How to be Byzantine Catholic

[Lupe513]

Greetings all,
I am a member of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, living in an area where all that is available to me are Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox parishes. I find myself so torn and deeply confused about “how to be” Byzantine Catholic. I put this phrase in quotations because I am not sure it makes sense, even to me.
I will try to explain.
I love the Christian East, and also believe in being in Communion with Rome. However where I currently live, to be Eastern seems to mean to be Orthodox, and to be in Communion with Rome, to be Latin. I have been attending a Latin Rite parish, which is fine…but I feel as though I am losing my Eastern identity!
It has gotten to the point where I feel like I do not even know what to believe…do I believe in Purgatory? Do I believe in this Council or that? Wait, what am I, Orthodox or Catholic or what?
I apologize for the rambling, and hope I have been clear. I intend to speak to a priest about this soon as well, I just wanted to see if any of y’all have some advice on living a Byzantine Catholic life in a primarily Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox area.

Blessings. smile
Thomas Guadalupe

 

[Vico]

Greetings all,
I am a member of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, living in an area where all that is available to me are Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox parishes. I find myself so torn and deeply confused about “how to be” Byzantine Catholic. I put this phrase in quotations because I am not sure it makes sense, even to me.
I will try to explain.
I love the Christian East, and also believe in being in Communion with Rome. However where I currently live, to be Eastern seems to mean to be Orthodox, and to be in Communion with Rome, to be Latin. I have been attending a Latin Rite parish, which is fine…but I feel as though I am losing my Eastern identity!
It has gotten to the point where I feel like I do not even know what to believe…do I believe in Purgatory? Do I believe in this Council or that? Wait, what am I, Orthodox or Catholic or what?
I apologize for the rambling, and hope I have been clear. I intend to speak to a priest about this soon as well, I just wanted to see if any of y’all have some advice on living a Byzantine Catholic life in a primarily Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox area.

Blessings. smile
Thomas Guadalupe

What is common through each Catholic church sui iuris is dogma of faith, hierarchy, and the Holy Mysteries. For example, the eastern Catholic does not have to teach purgatory, however all dogmas of faith of the Catholic Church must be accepted as true. Belief is “an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists” and “trust, faith, or confidence in someone or something”.

Canon 17 of the Eastern Code (CCEO) has: “The Christian faithful have the right to worship God according to the prescriptions of their own autonomous Church and to follow their own form of spiritual life in accord with the teachings of the Church.”

You have the right the ask for support from your Ukrainian hierarch and even the Latin bishop.

 

[Patchunky]

I am a member of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, living in an area where all that is available to me are Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox parishes.

You have at least 2 Ukrainian Catholic churches in the D.C. area. The Ukrainian Catholic Shrine of the Holy Family acroos the street from Catholic University of America and Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church on New Hampshire Ave Extended in Silver Spring.

Hope this helps…

 

[SyroMalankara]

Greetings all,
I am a member of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, living in an area where all that is available to me are Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox parishes. I find myself so torn and deeply confused about “how to be” Byzantine Catholic. I put this phrase in quotations because I am not sure it makes sense, even to me.
I will try to explain.
I love the Christian East, and also believe in being in Communion with Rome. However where I currently live, to be Eastern seems to mean to be Orthodox, and to be in Communion with Rome, to be Latin. I have been attending a Latin Rite parish, which is fine…but I feel as though I am losing my Eastern identity!
It has gotten to the point where I feel like I do not even know what to believe…do I believe in Purgatory? Do I believe in this Council or that? Wait, what am I, Orthodox or Catholic or what?
I apologize for the rambling, and hope I have been clear. I intend to speak to a priest about this soon as well, I just wanted to see if any of y’all have some advice on living a Byzantine Catholic life in a primarily Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox area.

Blessings. smile
Thomas Guadalupe

DC also has Syro-Malabar, Eritrean, Malankara Syriac, Maronite, Chaldean and I think a Syriac mission

 

[malphono]

DC also has Syro-Malabar, Eritrean, Malankara Syriac, Maronite, Chaldean and I think a Syriac mission

Where in the DC area is there a Chaldean church or mission? I can’t seem to find anything about it.

 

[SyroMalankara]

I thought there was some activity at CUA, but maybe its only when a visiting priest is studying there?

 

[KjetilK]

For example, the eastern Catholic does not have to teach purgatory

Yes, they do.

 

[Vico]

Yes, they do.

I am Byzantine Catholic, and I understand the dogma of purgatory. We do not teach purgatory in our catechism since it is not a part of our tradition, however we adhere with submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman Pontiff or the College of Bishops enunciate when they exercise their authentic Magisterium, even if they do not intend to proclaim these teachings by a definitive act, and firmly accept and hold each and everything definitively proposed by the Church regarding teaching on faith and morals.

Note this statement in the Treaty of Brest (Ukrainian Greek-Catholic):

5.—We shall not debate about purgatory, but we entrust ourselves to the teaching of the Holy Church.

 

[KjetilK]

I am Byzantine Catholic, and I understand the dogma of purgatory. We do not teach purgatory in our catechism since it is not a part of our tradition, however we adhere with submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman Pontiff or the College of Bishops enunciate when they exercise their authentic Magisterium

There is, of course, a distinction between types of teaching. When you said that you do not teach purgatory, it wasn’t clear that you meant catechesis.

The reason I say this is that I have met Eastern Catholics who claim that they can reject, and even ridicule, the doctrine of Purgatory, because they somehow aren’t bound by it.

 

[Vico]

There is, of course, a distinction between types of teaching. When you said that you do not teach purgatory, it wasn’t clear that you meant catechesis.

