[NYer]

George and Ann Lally are two Irish Catholics who joined Fr. Roher's parish. They were attracted by "the sense of community, tradition, and reverence". Fr. Rick does an exceptional job of explaining things we'd taken for granted about both rites." Their children love the church, particularly their son, who serves at Divine Liturgy. The whole family has "grown spiritually" because of the Church. They switched rites six months ago.

"The Eastern Churches are the Treasures of the Catholic Church" ... Pope John XXIII

CATHOLIC RITES AND CHURCHES

[NYer]

Another new Melkite parish is run by Fr. Daniel Munn, an Anglican-turned-Catholic priest. He and his wife and four children entered the Catholic Church sixteen years ago. He hastens to say, "Now, I didn't become a Melkite because of their married clergy, which is what everyone thinks." His varied life as a "failed atheist" married to a Southern Baptist took him in and out of the Episcopal church and into Catholicism. The Eastern tradition had attracted him for a long time. "I'd always thought I'd join Greek Orthodoxy if I left Episcopalianism," he admits. "But that's not what God had in mind."

[B Knotts]

Obviously, there are many reasons why Westerners go to these Eastern Churches. But, it's pretty obvious that many of them are merely frustrated with liturgical abuse and a lack of respect for those attached to the Traditional Latin Mass, and are merely seeking some sort of Catholic Church in which they find some degree of solemnity and connection with the past.

It is long past time for the ancient liturgy in the West to be accorded the same respect as the ancient liturgies in the East.

[nickcarraway]

ping

[AskStPhilomena]

"Fr. Joseph Amar, a Maronite priest who teaches classics at Notre Dame University, doubts that the rite-switchers have "an authentic attraction to the Eastern rite." He suspects that many of them are "discontented Traditionalists" yearning for the Tridentine rite. "The Eastern churches aren't some kind of pristine Christianity. People who expect that are in for some real surprises.""


That about sums it up. Make the traditional Latin Mass freely available - not just once a week in an old bomb-shelter 40 miles out of town - and interest in converting to the Eastern rites will dwindle. Until then, the Byzantines (particularly the more tradition-minded among them) continue to provide some shelter in the storm for all those who, in good conscience, can no longer assist at the novus ordo.

[Conservative til I die]

I'm lucky enough to live in a neighborhod with an inordinate number of churches, and one where (not so much anymore) there was a heavy Eastern European immigrant presence, so I actually live less than a mile from an Eastern Catholic Church building. Funny enough is that there's an Orthodox Church right across the street from it. The EC building is round-shaped. I'd definitely like to visit it.