Is it weird for Roman Catholic to switch?

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I am Latin in blood and bone. I’m even part Italian 🙂 I definitely appreciate things Byzantine. Very much. But for me, that appreciation is like spiritual tourism. I’m not eastern, and I know I’ll never be.

But for some Latins, that’s not so, and I don’t begrudge them a bit. I only caution that since being “Western” is being profoundly “Roman” in more ways that most of us even know, be sure you’re not just touring. Be sure it’s part of you before actually changing.
 
Ridgerunner said:
I am Latin in blood and bone. I’m even part Italian 🙂 I definitely appreciate things Byzantine. Very much. But for me, that appreciation is like spiritual tourism. I’m not eastern, and I know I’ll never be.
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I can say the same in reverse. I’m Ukrainian Greek Catholic. I wear the Brown Scapular, make the Five First Saturdays, have mostly RC books, booklets & pamphlets etc but I will always be Ukrainian Greek Catholic. There are some things about the Byzantine Tradition that I don’t understand and some things about the Latin Tradition that I love but I don’t know if I could ever make the canonical switch to the RCC because I love the Byzantine Tradition.
 
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Phillip_Rolfes said:
I’ve often encountered Roman Catholics who turn to the East as way of fleeing from the problems in their own church.
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That happened a lot after VII. Our late sacristan (I posted his story on another thread) was RC but attended our Ukrainian Greek Catholic church. There were also RC clergy who fled to the Byzantine and Ukrainian Greek Catholic Churches but our bishops stopped that early on.

I’ve also encountered sedevacantists who would come to our parish because we have “valid sacraments” (no flags, please - don’t shoot the messenger!). I had it out with a sedevacantist like this: If you believe that he’s not the pope (which he IS) then why are you coming here? Our priest was ordained after VII and publicly prays for the Holy Father at least 4 times during the Liturgy, so why are you coming for the sacraments to a priest in full communion with the Holy See? He couldn’t answer me.
 
Listen to the Catholic Stuff You Should Know podcast (if you’re not already) and listen to episodes hosted by Fr. Michael O’Laughlin. Fr. O’Laughlin is a Byzantine Catholic priest who was raised Roman Catholic, but his family converted (not sure if that’s the right word here) when he was growing up.

They did a few episodes specifically about the Byzantine Church where he goes more in depth, but several of the episodes he hosted are peppered with his experience in switching from one rite to another. I would absolutely say that it’s not frowned on or bad
 
Aquila_Lucis said:
Fr. O’Laughlin is a Byzantine Catholic priest who was raised Roman Catholic, but his family converted (not sure if that’s the right word here) when he was growing up.
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They were not “converted” but switched particular Churches.
 
Margaret_Ann said:
I’ve also encountered sedevacantists who would come to our parish because we have “valid sacraments”
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Our former priest responded to the sedevancantists who cam and told them their priests had told them to come here because we “have valid sacraments” with something to the effect of “Help me understand. I’m Roman Catholic. So when I say Mass in my own rite it’s invalid, but over here it’s valid?”

For some reason, none ever came back . . .

He Almohad fun with those who instead that Jesus spoke latin: “what would he have done with it, cuss out Roman soldiers?” He acknowledged that he would have spoken a bit of latin (enough to obey soldiers), but wouldn’t have had anyone else to speak it with . . .
 
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dochawk said:
Jesus spoke latin
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Silly Eastern Catholic, don’t you know that the last supper was actually a tridentine mass?! Further, all exorcists have confirmed that satan and all demons hate latin! It is the only liturgical language that should be allowed! Every Catholic should be forced to speak only latin at all times!
🤣 😂

Ok, I better stop before I get banned.
 
I’m not sure of this. I understand virtually every Norwegian (and likely others) speaks fluent English as well as his own language. They learn it because so many others in Europe speak it and because so much business is done in it.

Jesus, of course, could have spoken any language he wanted, but if we’re just looking at "human knowledge’, it’s entirely possible he would have been fluent in Latin.

In that time and place, Koine would have been even more likely as an “additional language”. But we don’t really know any of that.
 
