What's the difference between Roman, and Eastern Catholic

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What’s the difference between Roman and Eastern Catholics, and why are we grouped as such?
I am new to the Faith so please excuse my ignorance
 
jtexas said:
What’s the difference between Roman and Eastern Catholics, and why are we grouped as such?
I am new to the Faith so please excuse my ignorance
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There are 6 big groups, each of which has distinctive traits in theology and liturgy. They are, as described in Canon Law, those groups descended from the principal churches of Rome, Antioch, Byzantium, Armenia, Alexandria, and Assyria. There also was a major group descended from the principal church in Gaul, but it’s been pretty much absorbed into the Roman tradition. A Celtic rite also was western, and absorbed into the Roman.

The big divide into “East and West” really is an artifact of Roman History. The Empire was split into the eastern and western Empires. That 5 of the 8 major ritual traditions were in lands under the Eastern Roman Empire, and the other three were under the Western Empire, is the primary dividing line.
 
Thank you all for your (name removed by moderator)ut. I will check out the links provided. Thanks again.
 
Also keep in mind that when we speak of Eastern Catholics, we mean in communion with Rome. (Not that anyone has said otherwise, I just want that to be clear to everyone reading this thread.) Hence why they’re call Eastern Catholic and not Eastern Orthodox.
 
Actually, it’s *Latin *Catholics and Eastern Catholics. The Latin Church has several rites of which the Roman rite is one, albeit the largest and most well known, it being directly under the Pope.
 
I hope this isn’t off-topic, but I was wondering: Do the Eastern Catholic churches hold to the same theology of the Trinity as the Eastern Orthodox churches? Do Byzantine churches believe that the Spirit proceeds only from the Father? If so, how does this affect the oneness of the Catholic Church? - Rob, the Latin rite guy
 
Rob_in_Oregon said:
I hope this isn’t off-topic, but I was wondering: Do the Eastern Catholic churches hold to the same theology of the Trinity as the Eastern Orthodox churches? Do Byzantine churches believe that the Spirit proceeds only from the Father? If so, how does this affect the oneness of the Catholic Church? - Rob, the Latin rite guy
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In the sense that the Spirit originates in the Father, yes, the origin of the Spirit is exclusively the Father, just as is the Son’s.

In the sense that the Spirit flows forth through the Son, but does not originate in the Son, again, yes. But then again, that’s also what Rome teaches and has taught for centuries. And what the Orthodox teach.
 
I hope this isn’t going to devolve into yet another filioque thread. 🤷
 
I heard that Eastern Catholic Priests can marry and still say mass, is that true?
 
GenosFutureWife said:
I heard that Eastern Catholic Priests can marry and still say mass, is that true?
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Well not technically. A married man can become an Eastern Catholic Priest (once you’re ordained to the deaconate you’re celibate if not married).

However, in the USA, because of previous Latin bishops (namely Archbishop Ireland, founder of the OCA), married priests are stigmatized and heavily discouraged despite the ancient tradition and our own autonomy.
 
GenosFutureWife said:
I heard that Eastern Catholic Priests can marry and still say mass, is that true?
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My pastor is married, has a wife and 2 kids.

But then, Rev. Fr. Scott Medlock is a priest of the Roman Rite Archdiocese of Anchorage, and has a wife. I don’t know how many kids Fr. Scott has, he’s not my pastor. I have seen his wife at archdiocesan events, which my dad, a deacon in the Archdiocese of Anchorage, had me drive him to.

Oh, and Mass is not the proper term. Divine Worship Service is the generic term used in canon law. Byzantines use the term Divine Liturgy. The Syriac tend to accept “Mass” as the English term, but it’s not the proper term.

Mass is derived from Ite missa est… a latin phrase, specifically, the deacon’s dismissal of the people.
 
Aramis said:
The Syriac tend to accept “Mass” as the English term, but it’s not the proper term.
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I don’t think Holy Offering (Qurbono Qadisho) will ever catch on :p. Certainly not among the Lebanese.
 
If you put “Qurbono” (West Syriac) or “Qurbana” (East Syriac) into the search field in Youtube, you’ll return results that are almost 100% Indian (Malabar and Malankaran), with the exception of videos from the Youtube channel “Maronites” (which usually has “Holy Mass” in parenthesis right next to “Qurbono”). Oddly, many of the results for “Qurbana” are Orthodox liturgies. And it seems that if you want Syriac Orthodox liturgies (and I do) you’d do better searching for “Mass” (20,900 results) than for either form of the Syriac (Qurbana = 13,100 results; Qurbono = 3,440 results).

Granted, if you search for ܩܘܪܒܢܐ you get 4 results. Yes, four.

It’s not exactly a scientific method of collecting data, but I’m pretty sure it still means that it’s far from a Lebanese/Maronite problem. 🙂
 
dzheremi said:
It’s not exactly a scientific method of collecting data, but I’m pretty sure it still means that it’s far from a Lebanese/Maronite problem. 🙂
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I should clarify and say my statement wasn’t an exclusive one. It’s best that most ignore my posts for their own sanity, half the time I’m ranting :p.
 
Ad_Orientem said:
Actually, it’s *Latin *Catholics and Eastern Catholics. The Latin Church has several rites of which the Roman rite is one, albeit the largest and most well known, it being directly under the Pope.
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Actually that’s incorrect. Both “Roman Rite” and “Latin Rite” describe the Western half of the Catholic Church. While there are different liturgical rites within the Roman Rite, there are not several separate church traditions as there are in the Eastern half of Catholic Church.

Further each suri juris church (including the Western Church) is “directly under the Pope of Rome.”
 
Rob_in_Oregon said:
I hope this isn’t off-topic, but I was wondering: Do the Eastern Catholic churches hold to the same theology of the Trinity as the Eastern Orthodox churches? Do Byzantine churches believe that the Spirit proceeds only from the Father? If so, how does this affect the oneness of the Catholic Church? - Rob, the Latin rite guy
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Theological explanations of the Trinity are a bit like a blind guy trying to explain an elephant. To us amatuers, it sounds an awful lot like Latin and Eastern theology of the Trinity is different. But the holy men who lead us both have spent rather a lot of time on this question and have essentially decided that we’ve both been trying to describe the SAME elephant!

So if you want to find differences to squabble over, you certainly can find them. But if you want to look for grounds for unity, one can eventually “see” the elephant from the other guy’s perspective and admit that he’s got a point. Because let’s admit it: if anybody REALLY explained the Trinity to you your brain would burn out. It’s too much for a puny human to comprehend.
 
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