Feeling discriminated against because one is a "different" sort of Catholic…

In 2001 I had the privilege to attend a Retreat for Ukrainian Catholic Youth. During a discussion session, I addressed the group, comprised of young men and women between the ages of 16-25, and all born in Australia, of some of the problems I had had to face growing up as an Eastern Catholic in a predominately Latin Church nation such as Australia.

	Dr Kania in a recent photo taken in the grounds of Christchurch, Oxford

Believing that my experiences were expressing but an interesting historical vignette rather than a contemporary reality, I was soon awoken from this fantasy by what can only be described as an avalanche of similar experiences from people up to twenty years my junior. Basically, nothing had really changed. One retreatant described to me how he, and his family, who lived in country Victoria, had been told, by a local Roman Rite priest, that attending a Ukrainian Catholic liturgy on Sunday did not fulfil Catholic obligation at 'Mass'; another retreatant described how his Confirmation as an infant was not recognized by the local Roman Rite Chaplain of a Catholic School; another, described how on joining the line of pilgrim-communicants at Lourdes in a Roman Rite Church, and having crossed herself in the Byzantine style (drawing the Sign of the Cross from right to left, three times) she was pulled out of the line by an usher and told: "Only for Catholics".

Further, I was informed that none of the young people before me had been encouraged in Catholic Schools to preserve their Byzantine Signing of the Cross — and all had adopted, during School hours at least — the Roman Rite Signing. In addition to this, those among my audience who had received Holy 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. In the latter case, what is so astonishing is that the Eucharist, be it celebrated and consecrated in both Eastern and Western Catholic Churches — is the same real presence of Christ; and a fully initiated member of the Catholic Church — is exactly that — fully initiated.

Most Roman Rite Catholics are oblivious to the Eastern Lung of the Church…

Cover the booklet published by the Australian Catholic Bishops in 1997 in an attempt to break down some of the barriers Dr Kania is exploring in this article. A pdf copy of the booklet is available on the Ukrainian Catholic website HERE.

It would be true to say 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. In fact for the majority of Catholics in the world, to be a Catholic is to be "Roman Catholic" — and these terms are often misused interchangeably. (In the United Kingdom, many of the Catholic Schools still designate themselves as 'RC'). That a good number of Catholics perceive themselves as Roman Catholics can in fact be rationalised if we recall that the Protestants of the Reformation defined themselves by the nature of their break from Rome, and defined their opponents by their adherence to the Pontiff who resided in the Vatican. In retaliation to Protestant persecution Catholicism has become so defensively Latin that it can be questioned whether a large part of the Latin Church can see the catholicity of the Universal Church better for it. Self-preservation always necessitates a them and us mentality — rather than an all-embracing perspective. Such is the inherited mindset that for a similar majority of people to be anything different to the Roman Rite is in fact to be non-Catholic. This difficulty in recognizing the Eastern lung of the Universal Church prevents many in the Latin Church from discovering the fullness of their own particular Church Tradition — for it is in the comparison of the Rites that we come to a fuller understanding of our own Traditions, and spiritual heritage.

In this essay I wish to explore some of the inherent issues behind the latinization of the Catholic Church, their roots and their impact on the Eastern Catholic Churches; and how these latinizations have in fact delayed the process of full reconciliation with the majority of Eastern Christians who remain separate from the Universal Communion — the Orthodox.

I ask for a certain amount of forbearance from my brothers and sisters of the East, both Catholic and Orthodox, for I understand that each of these sister Churches has their own particular perspective on ecumenical matters, which includes their own particular wounds. In this essay my area of focus lies primarily on the experiences of one of the Eastern Churches as an example, this being the Ukrainian Church, numerically the largest of the Eastern Churches in communion with the See of Peter.

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©2007 Dr Andrew Thomas Kania

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