Scholar Slams Latin Church's "cultural Imperialism"

[cappie]

An Australian Ukrainian rite Catholic theologian has criticised the "latinisation" - or cultural imperialism - of the Roman Catholic Church.

Dr Andrew Kania said this disadvantages the Eastern churches that are in communion with Rome.

In a paper published on the independent catholica.com.au website, he said that young people in Catholic schools are not specifically encouraged to preserve their Byzantine Signing of the Cross. All those he surveyed at a meeting a few years ago had adopted the Roman Rite Signing.

Dr Kania is a visiting scholar at Oxford University, where he is completing a book on Dag Hammerskold. He has taken 12 months leave of absence from his position as Director of Spirituality at Aquinas College in Perth complete his book.

In addition, he said those who had received the Eucharist as infants were not allowed to receive the Eucharist at the Catholic Schools until after their Latin Church classmates had made their First Holy Communion.

Dr Kania suggested that outside of the Holy Land and Eastern Europe, most Roman Rite Catholics are oblivious to the existence of the Eastern Catholic Churches, and their integral role within the history of the Universal Church.

He said: "For the majority of Catholics in the world, to be a Catholic is to be 'Roman Catholic' — and these terms are often misused interchangeably."

[url="http://catholica.com.au/andrewstake/041_andrewstake_180907.php"]http://catholica.com.au/andrewstake/041_an...take_180907.php[/url]

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As I have learned the last few days, no matter what I say here will be considered wrong and get attacked. So I will acknowledge this but not make a comment with stronger language unless this gets moved to the debate table.

[SarahB]

I grew up Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic, and I can say that it can be a struggle to keep your identity. Two of the priests in our church were former Latin Rite priests who still kept many of their traditions and tried to bring them into our church. The one even ended up going back to the Latin Rite. And even our churches are built more like Latin Rite churches, with few icons, no icon screens, etc. The present priest at my mom's church even has them singing Latin Rite hymns. I didn't find out about the Jesus prayer until I was well into my teens, because we always said the Rosary. And when I would try to explain to Latin Rite Catholics that I was Catholic, too, they'd stare at me like I had a thrid eye. I even have a friend who has been disowned by their family for joining the Ruthenian Rite because their family doesn't understand that they're Catholic also, and they refuse to look into it.

As as for Byzantine children not being able to recieve Communion until the Latin children have.....uggh. If that was my kid, I'd be pulling them out of there. It's bad enough when run of the mill Catholics don't understand that there are other Catholics out there. But when it's happening at a Catholic school, that's even worse.

[prose]

I wish I knew and understood more about other rites.

[Laudate_Dominum]

Sweet!
I don't know if "cultural imperialism" is the best way of describing it; seems to be ignorance more often than not. The official stance of the Roman Church is hardly imperialistic even if it falls flat in practice thus far. I think that studies and statements of this kind are a good thing so long as they don't get bogged down by cheap polemics.

Most of the Eastern Catholic Churches that I've been to around here have kneelers, statues, the filioque clause, Roman Catholic hymns (traditional hymns I must add), Western architecture, and of course a contingent of people in the pews who make the Roman Catholic sign of the cross and genuflect.

It is also true that far too many Catholics seem oblivious to the fact that the Roman Church is not the only member of the Catholic Church. Even Roman Catholics who should know better often display the attitude that being Roman Catholic makes them "more Catholic" than those of another Church. The irony is that this attitude is explicitly uncatholic in that it does not recognize the true Catholicity of the Church.

[kateri05]

[quote]Dr Kania suggested that outside of the Holy Land and Eastern Europe, most Roman Rite Catholics are oblivious to the existence of the Eastern Catholic Churches, and their integral role within the history of the Universal Church.[/quote]

i don't know if this is just a "know about the East" problem, so much as a Catholics in this day and age don't know much about anything, at all, period. i will say, as a former confirmation catechist, my time was spent on things like the trinity, mary, and sacraments. oh and knowing the basic prayers (think, the ones in the rosary ) yes these were high school kids!

however, now that i teach theology, so there is more time, formerly hs. and now to jr high, but kids who come from good Catholic families, we do talk about the catholicity of the Church, and the existence of different rites, etc etc. the kids eat it up, they just think its so wonderful and neat that other Catholics have all these amazing traditions.

and, our school, every year on the feast of st. nicholas, goes to a Byzantine Rite Divine Liturgy as as school. its a big treat!


