Native, Adopted, or Translated?

[ronyodish]

Hi everyone,

I’m curious to know the stats of the Eastern and Oriental Catholic Christians here, whether you are native, adopted, or translated.

By native, I mean those born into Eastern/Oriental Catholic families.

By adopted, I mean those, from non-Eastern/non-Oriental traditions, who became Eastern/Oriental Catholics by choosing to do so.

By translated, I mean those, from the same Eastern/Oriental tradition, who became Eastern/Oriental Catholic by choosing to do so.

Ok, now a question:

If you’re native, what do you think about the inclusion of adopted and translated members into your Church?

If you’re adopted, how have you adjusted to the life of Eastern/Oriental Catholicism?

If you’ve translated, how do you see your new situation as an Eastern/Oriental Catholic versus your older situation as an EO/OO/ACotE?

I am a native Chaldean Catholic I think it is very good for us whenever we receive Westerners as members of our Church, though our Church continues to be largely an ethnic Church. Usually, the Chaldean “culture shock” is more strongly felt among the Westerners than the variances in Chaldean religious practice.

As far as translations from the Assyrian or Ancient Churches of the East, I’m excited to see how it will turn out for Assyrian bishop Mar Bawai Soro and his faithful people, and would very much love their situation to be sorted out so that we may be one.

Ok, now how about you?

God bless,

Rony

 

[jimmy]

I am a native Maronite Catholic who has made a choice to be Maronite. I never went to the Maronite Church until relatively recently.

I am happy to see non-Maronites become Maronite and I wish it would happen more. In order to survive we will need to be able to accept others into our church.

 

[ASimpleSinner]

I am a native Maronite Catholic who has made a choice to be Maronite. I never went to the Maronite Church until relatively recently.

I am happy to see non-Maronites become Maronite and I wish it would happen more. In order to survive we will need to be able to accept others into our church.

I guess I am a triple threat - return to ancestoral rite, revert to the Catholic Faith later, and - like any Greek Catholic who chooses to drive by a half dozen Roman parishes, and maybe fifty other centers of worship (or bagel shops!) I am Greek Catholic by choice.

Our parish is largely a mix of Ruthenians, Ukrainians (we are the only Slavic Greek Catholic parish) Romans who came back to church through us, and converts who joined the Catholic Church via the BCC.

Assyrian bishop Mar Bawai Soro and his faithful people are in my prayers daily. In their transition (God grant them a smooth one!) I see very much the opportunity for them that as many have said themselves - that this heals a rift and fosters a truly catholic (lower case “c”) world view of brothers in communion.

“New Blood” is at the heart of Christianity - churches are not the domain of ancestors, but the salvation of sinners of whom I am the first. I welcome anyone who wishes to pray with us and work out their salvation in our parish. I can’t be bothered with any sense of exclusion or proprietary ownership. Once you are baptized, all bets are off - you are family, you are ours. Folks whose first question upon meeting you is “What’s your last name?” turn me off. I always want to ask them “What’s the last name of half of our priests?” My paternal grandmother had the right last name… I don’t have it. Sometimes I go through the genology, but more often than not, I smile and offer that “I only ever have enough gas in the tank to make it to this parish!”

 

[ac_claire]

I am a native Maronite Catholic who has made a choice to be Maronite. I never went to the Maronite Church until relatively recently.

I am happy to see non-Maronites become Maronite and I wish it would happen more. In order to survive we will need to be able to accept others into our church.

I’m in the Latin Rite, but if I ever did cross over to the Eastern side I’d join the Maronite Church.

(Which doesn’t really answer the OP, I know…)

 

[Apotheoun]

I was a member of the Latin Church for 18 years, and only became Eastern Catholic on Lazarus Saturday 2005.

 

[Allyson]

I was born and raised in the Latin Rite, and I translated to the Ruthenian Byzantine Rite when I was almost 25 (about 20 days short it). My day was the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. This seemed very appropriate . I have been quite comfortable in my new Rite. I am also quite appreciative of the welcoming attitude of the members of the parish where I translated and at my current parish. I will give some longer thought to your other questions.

R.

 

[Deacon_Ed]

Hmmm…I guess I don’t fit any of the categories. Born Latin Rite, still Latin Rite but a bi-ritual deacon by the grace of God and Bishops John (and, now, Archbishop Cyril, Melkite) and Tod (Latin).

Deacon Ed

 

[Aramis]

Technically still, for the moment, Latin Rite.

Once we have a bishop for Van Nuys again, I plan to write my letter requesting change of Canonical Enrollment. I’ve already spoken to Archbishop Roger Schweitz of Anchorage, and he indicated his support (and mild surprise). (My dad is a Deacon in the Archdiocese of Anchorage. ABp Roger also indicated that I should see the photos of MyDad assisting him in the NO Mass while in fiddlebacks in Rome. My dad was one of two deacons who went on that pilgrimage.)

