Latin Rite Catholics Only: Ritual Transfer

[lak611]

I attended Byzantine Rite Masses (or Divine Liturgies, as that Rite calls them) two times in college. A friend of mine who is Byzantine Catholic explained the liturgy and told me what to do to receive Holy Communion. I thought the liturgy was beautiful. It reminded me a lot of the traditional Latin mass, which I attended several times at a parish that has indult because I am a post Vatican II Catholic and was curious about it as well. I have no plans to change rites, but I will probably check out a few more (we have a Maronite Catholic Church in my city–I want to check it out), and I will probably also attend a Ukranian Catholic Church.

 

[adventistnomore]

Why is the question only for Catholics of the Latin Church?

When I first launched this thread, I limited it to Roman-rite Catholics simply because… well… that’s the constituency I was interested in. (When you frame a survey, you get to choose its parameters). I know Eastern Catholicism is mentioned frequently on the forums by Roman Catholics–sometimes as a foreign, almost exotic segment of the Catholic Church. I was curious to see how many Roman Catholics ever seriously considered transferring to an Eastern church sui juris.

I’m sure I could have included Eastern Catholics in this poll–and in fact, I would like to ask Eastern Catholics the same question at some point in the future (unless someone here beats me to it; it’s probably be best to launch it on the “Eastern Christianity” forum). It’d be delightful to see what responses I’d get on that thread. But when launching this thread, I was specifically interested in Roman Catholic perceptions of Eastern ritual practice. Combining those two thread ideas might have caused the unique flavor of each subset to be lost.

 

[prv]

Wow, I resurrected a one-year old thread, and there is already 12 posts other than my own in the last four days!

 

[Ghosty]

I’ve certainly considered transfering Churches and Rites, but I’ve rejected the idea for now. I love the various non-Latin traditions, especially the Coptic and the Byzantine (I’ve even been “drafted” to do Epistle readings in English at the Melkite Divine Liturgy, which I attended regularily), but in the end I am very much a Latin and quite happy to be so. My personal spirituality is very pan-Catholic, but also grounded in Latin tradition (especially Dominican/Thomistic theology and spirituality), and I feel it would be a disservice at this point in time for me to switch Rites and carry over all my Latin “baggage”. This is not because there is anything wrong with Latin expressions and thinking, far from it, but because the non-Latin traditions are rightfully going through a process of “cleansing” so that they can more properly stand on their own feet within the Catholic Communion, and I feel that being essentially a Latin in Eastern garb would not help in that process.

This isn’t to say that I can’t participate, nor that I can’t help in the process in my own way. I do indeed participate in the Byzantine Divine Liturgy, which I love, and I study Eastern theology and spirituality (though I’m much more tuned towards Oriental expressions than Byzantine ones, despite my work with the Melkite Church). I feel that at this point such efforts are best aided by my remaining Latin, because I am better able to share such fruits with my fellow Latins who are not the least bit aware of non-Latin Catholics.

I even encountered an Antiochian Orthodox (the Eastern Orthodox analog of the Melkite Church) convert to the Catholic Church who was not aware of the Melkite Mission in town, which isn’t suprising given it’s small size and ethnic make-up (he’s an American-born of European descent, from a family that converted to Orthodoxy with the Campus Crusade for Christ back in the 80s). When he was welcomed into the Catholic Church at my Latin parish, I went right up to him after Mass and mentioned to him that there was a Melkite community in our town with its own priest and everything, just lacking an official “parish”. He was so excited to learn that he could continue in his own Antiochian/Melkite tradition, yet he would not have known about this opportunity had not a friendly Latin with close connections with the relatively small Melkite community been able to “spot” him and introduce him. Such things reaffirm my view that our Catholic Church requires Latins committed to the health of Eastern Christianity as much as it needs a renewal within the non-Latin Churches. For now I’m quite happy to fulfill that role!

I don’t rule out me switching Churches some day, but I don’t see that as likely given what I know of myself. It’s ironic that I’m the most “Eastern” Latin I know, yet I’m also the one least likely to make the “leap”

Peace and God bless!