[quote]In addition, he said those who had received the Eucharist as infants were not allowed to receive the Eucharist at the Catholic Schools until after their Latin Church classmates had made their First Holy Communion.[/quote]

oh that is so terrible! the people teaching/running catholic schools are definitely the ones who should know enough about the ENTIRE Church to prevent things like this happening!



also, i can imagine, at least here in the states, part of the difficulty with maintaining your identity as an Eastern Catholic is a numbers problem. they are just so much fewer and farther between, i imagine it can sometimes just be easier to "latinize," especially when it comes to sending your kids to school and stuff. if your rite's closest church is over an hour away, attending regularly must surely be difficult and thus you start to lose the little things. i didn't really know much of anything about eastern rites growing up simply because i didn't know anyone who was, really, until i got older and grew out of only knowing people in my family or zipcode, you know?

[CatherineM]

I had never heard of the other rites until I was in theology classes in my 30's. Now that I live in Edmonton, it is much more in my face. There are a lot of Ukrainians here, and our church has a Eritrean group that uses the church on Sunday afternoons. I attended a wedding last summer at a Ukrainian church, and they definitely had their own architecture in place. Before last Easter, we had a choir practice scheduled for a Saturday afternoon, and the Eritreans had their mass planned for that time. We didn't know because they hadn't gotten it on the calendar. Our choir leader was trying to explain that we had scheduled the practice on the calendar as a way of apologizing for interfering with the start of their mass. Their priest thought we were trying to say our practice took precedence over their mass because we got it on the calendar first, and got quite angry. I'm not sure what language they speak, but I'm pretty sure I got to hear a cuss word in it. I got the feeling that they were used to being denigrated or pushed aside. We apologized the best we could and beat a hasty retreat.

[PapaHilarious]

It's a shame to read stories like this, because our diversity of tradition is such a great part of what makes our Church truly "Catholic."

Before I was Catholic, I definitely knew nothing at all of there being different Rites, but since I've come home, I've found it a true joy to learn about all the branches of Christ, our True Vine (CCC 755). + =

[Innocent]

[quote name='SarahB' post='1388185' date='Sep 19 2007, 05:44 AM'].....The one even ended up going back to the Latin Rite.[/quote]

I was under the impression that a Catholic could not change rites more than once.. Is that not correct?

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='cappie' post='1388170' date='Sep 18 2007, 08:01 PM']An Australian Ukrainian rite Catholic theologian has criticised the "latinisation" - or cultural imperialism - of the Roman Catholic Church.

Dr Andrew Kania said this disadvantages the Eastern churches that are in communion with Rome.

In a paper published on the independent catholica.com.au website, he said that young people in Catholic schools are not specifically encouraged to preserve their Byzantine Signing of the Cross. All those he surveyed at a meeting a few years ago had adopted the Roman Rite Signing.

Dr Kania is a visiting scholar at Oxford University, where he is completing a book on Dag Hammerskold. He has taken 12 months leave of absence from his position as Director of Spirituality at Aquinas College in Perth complete his book.

In addition, he said those who had received the Eucharist as infants were not allowed to receive the Eucharist at the Catholic Schools until after their Latin Church classmates had made their First Holy Communion.

Dr Kania suggested that outside of the Holy Land and Eastern Europe, most Roman Rite Catholics are oblivious to the existence of the Eastern Catholic Churches, and their integral role within the history of the Universal Church.

He said: "For the majority of Catholics in the world, to be a Catholic is to be 'Roman Catholic' — and these terms are often misused interchangeably."

[url="http://catholica.com.au/andrewstake/041_andrewstake_180907.php"]http://catholica.com.au/andrewstake/041_an...take_180907.php[/url][/quote]

We forget that the Eastern Catholic Churches have different theology, spirituality, Saints, traditions and outlook and we can act like idiots when confronted with the differences, as if the "roman" rite were the only one on the planet. No wonder "easterners" bristle. We have driven many people out of the Church by our arogance and small minds. May the Lord have mercy on us.

[Anomaly]

I know Revprodeji had more class than I by reserving comment, but I'll prove his theory right.

