My dear brother or sister Rsiscoe,
I fear that our side discussion here has escalated to the point where we run the risk of having hijacked this thread away from its stated intent. This is not fair to those who have legitimate (name removed by moderator)ut related to this thread’s original topic. My apologies to all for my part in this departure.
I’ll tell you what - in the interest of unity and fairness to others, I hereby publically state that I will allow you to call me whatever it is your li’l heart desires, regardless of that title’s accuracy vis a vis my sui iuris Church affiliation, and I’ll accept your chosen title without further argument. Please note that I speak for
myself only… other Eastern Catholics on this board may still request of you that you show the respect that their place within our Holy Mother Church deserves by at least referring to them in proper, accurate terms. You’ll have to take that up individually with them.
I, however, will not push the issue further with you.
If the only way you are able to recognize and accept the fact that my own Catholicity is the same as yours, that we are truly Catholic brothers (or brother and sister, whichever you are) who share a common faith, is by attaching the supurfluous and, indeed, inaccurate word “Roman” to the correct name of my Church… if that’s all it takes to settle the feathers that my Eastern Catholicism obviously managed to ruffle with regard to your view of what our Catholic Church should be, then by all means
go fot it, my friend! Call me what you wish!
I do owe you a debt of gratitude, however. My original post in this thread (#23) was intended to illustrate the point that as Catholics seeking unity, we must be willing to accept the fact that the dogmas we hold as Articles of Faith can, and undoubtedly will, be expressed in many different ways, without altering the fundamental dogma itself. We must be willing to accept that theological expressions and viewpoints other than the traditional “Roman” viewpoint can be, and indeed are, just as valid as those espoused by the Church of the West.
You and your posts have managed to illustrate just how daunting a task this can be. Your insistance on attaching the word “Roman” to the title of all Churches and individuals who share our Catholic faith, as though
Roman Catholicism were the
only Catholicism, created for us all a text book illustration of just how powerful the destructive forces of pride and sense of superiority can be.
… this, after only getting as far as discussing
names! We’ve not even
touched on dogmas and Articles of Faith, and already we see a brick wall of Roman resistance!
…and I’m a* Catholic!* I’m
already on your team! Gotta wonder how you’d have treated me were I
not a Catholic!
…gotta wonder, too, if you even truly believe that I and my Church
are really Catholic…
I pray that our Church’s efforts at unity are not stifled by the attitudes of pompous superiority and “tunnel vision” you’ve displayed to us all in this thread. The deep respect and love I have for my Catholic brothers and sisters of the West, however, leads me to trust that you are the exception, and not the rule.
Mnohaja i blahaja l’ita, my friend!
a pilgrim
(…who, for purposes of this discussion, will refer to himself as a Byzantine
Roman(?) Catholic…)
(…
ahem… hey, whatever…)
