C
Claudius
Guest
This is not a fair thing to ask at all. If reunion ever happens, and I hope we are all praying for God’s Grace that it does, it will automatically mean that changes will happen. The real question should be what kind of changes will have to happen to make sure that the Church keeps her integrety and is fully able to proclaim the Gospel to the world. Would Catholics be willing to give up the current normal form of the Mass and go back to only the Extra ordinary form all in Latin? We would have to sit and think this over but this is not outside of the kinds of concessions that could be made. Would Catholics drop the Latin Rite entirely and adopt the ritual according to St. Basil, or John or James? NO, that would be going WAY TOO far. Not that I have any objections to those rituals, they are beautiful and Holy and should be an option for the Latin Rite but they should not be forced on us and have the Mass of St. Peter taken entirely away.
The bottom line is, if the reunion ever happens, there will be change. What kind of change is the real important issue. The ground work for reunion as far as theology has already been laid out. What is left if the work that needs to be done in understanding and Charity. The Byzantines will have to finally accept once and for all that Filioque means exactly what it says without trying to find a way to make it a heresy when it isn’t. All the theological ground work for this has already been dealt with centuries ago. Ex Patre Filioque; means From the Father Through the Son. Byzantines will have to stop saying that it isn’t heresy when they say it but some how it “just is” when Catholics say it.
Other issues about divorce and the proper understanding of sacrements and why Anglican Orders are invalid are areas where the Byzantines will have to come to the Catholic side because the Catholic Church just can’t budge on these and keep her integrety.
Catholics are going to have to accept that not everyone is going to have the same calendar as us. Indeed, that is even the case today within the Catholic church and most Catholics don’t realize it. We are going to have to stop snubbing our nose up at Byzantines because they don’t go to Mass every Sunday. We will have to accept that their old testament has three more books that really amounts to six additional writtings. We will have to understand that they are far removed from looking to the Pope to teach on every issue and expect theirown bishops to be strong enough in Christian living to be able to teach them correctly. If we get to reunion, it will not mean that now everyone in Greece will buy a rosary. Catholics may have to change our teachings about languages and promulgate the Cannon Law of the Church in both Latin and Greek, going back to the older way. I really don’t think the Byzantines will allow Latin Languages cannon Law, even the code that we published for the current Eastern Catholic Churches, to replace theirown Cannons and we should not expect that to happen.
Byzantines are going to do it their way and Catholics are going to do it their way, and at least at first, all reunion will actually mean is that we will not really change much but just start saying that we are one church again and then start to hammer out the issues.
Before that can really happen though, the Byzantines don’t need to reconcile with the Laitn Rite. That has been ready to happen for a LONG time. They need to reconcile with the Rites of Oriental Orthodoxy, which are represented in the Catholic Church. They will also have to reconcile with the part of the Assyrian Church of the East that is in communion with Rome. On top of all of that, there is their own in house matter of reconciling with the Ukranian Byzantine Catholic Church and the Melchite Catholic Church. These really have to happen first before Byzantine and Latin Rites can have any hope of really standing together and saying that was are united as the ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, and APOSTOLIC CHURCH. It may well mean some of the Byzantine Rite churches loosing their identity as Eastern Catholic and becoming Byzantine.
Personally, I think there is a simple way to make this happen. If we all really realize, I mean REALLY realize, that Jesus is really there in the Eucharist, then we would be able, all of us together to come down onto our knees in front of THE Holy ONE of GOD and ask for his Grace to heal our wounds. If we all really believe that there is only one Jesus, one Eucharist, then we must all be one Church. It would also mean doing what we can to reunite with the Coptics and the Assyrians and all the others that still maintain the Sacrement and have Jesus REALLY Presant in the Eucharist.
The Pope would still have to be the Pope, that could not change. Perhaps the Latin Rite would have to sort of take a back seat and allow the Byzantines their space to Evangalize certain areas of the world where we are having trouble, like China but that is all ok if we are again ONE Church.