Roman Catholics OFTEN mistake their customs, practices, Disciplines, and culture as Infallible Dogma and require submission and acceptance, instead of acknowledgement and consideration. It derived from a myopic and disordered view of what 'Holy Mother Church' is and elevates the Roman Rite from a supposed "Primacy" to a role of "Supremacy". From cultural errors, significant problems are developed in theology by disallowing any question or difference of view on theological theory as 'heresy' or 'apostasy'. When Supreme Authority is demanded where it shouldn't exist, it only serves to undermine Authority where it should contributing to the fractionalization of Catholic Christianity. Eventually, you have multi-denominations of Catholics, just as you have multi denominations of Protestants for cultural and doctrinal reasons, not for fundamental Dogmatic reason.
Shame, really.

[Justin86]

While I agree that the Latin Church has commited grave injustices against the East in the past, that does not justify the East imposing their liturgy on us Westerners. If one attends a Roman Rite Mass then one should be expected to praticpate in [i]all[/i] the Roman tradtions, just like if a Westerner were to attended a Mass of the Eastern Rites he or she should be expected to praticipate in [i]all[/i] of their traditions. For the Easterner attending a Latin Rite Mass this includes--indeed it is a major part of-- not giving Communion to those whom the Latin Church has deemed not to have yet reached the age of reason. Eastern claims of Latinization will never be taken seriously as long as they are trying to Easternize the West.

Edited September 19, 2007 by Justin86

[Innocent]

[quote name='prose' post='1388211' date='Sep 19 2007, 06:02 AM']I wish I knew and understood more about other rites. [/quote]

I too, would love to learn more about the Eastern Catholics.

I have found recently that there are quite a few articles on Eastern Catholicism and Orthodoxy on the Free Republic.

Here are some samples:
[color="#ff0000"][b][url="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1438500/posts"][size=1]The Other Catholics: A Short Guide to the Eastern Catholic Churches[/size][/url][/b][/color]

[color="#0000ff"][b][url="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/960481/posts"][size=1]Catholic Rites and Churches[/size][/url][/b][/color]

[color="#ff0000"][b][url="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1373430/posts"][size=1]The importance of understanding Eastern Christianity[/size][/url][/b][/color]

[color="#0000ff"][b][url="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1146801/posts"][size=1]The Rite Switch: why Roman rite Catholics become Eastern rite[/size][/url][/b][/color]

[color="#ff0000"][url="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1150602/posts"][size=1][b]What is an Eastern Catholic?[/b][/size][/url][/color]

[color="#0000ff"][b][url="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1621475/posts"][size=1]Looking Eastward - IS THERE HOPE FOR CATHOLIC-ORTHODOX REUNION? [/size][/url][/b][/color]


The following article is by an Orthodox priest:

[color="#006400"][b][url="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1698562/posts"][size=1]What would the Orthodox have to do to have unity? (Catholic/Orthodox unity)[/size][/url][/b][/color]

Yours in Christ,
Innocent

Edited September 19, 2007 by Innocent

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[quote name='Innocent' post='1388491' date='Sep 19 2007, 02:39 AM']I was under the impression that a Catholic could not change rites more than once.. Is that not correct?[/quote]

What are they gonna do kick ya out?


[quote name='Innocent' post='1388547' date='Sep 19 2007, 09:10 AM']I too, would love to learn more about the Eastern Catholics.

I have found recently that there are quite a few articles on Eastern Catholicism and Orthodoxy on the Free Republic.

Here are some samples:[/quote]

Im not saying this against you, but check the authors on these first. There is so much polemic information out there it is sick.

[Innocent]

[quote name='Revprodeji' post='1388548' date='Sep 19 2007, 07:45 PM']What are they gonna do kick ya out?[/quote]

Well, I suppose not. You're right. I merely thought that the "Jump Once Only" rule was something set in concrete, just as you can be validly Baptised or Confirmed more than once. Apparently, I was wrong. Come to think of it, since there is no indelible seal involved when one changes rites, it does make sense to be able to change again.


[quote]Im not saying this against you, but check the authors on these first. There is so much polemic information out there it is sick.[/quote]

I'm just starting to learn, and don't know anything about these sources, I just discovered them yesterday, and so if any of the links I gave here is something unwholesome, by all means, point it out. I won't feel bad.


By the way, can you direct me to a good (online and free, I don't have credit card, etc.) source on the Eastern Catholics, which is largely free from problems? Thank you.

Edited September 19, 2007 by Innocent