Knowing almost nothing about Very Rev. Gerald Dino, Eparch-elect of Van Nuys, I don’t know how he’ll respond.

 

[catherineajt]

I suppose you would call me “adopted”. I was raised Roman Catholic, never knew anything about the Eastern Catholic churches. As an adult I converted to the Orthodox Church, but have since come to see this as a personal error, and am now attending a Byzantine Catholic church.

I am very comfortable with being an Eastern Catholic, more than I was as a Western-Rite Catholic. Of course, my year as an Orthodox Christian probably has made the transition easier, but it wasn’t that hard to adapt even back when I converted. I found that the Liturgy spoke to me in a way the Latin Mass could not, among other things.

 

[kitkatty]

I am a native Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic ,without converts the Byzantine Church in this country will disappear so I am thankful for everyone of them.

 

[a_pilgrim]

Guess I’m 'bout as native as they come… cradle Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic from a Rusyn family who grew up in a bilingual Rusyn/American household - still have family in the “old country.”

Honored to say that my family members were among the founding parishioners of the very first Ruthenian Greek Catholic parish erected on American soil (St. Michael the Archangel, Shenandoah, Pennsylvania - 1886). In fact, I often joke that my family came over to America on the “Byzantine Mayflower!”

Like my brother ASimpleSinner and many others have stated, I truly recognize that the future (indeed, perhaps the very survival!) of not only my own sui iuris Church but also many of our other Eastern/Oriental Churches depends upon a healthy infiltration of “new blood” to our ranks, and I certainly welcome them! As an “old fogey,” however, I do humbly confess to dearly missing and longing for many of the things of the past - for example, to be able to once again celebrate a Divine Liturgy entirely in Old Church Slavonic would truly be “heaven on earth” to this ol’ Rusyn!

 

[Aramis]

Like my brother ASimpleSinner and many others have stated, I truly recognize that the future (indeed, perhaps the very survival!) of not only my own sui iuris Church but also many of our other Eastern/Oriental Churches depends upon a healthy infiltration of “new blood” to our ranks, and I certainly welcome them! As an “old fogey,” however, I do humbly confess to dearly missing and longing for many of the things of the past - for example, to be able to once again celebrate a Divine Liturgy entirely in Old Church Slavonic would truly be “heaven on earth” to this ol’ Rusyn!

It’s not forbidden as an occasional use.

And this Novii Rusyn wouldn’t mind, either, an occasional DL in OCS…

 

[ronyodish]

Good and diverse posts so far.

I’m in the Latin Rite, but if I ever did cross over to the Eastern side I’d join the Maronite Church.

ac claire,

The Maronites have a beautiful liturgy and spirituality. This is my favorite Maronite clip on Youtube.

God bless!

Rony

 

[Thepeug]

Raised protestant, chrismated in the Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic Church (SS Cyril and Methodius in Cary, NC) on April 2006.

 

[Diak]

Al - that is a true Greek Catholic pedigree. Unfortunately when my descendants on the Austro-Hungarian Empire side came into this country via Indiana as farmers about the same time, there were not already organized groups of Greek Catholics in their area and they eventually all became Latin. So I suppose I am a revert. I have been “officially” Greek Catholic (according to the date of the rescript from the Pro-Nuncio with his seal) for nearly 20 years now, unofficially longer.

St. Michael in Shenandoah is still there, a UGCC parish of the Archepachy of Philadelphia, and one can still go to Divine Liturgy where it all started, albeit in a newer edifice. You can even still hear Slavonic sung there. Everlasting memory to Fr. Ivan Voliansky, the first Greek Catholic priest in the US and his wife. I hope a formal monument is erected at some time, either in Ukraine at his homesite in Halychyna or over here somewhere.
FDRLB

 

[Ghosty]

I’m a Latin Catholic by default (Baptized as a child at the behest of my grandmother), but most of my Catholic life (only began practicing as an adult) has been with the local Melkite/Maronite community. I had to go through Confirmation at the local Dominican parish since I’m Canonically a Latin, and I often do things at/with that parish (and I even still consider entering the Dominican Order, because I love it specifically) but my weekly practice is Melkite, and I’m quite happy there.

So I quess I’d fall into the “adopted” category, though they adopted me as much as I adopted them.

As for how I adjusted, it was really just by natural exposure; since I wasn’t raised Catholic, and converted from atheism as an adult, I didn’t really have to adjust or unlearn much that I wouldn’t have had to anyway as a convert. I’ve studied both Latin and Byzantine traditions/theology at the same time (one of the benefits of entering the Faith as “simply Catholic”, IMO), as well as a few of the other Catholic traditions.

I think the non-Latin Churches would benefit greatly by honest “converts” who simply find themselves at home in the spiritual life and tradition of the Eastern Churches. I do think there’s a danger when such “converts” bring with them either polemics against the West, or expect the East to Westernize (and sometimes it’s the same individuals doing both!), but over all I think such negative influences won’t define the non-Latin Churches who receive new blood.

Peace and God bless!