The reason I say this is that I have met Eastern Catholics who claim that they can reject, and even ridicule, the doctrine of Purgatory, because they somehow aren’t bound by it.

It should become much clearer once we are dead.

 

[coptsoldier]

There is, of course, a distinction between types of teaching. When you said that you do not teach purgatory, it wasn’t clear that you meant catechesis.

The reason I say this is that I have met Eastern Catholics who claim that they can reject, and even ridicule, the doctrine of Purgatory, because they somehow aren’t bound by it.

What Alot of Eastern Catholics reject is the intellectualism of the west. For example, what the Latin Church call purgatory we call Theosis. We dont as Eastern Catholics get into the teachings regarding temporal punishment and plenary indulgences. Largely because we view Sin differently. Ancestral vs Original essentially. However the Dogmatic belief that the soul is purified after death before entering heaven is DOGMA in not only the eastern catholic church, but also our mother Orthodox Churches. We just dont say the word purgatory as it is Latin, in the same way the Latins dont talk about Theosis.

 

[KjetilK]

What Alot of Eastern Catholics reject is the intellectualism of the west.

Or the perceived intellectualism of the West, to be more precise.

For example, what the Latin Church call purgatory we call Theosis.

But Westerns also talk of theosis. We even use the same name (although we sometimnes call it deification or sanctification), since we do not speak Greek. In Norwegian, which is my language, we say ‘heilaggjering’ (sanctification, ‘to make holy’) or ‘guddomleggjering’ (deification).

We dont as Eastern Catholics get into the teachings regarding temporal punishment and plenary indulgences.

Which isn’t part of the Dogma, anyway. But what I find interesting is that while it is true that the Eastern Church may not use the word ‘indulgence,’ the practice of indulgences is part of the Eastern tradition. St. Gregory of Nyssa, for example, talks of applying the merits of the Saints, and the Eastern Church had many canonical penances, much more than in the Western Church. Just because the term ‘indulgence’ isn’t used it doesn’t follow that indulgences aren’t part of the Eastern tradition.

Largely because we view Sin differently. Ancestral vs Original essentially.

Well, that depends. I find it that many people, both Westerns and Easterns, misunderstand the Western doctrine of Original sin. It basically says that Adam lost the gifts he had, and thus his descendants never gained them. So I really do not see any major difference here.

However the Dogmatic belief that the soul is purified after death before entering heaven is DOGMA in not only the eastern catholic church, but also our mother Orthodox Churches.

But that is essentially what Purgatory is, nothing more, nothing less.

We just dont say the word purgatory as it is Latin, in the same way the Latins dont talk about Theosis.

But the West do speak of Theosis. But I do think there is a distinction. It is more correct, in my opinion, to say that Purgatory is a subset of Theosis, its completion. This is, ‘incidentally,’ also the Western view, as expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church as the ‘final purification.’

 

[Ignatius]

Greetings all,
I am a member of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, living in an area where all that is available to me are Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox parishes. I find myself so torn and deeply confused about “how to be” Byzantine Catholic. I put this phrase in quotations because I am not sure it makes sense, even to me.
I will try to explain.
I love the Christian East, and also believe in being in Communion with Rome. However where I currently live, to be Eastern seems to mean to be Orthodox, and to be in Communion with Rome, to be Latin. I have been attending a Latin Rite parish, which is fine…but I feel as though I am losing my Eastern identity!
It has gotten to the point where I feel like I do not even know what to believe…do I believe in Purgatory? Do I believe in this Council or that? Wait, what am I, Orthodox or Catholic or what?
I apologize for the rambling, and hope I have been clear. I intend to speak to a priest about this soon as well, I just wanted to see if any of y’all have some advice on living a Byzantine Catholic life in a primarily Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox area.

Blessings. smile
Thomas Guadalupe

I don’t know how far you can travel, but this may help in finding an Eastern Catholic Parish. byzcath.org/index.php/find-a-parish-mainmenu-111?sid=525:by_location

 

[twf]

What Alot of Eastern Catholics reject is the intellectualism of the west. For example, what the Latin Church call purgatory we call Theosis. We dont as Eastern Catholics get into the teachings regarding temporal punishment and plenary indulgences. Largely because we view Sin differently. Ancestral vs Original essentially. However the Dogmatic belief that the soul is purified after death before entering heaven is DOGMA in not only the eastern catholic church, but also our mother Orthodox Churches. We just dont say the word purgatory as it is Latin, in the same way the Latins dont talk about Theosis.

I wouldn’t necessarily equate Purgatory and Theosis. The Latin tradition DOES talk about Theosis. We call it sanctification or divinization. St. Thomas Aquinas certainly taught that we shall become like gods by sharing in the Divine Nature. I get your broader point though. Certainly purgatory is PART of the sanctification process, but that process begins with baptism and continues after death. In the mass the priest prays “By the mingling of this water and wine, may we come to share the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.”
Theosis in Catechism:

460 The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature”:“For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.” “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.” “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.”

 

[Vico]

There is, of course, a distinction between types of teaching. When you said that you do not teach purgatory, it wasn’t clear that you meant catechesis.

The reason I say this is that I have met Eastern Catholics who claim that they can reject, and even ridicule, the doctrine of Purgatory, because they somehow aren’t bound by it.

Whatever name is use for after death state, we pray to God for the pardon every transgression which the faithfully departed have committed, whether by word or deed or thought.

 

[Peter_J]

I get your broader point though. Certainly purgatory is PART of the sanctification process, but that process begins with baptism and continues after death.

And indeed after “purgatory”.