Has anyone ever attended an Ethiopian Catholic or Ethiopian Orthodox Service

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I’ve not yet been to one, but I hope to soon. There is an Ethiopian Catholic parish here in D.C. that I’d like to attend at least once while I’m still living here.
 
Diakonia said:
Why so?
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With regard to the oft-repeated idea (from both Rome and laypeople) that the Eastern and Oriental Catholics are to return to their traditions, to be “Orthodox in union with Rome” even, it is obvious that these churches are failing quite spectacularly in that respect. The Ge’ez Catholics are nothing like their Orthodox Ethiopian or Eritrean counterparts.
 
The major problem with the Eastern Catholic Churches is that they are becoming so “Latinized” that they will soon simply become “esoteric” usages of the Latin rite.

Today, those who are “Orthodox in communion with Rome” tend to eventually become Orthodox, period. And this not because the attraction to Orthodoxy is so great to them (in fact, traditional Latin Catholics feel an attraction to Orthodoxy due to the perceived reverence and mysticism they feel is absent in the Novus Ordo rite).

They feel that attraction simply because their own EC parish people themselves have no real idea what their Eastern traditions are all about, the same goes for a number of their bishops etc.

Whether its Ethiopian or Chaldean or what have you, the future of Eastern Catholicism is not good.

Alex
 
I agree, Alexander. Obviously as a non-EC it is not my place to make predictions or diagnoses, but just using my own senses I don’t think there is any worthwhile comparison to be made between the Roman communion and the Orthodox. Even those Eastern or Oriental Catholic churches that can boast of very powerful liturgies (and lest anyone think that this an excuse for ECC/OCC-bashing, I have seen some stunning examples of such liturgies), the ultimate point of such boasting can’t be anything more than trying to assure their own people (and maybe others who are looking into Catholicism from Orthodoxy) that union with Rome does not lead to a loss of orthodoxy, despite the many examples to the contrary. These are to be expected, from my view, due to the fact that Rome is not orthodox, but I suspect that even if I were convinced of Rome’s orthodoxy, I would find it hard to close my eyes to the degradation of Eastern and Oriental spirituality that is present in the churches under consideration. In fact, I don’t need to suspect it without evidence…that’s what I experienced when I tried to be with the Byzantine Catholics after tiring of so much nonsense from the Latins. 😦
 
Yes, although it hurts me to hear your words, you tell it like it is.

Alex
 
And believe me, I don’t like writing them any more than you like reading them, despite what some people might think. Would that it were some other way and Rome could return to its historic orthodoxy, and thereby be welcomed back to the communion of Orthodox churches (itself in need of repair, though a lot closer to mending than the Great Schism). I think of this every time I read the words of the Romans among the Desert Fathers (St. Arsenius the Great, for instance), or even think of the fact that one of the greatest monasteries, founded by St. Macarios, is “the Monastery of the Romans” (Deir el-Baramous/Paromeos), It didn’t necessarily have to be this way.
 
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