Eastern Catholicism

When I was a kid I was intrigued by what I heard referred to as the “Greek Catholic” church. I asked various people about this exotic sounding entity but I could never get straight answers. My chief question concerned the relation of this Church with the Roman Catholic Pope. Was this church under the pope or not? No one seemed to be able to tell me. I was further confused each Saturday when I would see the Mass schedule for the “Maronite” Catholic Church in Uniontown listed on the church services page of the local paper. What on earth was that? I was told that it was Lebanese Catholic (my mother had a childhood friend who was Maronite) but again, nobody could tell me definitively the relation of this Church with Rome.

My senior year of college, as I was passing through the reference room at Penn State’s Patee Library, the answer came. Walking amongst the bookshelves, I spotted the New Catholic Encyclopedia. On a lark, I decided to search for answers. Finally, I learned that these Eastern Catholic Churches were fully in union with Rome and that in attended liturgy in any one of them my Sunday obligation would be fulfilled.

Once I was clear on the Catholicity of these churches, I started attending when I happened to be home for the weekend. At first, I went to St. Stephen Byzantine Catholic Church in Leisenring, a coal patch outside of my hometown. After getting my feet wet in the Byzantine Church, I mustered the bravery to try the even more exotic Maronite Church. So I began visiting St. George Maronite Church in Uniontown. At this point in my life I only went to these churches just for something “different;” if I had to go to Mass, I might as well experience something out of the ordinary. After the beginning of my conversation process, however, I fell in love with the liturgies and spiritualities of the Eastern Churches and they have had a profound impact upon my own spirituality. The Syriac traditions especially, as expressed in the Maronite Church, captured my heart. The pastor of St. George Church, Fr. Gregory Mansour, eventually played a pivotal role in my journey to the priesthood. He also introduced me to the great Syriac poet-theologian St. Ephrem [link to his page], who quickly became one of my favourite spiritual writers.

HISTORY OF THE EASTERN CATHOLIC CHURCHES

The Churches known today as Eastern Catholic are parts of the (for the most part) larger non-Catholic Churches that separated from the Universal Church at various points between the fifth and eleventh centuries. The Assyrian Church separated after the Council of Ephesus in AD 431 as result of the Nestorian heresy . The Oriental Orthodox Churches separated after the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451 as a result of the Monophysite heresy Finally, the largest group of churches, the Eastern Orthodox, broke union in 1054 due to the Great Schism between Rome and Constantinople. Beginning in the sixteenth century Catholic missionaries brought parts of these various Churches back into union with Rome. The last such reunion, which with the Indian Syro-Malankara Church, occurred in 1930. The only exceptions to the general rule of schism and then reunion is the Maronite Catholic Church, which has no non-Catholic counterpart and believes itself to have never broken union with Rome, and the Italo-Albanian Church of Italy.

The Churches of the East, both Catholic and non-Catholic can be divided according which of the five ancient rites they follow: Alexandrian, Armenian, West Syrian (Antiochene), East Syrian (Chaldean), or Byzantine. The Alexandrian, Armenian, and West Syrian rites resulted from the Monophysite heresy, the East Syrian from the Nestorian heresy, and the Byzantine from the Great Schism of 1054. The division of the Catholic Churches is as follows:

Alexandrian

Coptic Catholic Church (Egypt)

Ethiopian Catholic Church (Ethiopia)

Armenian

Armenian Catholic Church (Armenia and Cilicia)

West Syrian

Syrian Catholic Church (Syria)

Syro-Malankara Catholic Church (India)

Maronite Catholic Church (Lebanon) (non-Monophysitic in origin)

East Syrian

Chaldean Catholic Church (Iraq)

Syro-Malabar Catholic (India)

Byzantine

Byelorussian Catholic Church (Belarus)

Bulgarian Catholic Church (Bulgaria)

Greek Catholic Church (Greece)

Hungarian Catholic Church (Hungary)

Italo-Albanian Catholic Church (Southern Italy and Sicily) (no non-Catholic counterpart)

Melkite Catholic Church (the Middle East)

Romanian Catholic Church (Romania)

Ruthenian Catholic Church (Transcarpathia – Western Ukraine and Eastern Slovakia)

