New here with a question about eastern rite

  • Thread starter Thread starter catherineajt
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

catherineajt

Guest
Hello–I wanted to know if anybody here has officially joined the eastern rite of the Catholic Church after having been baptized in the Roman rite. My husband and I are seriously considering this, and we have three children—two have been baptized in the Roman rite, one is not baptized yet. what would most likely be involved in changing rites, and having our youngest baptized?

Thank you!

karen
 
Hello–I wanted to know if anybody here has officially joined the eastern rite of the Catholic Church after having been baptized in the Roman rite.

There is no such thing as “the eastern rite of the Catholic Church”. There are some 23 sui juris churches, all but one practicing several different Eastern liturgies that fall into some half-dozen liturgical families.
 
bpbasilphx said:
Hello–I wanted to know if anybody here has officially joined the eastern rite of the Catholic Church after having been baptized in the Roman rite.

There is no such thing as “the eastern rite of the Catholic Church”. There are some 23 sui juris churches, all but one practicing several different Eastern liturgies that fall into some half-dozen liturgical families.
Click to expand...
Then can you explain what would be involved in having one’s child baptized in a Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic rite, when one has been themselves baptized in the Roman rite? I ask because my husband and I are looking to express our faith with the Divine Liturgy, and raise our children in that tradition, but we have been told it might be difficult to have our son baptized in the Byzantine rite without permission from the Holy See to “change over”, as it were.
 
catherineajt said:
Then can you explain what would be involved in having one’s child baptized in a Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic rite, when one has been themselves baptized in the Roman rite? I ask because my husband and I are looking to express our faith with the Divine Liturgy, and raise our children in that tradition, but we have been told it might be difficult to have our son baptized in the Byzantine rite without permission from the Holy See to “change over”, as it were.
Click to expand...
As I was instructed, one has to write a letter to the Bishop (or Metropolitan Archbishop) of the receiving Church’s Eparchy, and the Bishop of the Diocese one is transferring from, formally requesting a change of Ritual Church. One must have good spiritual reasons for requesting the change; because you love incense and dislike the hymnody of the Novus Ordo aren’t good reasons.
Then, as my then-pastor advised me, you just wait. My children and I have been waiting for official word since November 2006. My current pastor is going to check on this for us but is terribly overworked. I just go on like it’s official…the Latin diocese took me off their mailing list over a year ago.🤷
Others may add to this or correct me as necessary; I’m just speaking from my personal instruction and experience.
 
The point the above posters were trying to make is that there is not one eastern rite, but 22 Eastern and Oriental Catholic Churches which use 7 different rites between them. People belong to one of those Churches. So you go to the Byzantine Church or the Maronite Church or the Ukrainian Church or the Coptic Church, not to an eastern rite church. There isn’t a hierarchy over the Byzantine Rite under whose authority you can be placed. There are 14 different Churches which use the Byzantine Rite and you can change to any one of them. So you don’t change rites, you change Churches.

An Eastern Catholic priest can baptize your baby and that’s not the problem. The baby remains a Roman Catholic no matter where the child is baptized or who does the baptizing. The problem is in chrismating/confirming and communing your baby. The three Mysteries/Sacraments of Initiation are done at the same time in the East, so the priest is unlikely to want to only baptize as it goes against the eastern theology to do so.

According to the rules you and your child are under as Roman Catholics, the priest would have to have your Roman Catholic bishop’s permission to chrismate and commune the baby. Most Latin bishops are not willing to offer their permission for that because they are concerned the person is trying to use the east to get the child chrismated early or that they will later discern that the Eastern Church is not where they belong. The rational is that you will request a change of canonical enrollment if you intend to raise the child in the Eastern Catholic Church, and once that is obtained you will be free to have the child chrismated as you wish.

Not all priests follow the rules, so if you’ve heard of a Roman Catholic who didn’t ask for permission before having the baby fully initiated, that’s how.

You don’t mention that you’ve been attending an Eastern Church. How long have you been going? If you haven’t started going or haven’t been going for long, I would recommend having the baby baptized in the Roman Catholic Church. Once you have attended the Eastern Catholic Church for a year or more and have decided that it is for you, then all children under the age of 14 will automatically become Eastern Catholics with you and your husband when you change ritual Churches. You can then have them all chrismated on the same day.

