A
a_pilgrim
Guest
Hi, BulldogCath!
I kinda think you’ve answered your own question. You are looking at Catholicism from a Roman Catholic perspective, as is understandable since that’s the Church you’ve sworn your allegiance to. You must be open to the fact, however, that the Catholic Church is much more than just the Roman Catholic Church. Our Catholic Church and the faith we profess is unique in that we enjoy unity without uniformity. That means that we stand unified in our allegiance to the Holy Father as the Successor of Peter and the spiritual pastor of all Catholics. We also stand unified in our dogmatic beliefs. The wonderful thing about Catholicism, however, is that we are free to express those same beliefs in varying ways. The beliefs are the same, although the way we express them may be very different!
Let me give you an example: in your post, you said that “…the sacraments are different…” This is simply not true. The grace that God imparts upon our souls upon reception of the sacraments is absolutely identical whether you are a Western (Roman) Catholic or an Eastern Catholic. The only difference is the way and timing in which our respective Churches have chosen to administer those sacraments - they’re still the same sacraments, bearing the same grace!
Let’s look at the Sacraments of Initiation - Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Eucharist. These are called Sacraments of Initiation by our Church (Western and Eastern) because they are the sacraments through which an individual becomes an official member of the Church. Typically, in the Roman Catholic Church, the reception of these three sacraments is spaced over the first 14 or so years of an individual’s life. In the Eastern Catholic Church, these sacraments (Holy Mysteries, as we call them in the East) are all administered at the same time, thus fully completing the individual’s initiation as a full-fledged member of the Church. Now, if I were to look at the Western practice of spreading these sacraments out over 14 years through my Eastern Catholic eyes, I’d be likely to assume that the Western practice is wrong and that a baptized Roman Catholic infant isn’t “fully” Catholic because he’s not yet completed his Church-decreed “initiation.” I can’t do that, though, because as a Catholic, an individual who is just as Catholic as you, I am bound to accept our Church’s stand with regard to unity without uniformity. Our Holy Mother Church has stated that the Western practice of administering the Sacraments of Initiation over time is just as valid, just as Catholic, as the Eastern practice. Though your practice may seem “wrong” to me, I accept that it is proper because our Church says it is!
I ask that you do the same. I ask that you try to look at the differences in the way we express our Catholicism as something that we can celebrate rather than as something that separates us.
Try to look at it this way… ** the Eastern Catholic Churches today
represent exactly the state of the Eastern Churches before the schisms. They are entirely and uncompromisingly Catholics in our strictest sense of the word, quite as much as Latins. They accept the whole Catholic Faith and the authority of the pope as visible head of the Catholic Church, as did St. Athanasius, St. Basil, St. John Chrysostom.
**My thanks to Vincent, whose words I’ve shamelessly “stolen” from a few posts back in this thread, because they so aptly sum up what I’m trying to say here!
). Our Holy Father John Paul II has recognized the effect that Latinization has had on the distinct liturgical traditions that the Eastern Catholics bring to our Holy Mother Church, and has mandated that we take the necessary steps to return fully to our ancient sacred practices and liturgical customs, lest we lose them forever.