Slovak Catholic Church (Slovakia)

Ukrainian Catholic Church (Ukraine)

Croatian Catholic Church (Croatia)

Albanian Catholic Church (Albania)

Russian Catholic Church (Russia)

LEADERS OF THE EASTERN CATHOLIC CHURCHS

PATRIACHS

His Eminence Mar Nasrallah Boutros Cardinal Sfeir, Patriarch of Antioch and All The East of the Maronites (Maronite Catholic Church)
http://www.bkerke.org.lb/Sfeir1e.html

naguib
His Beatitude Antonios Naguib, Patriarch of Alexandria of the Copts (Coptic Catholic Church)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1608562/posts

His Beatitude Emanuel III Delly, Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldees (Chaldean Catholic Church)
http://www.beth-il.com/news/news/december-03/mar-emanuel-03.htm

His Beatitude Ignace Pierre VIII Abdel-Ahad, Patriarch of Antioch and all the East of the Syrians (Syrian Catholic Church)
http://www.dailycatholic.org/issue/2001Feb/feb27nw1.htm

His Beatitude Gregory III Laham, Patriarch of Antioch and all the East of the Melkites (Melkite Catholic Church)
http://www.melkitecathedral.org/laham.htm

His Beatitude Nersès Bédros XIX Tarmouni, Patirarch of Cilicia of the Armenians (Armenian Catholic Church)
http://www.geocities.com/wmwolfe_48044/

MAJOR ARCHBISHOPS

His Eminence Lubomyr Cardinal Husar, Major Archbishop of Lviv of the Ukranians (Ukranian Catholic Church)
http://www.ugcc.org.ua/eng/ugcc_structure/bishopbio/

His Eminence Mar Varkey Cardinal Vithayathil, Major Archbishop of Ernakulam–Angamaly of the Syro-Malabars
http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bvith.html

His Excellency Cyril Mar Baselios Malancharuvil, Major Archbishop of Trivandrum of the Syro-Malankars (Syro-Malankara Catholic Church)
http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bmalcb.html

Eastern Catholic Jurisdictions in the United States

Armenian Apostolic Exarchate for the USA and Canada
Brooklyn, New York
Bishop Manuel Batakian

Eparchy of Newton for Melkites
Newton, Massachusetts
Bishop Cyril Salim Bustros

Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance of Newark for Syrians
Newark, New Jersey
Bishop Joseph Younan

Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles for Maronites
St. Louis, Missouri
Bishop Robert J. Shaheen

Eparchy of Parma for Byzantines
Parma Ohio
Bishop John M. Kudrick

Eparchy of Passaic for Byzantines
Passaic, New Jersey
Bishop Andrew Pataki

Archeparchy of Philadelphia for Ukrainians
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Metropolitan Stephen Soroka

Archeparchy of Pittsburgh for Byzantines
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Metropolitan Basil Schott, OFM

Eparchy of Saint Peter the Apostle of San Diego for Chaldeans
San Diego, California
Bishop Sarhad Jammo

Eparchy of St. George’s in Canton for Romanians
Canton, Ohio
Bishop John Michael Botean

Eparchy of St. Josaphat of Parma for Ukrainians
Parma, Ohio
Bishop Robert M. Moskal

Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn for Maronites
Brooklyn, New York
Bishop Gregory J. Mansour

Eparchy of St. Nicholas of Chicago for Ukrainians
Chicago, Illinois
Bishop Michael Wiwchar, CSSR

Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle of Chicago for Syro-Malabars
Chicago, Illinois
Bishop Jacob Angadiath

Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle of Detroit for Chaldeans
Detroit, Michigan
Bishop Ibrahim N. Ibrahim

Eparchy of Stamford for Ukrainians
Stamford, Connecticut
Bishop Basil H. Losten

Eparchy of Van Nuys for Byzantines
Phoenix, Arizona
Most Reverend William P. Skurla

EASTERN CATHOLIC LINKS
Websites of the Various Eastern Churches

The Society of St. John Chrysostom of Ayatriada Rum Katoliki Kilise (Istanbul, Turkey)
Eastern Catholic Pastoral Association of Southern California
Armenian Catholic Church in Russia
Catholic Near East Welfare Association