There is a lot to absorb that can’t be found in books, so the Eastern Catholic Churches typically expect between 1 and 3 years of active participation before you request a change of enrollment. So the first step is going. Then learning. Then getting involved. Then discerning. Then changing Churches. The time all that takes is probably longer than you want to wait to baptize the baby, so that’s why I recommend treating them as the separate issues they are.
 
Then can you explain what would be involved in having one’s child baptized in a Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic rite, when one has been themselves baptized in the Roman rite?

Why don’t you ask the local Byzantine Catholic pastor?
 
Woodstock said:
The point the above posters were trying to make is that there is not one eastern rite, but 22 Eastern and Oriental Catholic Churches which use 7 different rites between them. People belong to one of those Churches. So you go to the Byzantine Church or the Maronite Church or the Ukrainian Church or the Coptic Church, not to an eastern rite church. There isn’t a hierarchy over the Byzantine Rite under whose authority you can be placed. There are 14 different Churches which use the Byzantine Rite and you can change to any one of them. So you don’t change rites, you change Churches.

Amen! Amen! Amen!

U-C
Click to expand...
 
In reply to the question asked first,
Code: 
 Yes indeed do the Eastern Universal Churches say the rosary. The practice probably began in Antioch.   The first rosaries I'm told were knotted strings with the knots tied in a very specific manner.

  I'm  a  Roman Catholic but sometimes I do go to the Orthodox Mass sometimes   The devoition during Holy Week brings out a lot of details.  One of the main ones is that Jesus had no funeral for the Passover had started.  And of course the Sabbath also..   Some of my best friends are Orthodox.  Their devotion to the Blessed Mother is Great, there is no doubt in my mind.   I  try not to splinter the Cross but look with great hope for Unity of all Christians  in the One Church Founded by Christ. This   is a goal I pray for.
 
BluesPicker said:
In reply to the question asked first,
Code: 
 Yes indeed do the Eastern Universal Churches say the rosary. The practice probably began in Antioch.   The first rosaries I'm told were knotted strings with the knots tied in a very specific manner.

  I'm  a  Roman Catholic but sometimes I do go to the Orthodox Mass sometimes   The devoition during Holy Week brings out a lot of details.  One of the main ones is that Jesus had no funeral for the Passover had started.  And of course the Sabbath also..   Some of my best friends are Orthodox.  Their devotion to the Blessed Mother is Great, there is no doubt in my mind.   I  try not to splinter the Cross but look with great hope for Unity of all Christians  in the One Church Founded by Christ. This   is a goal I pray for.
Click to expand...
You mean Orthodox “Divine Liturgy”.

U-C
 
mardukm: I’ve also seen Assyrians, and I think Armenians, use the word “Mass” in English. I guess it’s just the Eastern Orthodox who have a problem with it. (Which is fine).
 
twf said:
mardukm: I’ve also seen Assyrians, and I think Armenians, use the word “Mass” in English. I guess it’s just the Eastern Orthodox who have a problem with it. (Which is fine).
Click to expand...
Wouldn’t they say “Qurbono”?

U-C
 
bpbasilphx said:
Then can you explain what would be involved in having one’s child baptized in a Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic rite, when one has been themselves baptized in the Roman rite?

Why don’t you ask the local Byzantine Catholic pastor?
Click to expand...
I will, of course, once we have attended for a while. I was just hoping to hear about others’ experiences as well.
 
I wanted to thank everyone who responded to my query. My family just returned from our first Byzantine Catholic Divine Liturgy, and it was lovely. It’s a very small community of faithful, and they borrow the space at our city’s Hungarian Catholic Church. The priest, a very kindly man, said–after I said, “If I’d known about the Byzantine rite, I probably wouldn’t have converted away from the Catholic Church”–said he wasn’t into judging, because he’s “not the judge, there’s only one of those!”

We were welcomed very happily with open arms, communion was not an issue, and the congregation was very friendly. We’ll definitely be going back. I feel like we’ve come home for good.

I didn’t ask Father about changing rites, et cetera because I feel we should just go, participate, and let time pass before we get into any paperwork issues!

