When are the Byzantine Catholics going to De-Latinize?

[babochka]

Originally Posted by ByzCathCantor

Really? How did your priest get away with that?

I always get asked this question! (About how our priest got away with giving infant communion in the 60s and 70s.) I honestly didn't even know it was unusual until very recently. I assumed it was perfectly normal ( In Byzantine parishes, at least. I discoverd that it wasn't entirely normal when I started Catholic School and gave Sister Paul a heart attack by approaching to receive Communion.) See, it takes just one generation. We were in California, a long way from the Bishop in Parma . Maybe that has something to do with it. I have read somewhere (perhaps in this very forum?) that some of the more Eastern leaning priests were exiled out here to the Wild West. That dear priest is still in very good standing with the Eparchy of Parma, by the way.

[ConstantineTG]

Originally Posted by Phillip Rolfes

Eastern Catholics are NOT Roman Catholics.

Wisely's sentiments though reflect the view from a number of Orthodox. Eastern Catholics are more Roman Catholic than Eastern Orthodox.

[Phillip Rolfes]

Originally Posted by Seamus L

Phillip

I don't know how you can suggest that Latinized Easterners as you call them, are incapable of authenically bearing witness to the Gospel ? That's a really strong statement there. Think of all the people that would cover and it includes some who may one day be Saints.

Perhaps you are correct. But in my experience those who inquire into Eastern Catholicism, whether they be curious Roman Catholics or Orthodox, are more often than not scandalized by the extensive Latinizations that are commonly encountered. The Orthodox see such extensive Latinization as reflective of their future should reunion with Rome ever take place, and they are rightly disgusted by it. Such Latinization then becomes just one more cause to maintain the current separation, and it has been pointed out by numerous people more knowledgeable and much holier than I that this separation is an impediment to the proclamation of the Gospel.

The issue of Latinized saints is also a touchy subject when it comes to Catholic-Orthodox relations. Just look at the uproar that is caused among some Orthodox when you even mention the name "St. Josaphat."

In this sense Latinization is not only a barrier to (re)union, but also an impediment to evangelization, sentiments that were echoed by Met. Sheptytsky, Kyr Elias Zoghby, Kyr Joseph Raya, Sayedna Joseph Tawil, and the current head of the Eparchy of Newton, Sayedna Nicholas Samra.

[Phillip Rolfes]

Originally Posted by ConstantineTG

Wisely's sentiments though reflect the view from a number of Orthodox. Eastern Catholics are more Roman Catholic than Eastern Orthodox.

Sadly it also expresses the view of the vast majority of Roman Catholics, as well as a number of Eastern Catholics themselves.