Ukrainian Catholic Church

[Peter_J]

The original quote (which I was responding to) used the word “counterpart” instead of alternative. My use of the word alternative was meant to be synonymous with the word counterpart in referring to the original quote, and had not intended for it to imply one church trying to get the members of another church:

Originally Posted by SyroMalankara **
There are Catholic counterparts to each of the Oriental Orthodox Churches as well.**

OIC.

 

[dvdjs]

Enough Eastern Catholics make that claim to misrepresent themselves to confuse the Orthodox Faithful and gain members at our expense. It does go both ways. I do not portray myself or my parish as Catholic. Let the Eastern Catholics cease portraying themselves as Orthodox.

Really? How many?

And while you may not portray yourself as Catholic, surely you realize that many Orthodox do. You might like to know that there was great consternation here some time ago, when moderators ruled that Orthodox could not call themselves Catholic because of the confusion that it sowed. A ROCOR priest advised that it might be sinful, even heresy, to post under those circumstances. You might also visit OCnet and ask the folk there. Yes, these people exist, but their numbers are small, and they are not effective in gaining much of anything.

 

[WetCatechumen]

To be more specific, only 20 of the 22 Eastern Catholic Churches enumerated above have counterparts in Orthodoxy (and in the ACoE). The Maronite Catholic Church and the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church have no counterparts as they never separated from Rome.

For an overview of each of the Eastern Catholic Churches and their counterparts, I recommend Fr. Roberson’ s CNEWA website.

At the Eparchy of Phoenix clergy conference, I made the mistake of referring to the Italo-Greeks as the Italo-Albanian Church, and Archimandrite Francis (pastor of Our Lady of Wisdom in Las Vegas - it’s the only Italo-Greek church in the Western US, I think) did not let me hear the end of it. Luckily, an elderly Ruthenian Archpriest jumped to my defense had a very entertaining, friendly argument with the Archimandrite.

The moral of the story is to be careful, some Italo-Greeks don’t like being called Albanians.

 

[Peter_J]

At the Eparchy of Phoenix clergy conference, I made the mistake of referring to the Italo-Greeks as the Italo-Albanian Church, and Archimandrite Francis (pastor of Our Lady of Wisdom in Las Vegas - it’s the only Italo-Greek church in the Western US, I think) did not let me hear the end of it.

Granted I wasn’t there, but going by your description it sounds like the good Archimandrite needs to get a hobby. Heck, just take a look at:

cnewa.us/default.aspx?ID=57&pagetypeID=9&sitecode=US&pageno=1

 

[frjohnmorris]

Really? How many?

And while you may not portray yourself as Catholic, surely you realize that many Orthodox do. You might like to know that there was great consternation here some time ago, when moderators ruled that Orthodox could not call themselves Catholic because of the confusion that it sowed. A ROCOR priest advised that it might be sinful, even heresy, to post under those circumstances. You might also visit OCnet and ask the folk there. Yes, these people exist, but their numbers are small, and they are not effective in gaining much of anything.

I do not call myself Catholic because in popular usage a Catholic is someone who is a member of a Church under Rome. It sows confusion when a Catholic calls themselves Orthodox for the same reason that it sows confusion when someone who is Orthodox calls themselves Catholic.

Fr. John

 

[Peter_J]

I do not call myself Catholic because in popular usage a Catholic is someone who is a member of a Church under Rome. It sows confusion when a Catholic calls themselves Orthodox for the same reason that it sows confusion when someone who is Orthodox calls themselves Catholic.

Fr. John

Sorry, but I have a problem with this. Not with the fact that you choose not to call yourself “Catholic”, but I have a problem the generalization that it’s wrong for Orthodox to call themselves “Catholic”.

 

[frjohnmorris]

Sorry, but I have a problem with this. Not with the fact that you choose not to call yourself “Catholic”, but I have a problem the generalization that it’s wrong for Orthodox to call themselves “Catholic”.

Why? The meaning of words change. Today in America most people think that a Catholic is a Roman Catholic. I know that the Orthodox Church is the Orthodox Catholic Church, but most people don’t. It is hard enough explaining to people that we are not Jewish without having to also explain to them that we are not under Rome. I wrote that to emphasize how offensive it is for Eastern Catholics to call themselves Orthodox in Communion with Rome.

Fr. John