catholics and orthodox alike should know and understand. By understanding our theology and beliefs and cast away all the misconceptions, we could heal the schism.

Pio

 

[Amadeus]

Dear Greg:

A long, long time ago I did also feel your concern that somehow Easterners, more particularly Eastern Catholics, are forever “left out” in Catholic boards.

Integrating Eastern Catholics into this “Catholic Forum,” without the ubiquitous “Roman” appendage, by Catholic Answers is to me a stroke of “genius.” This IS what Eastern Catholics have been trying to hammer on our collective Latin hard headedness: that we are One Catholic Church.

Creating another and separate Forum for Eastern Catholics, or for the larger Eastern Christianity, has been tried and tested and it does fall on the wayside. A common “apologetics” front for Latin and Eastern Catholicism is a novel, and surprising idea, that is taken well by our Eastern Catholic confreres. Whoever cooked this up deserves a medal.

“Catholic Answers Live!” on “Relevant Radio” has been featuring the Eastern Catholic Churches for some time now, within a “Catholic” apologetics framework without “pigeon-holing” or “ghettoizing” the Eastern Catholic Churches.

If you wish to engage in a discussion forum with an Eastern Catholic bent or learn more about them, with the active participation of the Orthodox and other “non-Catholic” Christians, just hasten to the home forum of ALL (or almost all) of the Eastern Catholics right here (and mine too!) at byzcath.org We have been there longer than this Forum. And it is excellently moderated, with the participation of Eastern Catholic clergy. (One Co-Moderator is an Orthodox priest-monk who has NO axe to grind!)

Ok, guys, I’ve let the cat out! Again!