Reminiscing over the future
Feeling strange connections with a past I have never known.
As many of you know I have been doing some rather extensive family research - particularly in regards to my eastern european ancestors. There is much I could say about all that I have learned, but I am saving most of it for when I finally finish the website that will detail everything I have learned. Suffice to say that much of what fuels this fascination is the unusual and surprising fact that I returned my family to Orthodoxy without really knowing that it was a return. By the same token, some of my extended relatives did the same thing (though without the ignorance I had in my return) by leaving the "Greek Catholic" uniates and returning our family to Orthodoxy after a 300 year hiatus. (Of course the extent to which your average greek catholic dweller in the mountains of eastern slovakia was actually more catholic than orthodox is highly debatable). I imagine my relatives were a simple folk who practiced their faith without a whole lot of concern as to whether or not they montioned the pope during the Slavonic Liturgy of St. John Chyrsostom.
The history of the Uniates is a curious one...in many ways an experiment that was found severly wanting when Uniates started pouring into the United States, carrying along with them married clergy ("validly" ordained by Rome) their languages (both vernacular and liturgical) and their litrugies and practices (e.g. chotki's, three-barred crosses, old calender, etc.) It often made the Latin bishops here very nervous and uncomfortable and in time these immigrants began to realize that their union with Rome was not as easy as they originally thought. In the "old country" the people generally had a great deal more freedom to practice as they had always practiced, but once here in America, the REAL test of the "union" took place. Many of my family thought the union failed, because it soon became clear (especially in 1929 when the Pope started handing out new instructions and restrictions) that in order to maintain their practices and avoid further latinization, they would have to return to Orthodoxy.
This experience may speak to us today as we consider the hopeful aspirations of Pope Benedict for unification with the Orthodox. Are our practices too far removed from one another to avoid strife when they collide? I wonder.
more later...
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Comments
Your concerns about the Latinization of the East are not without historical merit. Wrong was done during the Crusades. May I point out that we are no longer in the time of the Crusades?
The Popes of Rome have since ordered that the spirituality of Eastern Christianity be revered and protected. Check out, for example, "Orientalium Dignitas" by Pope Leo XIII, which states:
"Any Latin rite missionary, whether of the secular or religious clergy, who induces with his advice or assistance any Eastern rite faithful to transfer to the Latin rite, will be deposed and excluded from his benefice..."
Also check out Pope John Paul's "Orientale Lumen," which heaps praises upon the Eastern traditions.
The Carpatho-Rusyn Archdiocese didn't form until close to the mid 20th century - shortly after the papal decree of 1929 which was certainly pushing further latinization of eastern practices and customs.
So I think the praise and protection of Eastern Rite practices is much more recent than immediate post-crusade era.
I wonder to what extent Eastern practices can mesh with western beliefs. At what points do the differences begin to "pet the cat tail to head"?