# Byzantine Catholic



## FenderPriest (Jun 23, 2008)

I was wondering if you guys have any experience, knowledge, history with this group? From my understanding with a corespondance, they're a group within the Roman Catholic Church. But, aside from being oriented towards the Roman Catholic Church, and all that comes with that, I don't know much about them. Any thoughts on them would be helpful. Thanks!


----------



## SRoper (Jun 23, 2008)

Byzantine Catholics are part of the Eastern Rite in the Roman Catholic Church. I believe they broke away from Rome for a time and rejoined within a few hundred years. Their liturgy is different than the Latin Rite churches, but their doctrine is essentially the same. They have the look and feel of an Eastern Orthodox church with Roman Catholicism under the hood.


----------



## Davidius (Jun 23, 2008)

> The Eastern Catholic Churches are autonomous (in Latin, sui iuris) particular Churches in full communion with the Bishop of Rome — the Pope. They preserve the liturgical, theological and devotional traditions of the various Eastern Christian Churches with which they are associated, and between which doctrinal differences exist, in particular between the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy and the Assyrian Church of the East. They thus vary with regard to forms of liturgical worship, sacramental[1] and canonical discipline, terminology, traditional prayers and practices of piety. But they recognize that their faith is not at variance with that of the other constituent Churches of the one Catholic Church, including the Latin or Western Church, all of which are of equal dignity.[2] In particular, they recognize the central role of the Bishop of Rome within the College of Bishops. They preserve the special emphases and illuminations that Eastern Christianity has developed over the centuries, some of which Pope John Paul II illustrated in his apostolic letter Orientale Lumen of 2 May 1995.[3]



From this Wikipedia article: Eastern Catholic Churches - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


----------



## Contra_Mundum (Jun 23, 2008)

It is just what you might expect--these are churches, which for all intents ought to be EO churches (they walk like EO, they quack like EO), except they have accepted the principle of the primacy of the RC _uber_-bishop. It pure human nature at work: if you want a pope, one is available for your obeisance.


----------



## JM (Jun 23, 2008)

The Byzantine Catholics will sometimes describe themselves as "Eastern Orthodox in Communion with Rome.” They accept all the Romanish doctrines of purgatory, the Marian dogmas, Papal infallibility, etc.


----------



## TimV (Jun 23, 2008)

I did a large construction job for one of their local churches here in CA. They have a tendency to be from south and central Europe with lots of Ruthenians, which are for practical purposes Ukrainians. Their Priests can marry but often don't.


----------



## Pop the Reformer (Jul 6, 2008)

So the question is; What do we do with these guys? Living in the Northeast we see more Catholics than we see 4 wheel drive SUV's in the winter  and what we have more of is catholic sympathizers....Does the rest of the world see it this way? Seems like everywhere you go and everyone you speak to the catholic church is lumped into the Christian Church. Do the standards of Westminster regarding Roman Catholics still stand? And here is the heart of the matter; Should we evangelize them?

 






FenderPriest said:


> I was wondering if you guys have any experience, knowledge, history with this group? From my understanding with a corespondance, they're a group within the Roman Catholic Church. But, aside from being oriented towards the Roman Catholic Church, and all that comes with that, I don't know much about them. Any thoughts on them would be helpful. Thanks!


----------



## yeutter (Jul 6, 2008)

We have an [Eastern/Arab] Malakite rite Catholic Church in Lansing. The thing that surprised me is the guys I know from that parish are weaker on original sin then most of the Roman Catholics I know. Just my experience. I do not know if it this is broadly true of them.


----------



## Presbyterian Deacon (Jul 7, 2008)

Pop the Reformer said:


> So the question is; What do we do with these guys?...Do the standards of Westminster regarding Roman Catholics still stand? And here is the heart of the matter; Should we evangelize them?



Kris-- What kind of question is that?  Of course we should evangelize them! Someone evangelized you when you were a papist, right?


----------



## JM (Jul 7, 2008)

A couple of guys from my church visited a Roman Catholic Mass a few weeks ago because they've never been to one. At the end of the Mass they spoke with the priest and proclaimed the Gospel to him. They said it went well, they spoke for 45 min.


----------