Karen
 
catherineajt said:
I wanted to thank everyone who responded to my query. My family just returned from our first Byzantine Catholic Divine Liturgy, and it was lovely. It’s a very small community of faithful, and they borrow the space at our city’s Hungarian Catholic Church. The priest, a very kindly man, said–after I said, “If I’d known about the Byzantine rite, I probably wouldn’t have converted away from the Catholic Church”–said he wasn’t into judging, because he’s “not the judge, there’s only one of those!”

We were welcomed very happily with open arms, communion was not an issue, and the congregation was very friendly. We’ll definitely be going back. I feel like we’ve come home for good.

I didn’t ask Father about changing rites, et cetera because I feel we should just go, participate, and let time pass before we get into any paperwork issues!

Karen
Click to expand...
You’ve confused me, catherineajt. First you mention “converting away from the Catholic Church” and then you write that “communion was not an issue” - I take this to mean that you are presently a registered member of a non-Catholic church, and by your statement that communion was ‘not an issue’ I infer that you were communed at the Divine Liturgy? Could you clarify, please?
(Perhaps I missed something, since in your initial post you mention being baptized as a Roman Catholic).

I will certainly hold you and your family in prayer as you continue your journey of faith.
 
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Code: 
  Yes the word  "Mass"  is used  by the Antiochian Church but of course it is the "Divine Liturgy."   I had wrote something then deleted it and I lost my wind. 

  Essentially  I wanted to say  that  I respect the Orthodox Churches and that as a Roman Catholic I learned a lot about Christ from a  Orthodox priest who  was a missionary in my area. I actually let him camp at my office which is attached to my home.
Fr. John grew up on Mt. Tabor and could read and speak Aramaic. He could trace his family back and he is of the same people who are related by blood to the Virgin Mary. Although he claims to be of Arab descent. Being an Antrhopologist I really enjoyed everything he taught me.
Code: 
 I  respect all Christian Churches but especially the Orthodox Churches and the Roman Church which I grew up in.  If we Christians don't respect and pray for each other then we don't set the right example I feel.   How can we expect other religions to respect us if we don't respect ourselves.  

  One thing the Orthodox have is a long tradition.  The Divine Liturgy is longer than the Roman Catholic One.  Tradition is important because it gives the proper mindset to understand the Bible.   Christ  didn't leave a book.  He founded a Church  and I believe that Church is composed of many Churches  which are different expressions of  God.  This may be a naive view but I will never splinter the Cross of Christ.

 I do like learning. It seems that the Roman Catholics have a bias towards the Orthodox Churches.   I don't but I extend my hand to my Brothers and Sisters in Christ  in  token of  Christ.
 
MoreThan1Hat said:
You’ve confused me, catherineajt. First you mention “converting away from the Catholic Church” and then you write that “communion was not an issue” - I take this to mean that you are presently a registered member of a non-Catholic church, and by your statement that communion was ‘not an issue’ I infer that you were communed at the Divine Liturgy? Could you clarify, please?
(Perhaps I missed something, since in your initial post you mention being baptized as a Roman Catholic).

I will certainly hold you and your family in prayer as you continue your journey of faith.
Click to expand...
I’m sorry. I was baptized as an infant into the Catholic Church under the Roman rite. As an adult, I converted (last year) to the Orthodox Christian Church through chrismation. It was explained to me, by the priest at the Byzantine chapel we attended today, that orthodox christians may take communion at an Eastern Catholic (or Roman Catholic) church.

Naturally, an Orthodox priest would not approve of me taking communion at an Eastern Catholic church if I desired to remain Orthodox; however, I do not. The priest at the Byzantine chapel knows our faith journey and is guiding us. Yes, he gave us communion today.
 
Thanks very much catherineajt. That’s what I thought must be the case. Keep us posted, ok?
 
Friends,
Code: 
 I must apologize.  I see that my posts were supposed to be in a different place.  There was someone who asked if the Orthodox Churchers said the Rosary!

 And I guess the combination of my fading eyesight, and all that good (not really) stuff that comes with chemically induced diabetes  I'm making mistakes.   I must put my glasses on!

  I appreciate the Paitence you have given me also.  I'm a bit embrassed also. All of you are a nice bunch.:)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top