Really though, I think that before the Byzantines come fully back into the Catholic church, or the other way around if you live in Greece, All of the Legitimate churches have to reconcile. There may be partial reunion with the Byzantines but there will not be a FULL reunion untill all of these stop seperating the Body of Christ because of human pride and sin and a Full reunion with all happens at a great ecumenical council.
The bottom line is, if the reunion ever happens, there will be change. What kind of change is the real important issue. The ground work for reunion as far as theology has already been laid out. What is left if the work that needs to be done in understanding and Charity. The Byzantines will have to finally accept once and for all that Filioque means exactly what it says without trying to find a way to make it a heresy when it isn’t. All the theological ground work for this has already been dealt with centuries ago. Ex Patre Filioque; means From the Father Through the Son. Byzantines will have to stop saying that it isn’t heresy when they say it but some how it “just is” when Catholics say it.
Other issues about divorce and the proper understanding of sacrements and why Anglican Orders are invalid are areas where the Byzantines will have to come to the Catholic side because the Catholic Church just can’t budge on these and keep her integrety.
Catholics are going to have to accept that not everyone is going to have the same calendar as us. Indeed, that is even the case today within the Catholic church and most Catholics don’t realize it. We are going to have to stop snubbing our nose up at Byzantines because they don’t go to Mass every Sunday. We will have to accept that their old testament has three more books that really amounts to six additional writtings. We will have to understand that they are far removed from looking to the Pope to teach on every issue and expect theirown bishops to be strong enough in Christian living to be able to teach them correctly. If we get to reunion, it will not mean that now everyone in Greece will buy a rosary. Catholics may have to change our teachings about languages and promulgate the Cannon Law of the Church in both Latin and Greek, going back to the older way. I really don’t think the Byzantines will allow Latin Languages cannon Law, even the code that we published for the current Eastern Catholic Churches, to replace theirown Cannons and we should not expect that to happen.
Byzantines are going to do it their way and Catholics are going to do it their way, and at least at first, all reunion will actually mean is that we will not really change much but just start saying that we are one church again and then start to hammer out the issues.
Before that can really happen though, the Byzantines don’t need to reconcile with the Laitn Rite. That has been ready to happen for a LONG time. They need to reconcile with the Rites of Oriental Orthodoxy, which are represented in the Catholic Church. They will also have to reconcile with the part of the Assyrian Church of the East that is in communion with Rome. On top of all of that, there is their own in house matter of reconciling with the Ukranian Byzantine Catholic Church and the Melchite Catholic Church. These really have to happen first before Byzantine and Latin Rites can have any hope of really standing together and saying that was are united as the ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, and APOSTOLIC CHURCH. It may well mean some of the Byzantine Rite churches loosing their identity as Eastern Catholic and becoming Byzantine.
Personally, I think there is a simple way to make this happen. If we all really realize, I mean REALLY realize, that Jesus is really there in the Eucharist, then we would be able, all of us together to come down onto our knees in front of THE Holy ONE of GOD and ask for his Grace to heal our wounds. If we all really believe that there is only one Jesus, one Eucharist, then we must all be one Church. It would also mean doing what we can to reunite with the Coptics and the Assyrians and all the others that still maintain the Sacrement and have Jesus REALLY Presant in the Eucharist.
The Pope would still have to be the Pope, that could not change. Perhaps the Latin Rite would have to sort of take a back seat and allow the Byzantines their space to Evangalize certain areas of the world where we are having trouble, like China but that is all ok if we are again ONE Church.
Really though, I think that before the Byzantines come fully back into the Catholic church, or the other way around if you live in Greece, All of the Legitimate churches have to reconcile. There may be partial reunion with the Byzantines but there will not be a FULL reunion untill all of these stop seperating the Body of Christ because of human pride and sin and a Full reunion with all happens at a great ecumenical council.
