Feeling foreign

[Athanasius_Mary]

Do any other Eastern Catholics on here have a hard time with not always understanding or being understood by Western in-laws and extended family? It’s not a language barrier that’s the problem, but a cultural one. I have a beard, listen to Arabic chant from Orthodox and Catholic choirs, use icons, and have other traits and viewpoints seen as unusual and even un-Christian to some people, even though I consider myself a pretty average Mediterranean-heritage Catholic.

I’ve tried explaining that Eastern Catholics and some Muslims do have similar perspectives on political and cultural issues, but we’re not the same in everything and being Christian doesn’t mean being “anti-Muslim”, per se. But Semitic cultures (Sephardic, Arab, Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian, Melkite, etc.) are all “Muslim” to some.

Anyone else in similar predicaments and have advice for how to show Christian charity and patience? My relatives mean well, we just talk past each other a lot.

 

[Augustinian]

Anyone else in similar predicaments and have advice for how to show Christian charity and patience? My relatives mean well, we just talk past each other a lot.

I think you just have to be patient, over time people will get used to seeing your ways.

Pittsburgh has had Lebanon and Syrian immigrants since the 19th Century and it isn’t a problem today, I’m sure it took time for people to get used to it and to shed their misconceptions.

Its the same, BTW, with other ethnic groups that arrived in America.

Just try to be patient, I’m sure that down the road, you’ll find people from your ethnic group will be more fully accepted as times goes by. Particularly, as members of you group begin to intermarry with the dominant Catholic culture.

 

[Lara]

The love of family members can only go so far. I would just try to find Western friends and enjoy getting to know new people.

 

[alice24]

YES!
It´s a cultural issue. I feel more at home in almost every middle-eastern or even russian community, no matter if orthodox or catholic, than in “western” parishes. I simply have to deal with this fact as I live in a western country, and I try not to make fundamental religious issues a cultural thing - I would not change my beliefs because of cultural comfort, in short.
I try to find parishes that are ethnically mixed and more cultural independent. Some contacts with priests at university had a huge impact on me and brought me back to faith because they focused on scholastic talks, not on cultural practice - I really think scholasticism is one of the universal languages of faith and good for intercultural understanding of our faith.