Using a Roman Catholic church building for an Orthodox liturgy

[StellaMaris1917]

I was wondering if anyone knows if it is permissible for an Orthodox liturgy to take place in a Catholic church building. Is this something the Catholic bishop has the authority to permit?

Thank you

 

[Margaret_Ann]

Are you thinking about the Eastern Catholic Churches? We have the same Liturgy as the EO do but are in full communion with Holy See.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

I was wondering if anyone knows if it is permissible for an Orthodox liturgy to take place in a Catholic church building. Is this something the Catholic bishop has the authority to permit?

Are you thinking about the Eastern Catholic Churches? We have the same Liturgy as the EO do but are in full communion with Holy See.

Assuming it is an EO liturgy, I can’t see why this would be a problem. However, my question would then be “but why would they want to?”. Some EO, not all, take a very dim view of the RC church and view us as heretics, schismatics, and so on, with the memory of the deplorable sack of Constantinople and the equally deplorable destruction of the holy icons still fresh in mind. But then again, there are Orthodox, and then there are Orthodox — they might simply be in need of a church building to use for a couple of hours.

So far as I am aware, the Catholic bishop has ultimate say-so over what happens in his parish church buildings — he owns them. (As corporation sole, not in his own name.)

 

[adamhovey1988]

I have been to a Melkite Divine Liturgy at a Latin Catholic church because the Melkite church was too small, because it was a funeral liturgy for a biritual priest. I think it would be completely possible to do, but whether or not the Orthodox would want to is another question. When the Byzantine rite church near where I live were having their church renovated, the Coptic Orthodox church let them celebrate Divine Liturgy at theirs. I think the question isn’t whether or not it’s possible, I think the question should be whether it’s probable.

 

[Margaret_Ann]

I highly doubt any EO priest/congregation would use a RC church because RC churches don’t have an iconostas, which is necessary for the Divine Liturgy.

Our parish is 50 years old but we FINALLY got an iconostas in 2009. My father’s funeral was the first one in the church with iconostas & Pantocrator. (One of our other parishioners passed away before Dad but there was still scaffolding in the church when his funeral occurred.)

 

[Isaac14]

My OCA mission parish rented the chapel at the local RC diocesan center for a number of years before we grew to point where we could afford to purchase our own bldg.

I can’t disagree that an iconostas is necessary, but the definition can be pretty loose. In our case it was simply icons of Christ & the Theotokos on very portable stands, no walls, no Royal Gates, no curtains or anything else.

Most Orthodox I’ve met in real life really don’t have a dim view of Catholics (the internet is a very different matter). Locally, my experience is there’s mostly just mutual ignorance.

 

[dochawk]

permissible by the EO or the RCC?

It would be charitable to make the church available.

We used two have one Orthodox group meeting at our EC church weekly, and another monthly.

. Some EO, not all, take a very dim view of the RC church and view us as heretics, schismatics, and so o

. . .

I don’t know if it is still the case, but there used to be Russian Orthodox holding Divine Liturgy in the basement of the hall of the Reno cathedral.

I highly doubt any EO priest/congregation would use a RC church because RC churches don’t have an iconostas, which is necessary for the Divine Liturgy.

There are portable iconostasis as well. We have two that can travel, that we also use at our outside altar for Easter an other large attendance events (bishop visits, weddings . . )

In our case it was simply icons of Christ & the Theotokos on very portable stands, no walls, no Royal Gates, no curtains or anything else.

that’s what we do outside. The very first time (my daughter’s wedding, the only licit outdoor Catholic wedding of which I’ve ever heard!) we hung fabric between open space for the various doors, but that part didn’t work welling this high-wind city, and hasn’t been repeated

Most Orthodox I’ve met in real life really don’t have a dim view of Catholics (the internet is a very different matter).

Yeah, this.

when some yahoos on my sone in law’s job site tried to bully him (a dumb idea, given his size . . .), it was a couple of RO that put their feet down to stop it, claiming him as one of theirs. And some time later, clienst noticed my tribar cross lapel pin. Asked if I was Orthodox, I replied with “Eastern Catholic”, and they shrugged saying “same things”

Locally, my experience is there’s mostly just mutual ignorance.

yeah, that especially [cue the first article of Brest again . . .]

 

[Margaret_Ann]

As I noted earlier, my parish is 50 years old but we FINALLY got an iconostas in 2009. One church closed in upstate PA so we got their iconostas. Metropolitan Stefan Soroka (now retired) consecrated it in our church in 2010.

Prior to that, we had icons on easels and then we had 4 free-standing icons (which we still have in church).

 

[dochawk]

Our priest took a trip to the old country (PA, OH, NJ) a few years ago, and was joyfully given assorted pieces from closed and closing parishes-tabernacles, candles, vessels . . .

many are in use, and others rotate through.