Serbian Orthodox to Catholic

[Joannm]

We have a Serbian Orthodox woman in our Latin Rite parish who wishes to become Catholic. What corresponding Eastern Rite does she come in under? My pastor has asked me to find out and no one in our chancery seems to know.

 

[Aramis]

We have a Serbian Orthodox woman in our Latin Rite parish who wishes to become Catholic. What corresponding Eastern Rite does she come in under? My pastor has asked me to find out and no one in our chancery seems to know.

Byzantine Rite, and if in the US, either the Romanian, Ruthenian, or Ukrainian Catholic Churches. I strongly suspect the Ukrainian church.

The Serbian Orthodox are part of the Eastern Orthodox Communion, which is almost exclusively Byzantine Rite (with some Latin Rite exceptions).

your pastor should contact one of the Byzantine Rite bishops’s chanceries: Metropolitan Basil of the Ruthenians or Metropolitan Steven of the Ukrainians, Eparch Cyril of the Melkites, or Eparch John of the Romanians.

usccb.org/dioceses.shtml has contact info.

 

[Formosus]

I beleive there is a Serbian Catholic Church but they do not have any parishes in the United states. I would do as Aramis said.

 

[Alexius]

I beleive there is a Serbian Catholic Church but they do not have any parishes in the United states. I would do as Aramis said.

You are correct. There is an Byzantine Apostolic Exarchate for Greco-Catholics in Serbia and Montenegro (since '03?), but no parishes in the US, since it is a church limited to the local population. There are other small churches set up in the former Yugoslavia as well, but none have parishes here either (that I am aware of). Perhaps the Byzantine Catholic Church or the Ukrainian would be the closest and most easily accessible.

Prayers and petitions,
Alexius

 

[ASimpleSinner]

We have a Serbian Orthodox woman in our Latin Rite parish who wishes to become Catholic. What corresponding Eastern Rite does she come in under? My pastor has asked me to find out and no one in our chancery seems to know.

Understand that in the absense of a particular church of analagous tradition present locally, one is not under any obligation to determine what the “next closest option” is.

I suspect she has some leeway here, and may choose for herself. If we get into the process of trying to determine “What is most like Sebian?” the Parousia could occur before there is agreement.

 

[Aramis]

Understand that in the absense of a particular church of analagous tradition present locally, one is not under any obligation to determine what the “next closest option” is.

I suspect she has some leeway here, and may choose for herself. If we get into the process of trying to determine “What is most like Sebian?” the Parousia could occur before there is agreement.

That apostolic vicarate may or may not constitute a Church Sui Iuris; if not, then their parent Church Sui Iuris “gets” them. Not that it makes a whole lot of difference (except for marriage tribunals, holy day obligations, and fasting requirements); she can choose, if she wants, to change enrollment immediately. If she chooses enrollment in the Latin Church, she needs to make that clear, and in writing.

The Apostolic Exarchate of Serbia and Montenegro is a direct Papal exarchate, with a Ruthenian Auxiliary Bishop appointed as Exarch. It was founded from Križevci… It does not appear to be a Church Sui Iuris at this point. (gcatholic.com/dioceses/diocese/serb0.htm)

It most likely falls under the Jurisdiction of the Ruthenian for enrollment purposes, but might also be Ukrainian or Romanian.

 

[malphono]

It’s not clear to me in the OP if this situation is a matter of the lady wanting to join the Roman Rite or if she wants to remain Byzantine. Two very different things.

(1) If the former, I suspect the local Latin pastor simply wants to know which Byzantine jurisdiction to contact to arrange the transfer. I’m not a canon lawyer, but I seem to think that in the absence of a local jurisdiction, the “old” rule (i.e., through Rome) would still apply.

