Leaving To Go Byzantine!

[SeekerJen]

misericordie:

Hello all, I have been pondering if I should leave the ROMAN Catholic Church to go to the Eastern Rite BYZANTINE Church. Today, I finally made up my mind: I am leaving and going solely BYZANTINE.

So is it in communion with Rome? Because then it would be the Byzantine Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. What you currently follow is the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. Different rites, same theology, same Roman Catholic Church.

I respect your wish for reverent and beautiful liturgy, but wish to caution you that switching rites is not going to solve everything. You will still run into people who show up for the Liturgy and nothing else, or people who only show up for Christmas, Easter, and the one-time sacraments. There will still be abuses, and parishoner politics, and all the fun stuff that you have to deal with in the Latin Rite- because we’re humans, and we’re imperfect.

Whatever you decide, God bless you, and I hope you will find peace in your decision. I’m sure the Byzantine rite parish has an amazing and beautiful Christmas Liturgy coming up- enjoy!

 

[Annunciata]

Hi Mis,

You are obviously searching and are not at peace… I wonder what God wants of you?
I’ll continue to pray that you do His will.
God Bless,
Annunciata

 

[EddieArent]

So how about someone giving me a bottom line? Here’s what I understand. Basically Latin Rite Catholics can attend Byzantine Mass and receive communion, but on “paper” they are still Latin Rite Catholics unless one of the above things happen (e.g. petition the Bishop or find a male wedd).

Regarding the Bishop, which Bishop would they petition? The Latin Rite or Eastern Bishop? Just wondering since locally we of coarse have a Bishop, but I believe the three Eastern parishes are under a Bishop from Brooklyn.

Not that I’m flying East anytime soon. I just want to get my facts straight if anyone ever asks me about East and West.

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

SeekerJen:

So is it in communion with Rome? Because then it would be the Byzantine Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. What you currently follow is the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. Different rites, same theology, same Roman Catholic Church.

This is incorrect.

There are aprox. 23 separate churches that make up the Catholic Church. The Latin (or Roman) Catholic Church is just one of those churches.

If you do a seach on this topic you will find much already posted on this difference. I am a member of the Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic Church. It is separate from the Roman Catholic Church but it is in union with the pope.

 

[Hesychios]

Glory to Jesus Christ!

SeekerJen:

So is it in communion with Rome? Because then it would be the Byzantine Rite of the Roman Catholic Church.

Sorry, slight clarification here.

The Roman Catholic Church is a separate and distinct Sui Iuris church. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic church is a separate and distinct Sui Iuris church. Both churches are in full communion with the Pope of Rome.

What you currently follow is the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church.

This is correct.

Different rites, same theology, same Roman Catholic Church.

Not exactly, but for our purposes we could say essentially so. The UGCC is a Patriarchal church standing on it’s own.

The Theology is expressed differently, and understood differently. This is important for any inquirer to know. Clearly it is an equivelant and valid expression of the Faith. The priests’ homily, the prayers and the formation (or catechesis) will reflect this difference.

because we’re humans, and we’re imperfect.

I’m afraid you are right, so right.

Whatever you decide, God bless you, and I hope you will find peace in your decision. I’m sure the Byzantine rite parish has an amazing and beautiful Christmas Liturgy coming up- enjoy!

Wow, that was a really nice comment! I agree!

As a matter of fact, I am a Roman Catholic attending a Byzantine-rite church (Ruthenian). This has been a long term relationship and I am still considering a transfer, but it’s really not necessary.

 

[Catholic2003]

ByzCath:

Marriage can automatically effect a switch.

When a byzantine male marries the marriage should take place in his parish, when a byzantine female marries the marriage can take place in her parish (I believe this is due to a concession Rome made to try and make up for the past issue). Now when the marriage takes place there is a lot of paper work and one of those papers is an offical change of church which requires no approvals from the bishops as would a change such as this. If the non-byzantine in the marriage signs this paper they offically change churches but it is not required. At least this is what I have been told by many byzantine priests.

Here is the canon law for this:

CCEO 33: A wife is at liberty to transfer to the Church of the husband at the celebration of or during the marriage; when the marriage has ended, she can freely return to the original Church sui iuris.

 

[AmyS]

misericordie:

All, this is a good example of a very angry person: ummm, maybe some counseling for anger management helps here? Oh, yes all of us here who are traditional: mgy100 says :" And you can’t compare the Tridentine Mass(which you have done nothing but horribly encourage, and which I attend most of the time and simply cannot stomach your reasoning about why to attend it)" DOES THIS MAKE ANY SENSE TO ANYONE HERE???

to me

I think, as I said before, you put way too much emphasis on "t"radition rather than "T"raditions. The Byzantines have a beautiful Mass, we have one in our area… Good for you to find so much in its beauty… But, don’t let that beauty be your focus, that is the way of the devil… We are Catholic for God… Tridentine, Byzantine, Pauline, NO… all united, the bride of Christ.

Bless you in your new journey (oh by the way, we just gained quite a few Byzantines at our NOM… I never even thought of looking at it like there was something wrong with their previous Mass

Again,

Bless you

 

[SeekerJen]

ByzCath:

This is incorrect.

There are aprox. 23 separate churches that make up the Catholic Church. The Latin (or Roman) Catholic Church is just one of those churches.

If you do a seach on this topic you will find much already posted on this difference. I am a member of the Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic Church. It is separate from the Roman Catholic Church but it is in union with the pope.

Sorry. I’ve been told many, many times that the various Rites are all part of the whole Roman Catholic Church under the Pope. Thanks for the correction.

 

[Hesychios]

EddieArent:

So how about someone giving me a bottom line? Here’s what I understand. Basically Latin Rite Catholics can attend Byzantine Mass and receive communion, but on “paper” they are still Latin Rite Catholics unless one of the above things happen (e.g. petition the Bishop or find a male wedd).

Regarding the Bishop, which Bishop would they petition? The Latin Rite or Eastern Bishop? Just wondering since locally we of coarse have a Bishop, but I believe the three Eastern parishes are under a Bishop from Brooklyn.

Not that I’m flying East anytime soon. I just want to get my facts straight if anyone ever asks me about East and West.

Each of the Byzantine rite Sui Iuris churches established in the United States will have a bishop (eparch) assigned to an area.

The Eparchy I belong to includes 12 States!

If I were to transfer the letter I write will go to the Eparch I ask to receive me. If he agrees he will sign off on it and send it to my local Roman Catholic Bishop to release me. If the Roman Catholic bishop agrees (he might not) the approval of Rome can be presumed and I will be accepted into the Ruthenian Catholic Church Sui Iuris.

This is a streamlined process, not long ago it was necessary to write to Rome. I have a good friend who wrote to the Papal Nuncio when he decided to change. These days Rome doesn’t really want to deal with it.

One further point, some Eastern churches (like the Russian Catholic, the Syro-Malankar Catholic, etc.) do not have an established hierarchy in the United States. If there is a parish or mission of that tradition it is likely to be under the local Ordinary, who would be the local Roman Catholic bishop. I don’t know if one just writes the local Ordinary or if there is an alternate procedure.

In Christ

+T+