Practical issues of being Eastern Catholic in Latin parish

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So, I have been attending our local Byzantine (Ruthenian) quasi-mission for the past four years and am one of the founding members. I am coming close to making a decision on whether to petition for a decree of transfer from the Latin Church to the Ruthenian Church.

So, my question goes like this (with some prelude information):

Most of my family is Latin Catholic, and I obviously still wish to receive Holy Communion with them when I am visiting (that is, after all, what the family is: the “domestic Church”). And there is always the possibility of moving to a place where there is no Eastern Catholic church due to work, more schooling, etc. (and I profess entirely what the Successor of St. Peter, the Roman Pontiff, and the Magisterium teach to be revealed by Jesus Christ, so don’t get me started on converting to Eastern Orthodoxy). And finally, as an aside, there is always the possibility of being forced into such a situation, such as by car wreck, heart attack, etc.

So, for those of you formal Eastern Catholics currently in a place with only Latin parishes, have you had much issues with your local Latin priest? Such as not getting Holy Communion when you are ill, your children not being baptized, etc.?

(And don’t cite me canon laws; I know how to look those up myself. I want to know if you actually have experience with these issues; that is to say, the practical issues.)
 
The Lord has been merciful that I do have an Eastern parish within an hour’s drive that is my home parish. To add icing to that cake, a visiting Byz-Cath mission frequents. So I have nothing to do with the Roman/Latin church officially, as I do not exist to them. I cannot receive communion there. I am allowed to, I know, but my conscience doesnt allow me. If my parish disappeared tomorrow, God forbid, I would travel 4 hours to the parish of the Byz-Cath priest we know.

I attend an informal group at a Roman/Catholic parish, and just two or three of them are aware that Eastern Catholics are a recognized group in communion with the Pope. One lady is particularly hostile towards it. :confused: ignorance abounds.
 
It is hard to live an eastern catholic lifestyle wih out the support of a parish… very hard, especially for newbies. I know, because I’m in a similar situation only that my family did make the official transfer. And I will admit that we are drawn towards Orthodoxy (no I’m not trying to convince you, this is my experience) and will likely end up there if our mission parish doesn’t grow. I’ve been with it for over 4 years nd like you was one of the founding memebers…we have an average of 20 every Sunday and it’s actually shrunk since we first started having divine liturgy 4 years ago. Being Eastern Catholic is not for the faint of heart, that’s for sure…

So my advice is really consider all that…an eastern/byzantine lifestyle is quite different than latin spirituality (I’m not saying that one is greater than the other but I am stating that they are different). It’s hard to fast without support…or to get to Vespers or Presanctified Liturgy during great lent when they aren’t offered at all… or to learn about and celebrate the eastern church’s saints and holy days…

ETA: on a side note, we have never had much of an issue with our kids receiving in a latin church…well, all but the youngest who is only 20 mths and hasn’t ever been to Mass but only divine liturgy… we don’t go to latin churches at all so the older kids only deal with it at their catholic school
 
Casilda said:
The Lord has been merciful that I do have an Eastern parish within an hour’s drive that is my home parish. To add icing to that cake, a visiting Byz-Cath mission frequents. So I have nothing to do with the Roman/Latin church officially, as I do not exist to them. I cannot receive communion there. I am allowed to, I know, but my conscience doesnt allow me. If my parish disappeared tomorrow, God forbid, I would travel 4 hours to the parish of the Byz-Cath priest we know.

I attend an informal group at a Roman/Catholic parish, and just two or three of them are aware that Eastern Catholics are a recognized group in communion with the Pope. One lady is particularly hostile towards it. :confused: ignorance abounds.
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not to hijack the thread, but can I ask why you won’t receive in a Latin Church? I feel that way sometimes as well. And yes I get lots of people who dont’ know anything about Eastern Catholicism…or at worst think that we are Roman Catholics with a nice Mass…I’m know of a few Eastern Catholics who feel that way as well.
 
For the OP: my husband is Ruthenian, and actually is on the board of directors of the Byzantine Catholic seminary in Pittsburgh. We have, however, lived in the deep South for about 40 years, and the closest Byzantine parish is about 2.5 hours away. Our daughters were baptized in our local Latin parish (unable to travel back home at the time) but chrismated at his home parish in New England when they were still infants. They received First Eucharist in our Latin parish. When in eighth grade (at that time, the age of confirmation down here) they got to educate their classmates as to why they weren’t being confirmed along with them.

While we maintain what connection we can with his home parish, I can truly say that we’ve never encountered anything negative, or had any difficulties at all in our Latin parish. While few Latin/Roman Catholics are aware of Byzantine Catholics, they have been quite interested to learn. No priest has ever denied him Holy Eucharist (they would have to be pretty ignorant to do so.) My husband simply takes whatever opportunity he can to educate other Catholics about the Church’s “other lung” and, in fact, discussed it on a radio show just this morning.

So, in our experience, difficulties have been pretty much non-existent.
 
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