(2) If the latter, there would appear to be 3 possible scenarios:

(a) this is a matter of the lady simply being received into the Catholic Church and geographically staying where she is, without effecting a “change of rite.” (The assumption here being that she attends the Latin Rite church in the first place because there is no Orthodox or ECC church in the area. In other words, if there were an EOC or ECC local, she would already be at one or the other.) If this is the case, the “transfer” would probably be from Serbian Orthodox to the Apostolic Exarchate of Serbia and Montenegro, which means she would remain status-quo in the US. Absent a Serbian jurisdiction in the US, (or another Byzantine jurisdiction that has been given official charge of the Serbians), she would come under the local Latin Ordinary. Here again I suspect that the request would have to go through Rome for the same reason as above.

(b) if this is a matter of choice, i.e., where would the lady be most comfortable, there would seem to be options. (The assumption here is either as in (a) above or that she has already investigated and dismissed locally available EOC options.) I’m not an expert on Byzantine usages, but from the standpoint of similarities, of those Churches with a jurisdiction in the US I think the Romanian would probably be closest to Serbian. Of course language would present a big difference. There are, I believe, also a handful of Albanian churches in the US, (presumably under the local Latin ordinary) but again language would be an issue. Language would be far less a problem with the Bulgarian, but I don’t know if they have a presence in the US.

(c) if this is simply a matter of determining which Byzantine jurisdiction the lady would come under, (and again we have the same assumption as in (a) above), it depends on whether any of the Byzantine jurisdictions in the US have been given official charge of the Serbians. If there is one, that answers the question. If not, I think it has to revert to (a) or (b) above.

FWIW, my guess is that scenario 1 and scenario 2a above are the most likely.

 

[Volodymyr_988]

For what it’s worth, the Holy Martyr (and married priest) Bl. Omeljan Kovc was assigned to “Yugoslavia” before he was called back to his native Ukraine where eventually the Nazis killed him for aiding and abetting the Jews.

So a precedent might be there for the lady to enter the UGCC. I imagine that ultimately it is her choice whether to enter into a Byzantine or a Latin Church.

 

[Genesis315]

I imagine that ultimately it is her choice whether to enter into a Byzantine or a Latin Church.

I used to work at a St. Vincent de Paul soup kitchen with a woman who was Greek Orthodox, but became Roman Catholic, but I’m not sure what the process was for that or if she had to do anything different than if she had joined the local Ruthenian Byzantine church. Anyway, point being, it’s definitely possible.

Does anyone know if there are any additional procedures one must go through if they want to join a non-corresponding (for lack of a better term) particular Church?

 

[Diak]

The canonists typically opine that you should join the parallel ritual Church you are coming from. In this case she is coming from a Church of the Slavic-Constantinopolitan tradition; the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church (UGCC) would be the closest parallel to hers, both ritually and linguistically.

I don’t know if the calendar is an issue, but the Serbian Church generally follows the Julian Calendar. The UGCC is the only particular Greek Catholic Church in North America with some parishes following the Julian Calendar. The Russian Catholics and Romanians each have one community that are on the “modified calendar”.

As the good Dr. has mentioned, there are close ties between the Eparchy of Krizhevci and the UGCC. Metropolitan Andrey (Sheptytsky) sent several priests and monastics there before the Second World War to assure continuity throughout the coming difficulties.

Blessed Klymenty (Sheptytsky) was briefly the spiritual father and hegumen of a small Studite monastic foundation in the former Yugoslavia; Blessed Leonid Feodorov was even sent there as a monk for a brief time by Metropolitan Andrey so he might become familiar with the Studite monastic life for a hopeful (but unrealized) eventual foundation in the Russian Greek Catholic Church.

The parish priest of St. Nicholas UGCC in Buffalo, Fr. Marijan Procyk, is from the Eparchy of Krizhevci; I don’t recall if his wife was also from there. There are several other Greek Catholic clergy (Macedonians and other areas of Yugoslavia) working in the UGCC in both North and South America. Most in the US seem to be in the Eparchy of Stamford; Bishop Emeritus +Basil accepted several of their seminarians, trained and ordained them (such as Fr. Kiril Manolev).