XXI_4 said:
Silly Eastern Catholic, don’t you know that the last supper was actually a tridentine mass?!
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🤣 😝 🤣

Kind of like how the KJV is quoted verbatim int he Book of Mormon?
Ridgerunner said:
I’m not sure of this.
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Educated people tend to speak the lingua franca of the day, whether English now, French a coupe of hundred years ago, or latin before that.

No-one would have attempted to teach the working classes of conquered territories the language of the overlords, and they wouldn’t waste their time learning it.

It’s not like the subjects were even allowed into the full economic life of the empire; there was simply no reason to know more than “carry my pack”, “give me water”, and so forth.

There weren’t tourists to sell to, or commercial contacts to enter, or . . .

And the folks with the delusion don’t simply think that he could speak Latin, or that he was fluent, but rather that it was his daily tongue,
 
dochawk said:
He Almohad fun with those who instead that Jesus spoke latin: “what would he have done with it, cuss out Roman soldiers?”
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This was actually a joke on Golden Girls:

Sophia: the Mass should be in Latin. The language Jesus spoke

Dorothy: Jesus spoke Hebrew

Sophia: even in Church?!
 
Today, lots of very ordinary people speak the language even of PAST occupiers. Thus, German is very commonly spoken in Hungary. Italian is still spoken by many in Croatia. And Koine was spoken in Israel long after the Greeks had lost the territory.

But never did I think Jesus would have used Latin in everyday conversation with His fellow countrymen.
 
I understand–but there is a bizarrely large quantity of people who think exactly that . . .
 
Ridgerunner said:
Today, lots of very ordinary people speak the language even of PAST occupiers. Thus, German is very commonly spoken in Hungary. Italian is still spoken by many in Croatia.
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An Italian influence is heavily noted along the coast in Croatia, in some words, foods, and customs. Less, as you move away from the coast. When you get over into Serbia, you don’t really see the Italian influence. The Serbian and Croatian language is pretty much the same, more like a difference between American and Canadian, with different inflections and colloquial phrases.
 
I don’t think it’s bad. It’s still within the Catholic Church anyways. As matter the fact, I heard that the Eastern Catholic churches are running short on priests, and it’s quite easy for a Latin Rite priest to switch to the Eastern Rite, but not the other way around. I personally prefer Latin Rite though, but I have nothing against the Eastern Catholics, because we are all in the Catholic family.
 
One of our late cantors (he passed away on Bright Tuesday 2011) was Roman Catholic. He met a UGCC lady, fell in love with the Divine Liturgy, married her and studied to become a cantor (and being Italian, had a great voice). AFAIK, the only Italian tradition he kept was the Seven Fishes on Nativity/Christmas Eve (which probably wouldn’t be in accord with strict Byzantine practice like @George720 has described). He always took off that day but came for services on the Feast of the Nativity, Synaxis of the Theotokos and St. Stephen.
 
Margaret_Ann said:
A Roman Catholic. He met a UGCC lady, fell in love with the Divine Liturgy, married her and studied to become a cantor (and being Italian, had a great voice).
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Margaret - He was supposed to fall in love with the lady, and then embrace her Faith and become a cantor… Those Italians, I say! Memory Eternal!

I attended an hierarchical Liturgy at Holy Virgin Cathedral in San Francisco once, and they have great singers there - Operatic Professionals - And they sang the Service in the Russian Style, high version - And Oh my! I about floated into the air hearing it… My daughter was there, and it did not seem to connect to her at all… Go figure…

geo
 
Why? I haven’t belonged to a Roman parish for over a decade now. All four of my children have been initiated into the Church according to either the Melkite tradition (my two eldest when we lived in VA) or the Maronite tradition (my two youngest now that we are home in Cincinnati). I spent several years working at an Eastern Christian publishing company working with some of the best Eastern scholars in the world to produce books and educational videos. And in my own personal approach to the Faith I’m by far more Eastern than Western. So yes, I claim the Eastern tradition as my own (particularly in the Maronite-Syriac expression).
 
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