THE
P RTAL
August 2016
Page 6
Catholic does not
only mean Roman
Fr Mark Woodruff continues his exploration
of those Churches in Union with Rome
O
ur journey round the Eastern Catholic Churches shows that Catholic does not only mean Roman.
Not only are there different Latin rites, of which the Anglican-tradition liturgy of the Ordinariate is a
version, but there are two dozen Churches with eastern rites, which are not sub-sets of Roman Catholicism,
but historic Churches in their own right.
We recalled the 9th century missions from
Constantinople among the Slavic people to the north
in the Balkans and across the Black Sea to what is now
Ukraine. These were sanctioned by both the Byzantine
and the Roman churches, reminding us that Orthodox
and Roman Catholic never began as separate, and
being united belongs to their DNA. The Byzantine
Eastern Churches are witnesses, especially as Eastern
and Western Catholic Churches co-exist in many parts
of the world.
meaning a Byzantine Church at the heart of the state,
but the persistent reality of Latin Christianity too.
In the midst of this complexity, Methodius, now
archbishop in Greater Moravia, was backed by Rome.
In the fluid shape of states and shifting borders among
the Catholic powers and the Muslim Ottoman empire
for centuries afterwards, Latin Christianity came to
prevail in the region. But large groups of Byzantine
Christians persisted. Under Latin rulers and cut off
from their Orthodox Patriarch in Constantinople, their
The main thrust of the mission of the Byzantine consciousness of being both Eastern and nurtured by
scholar Cyril and his brother Methodius arose not in the Rome was their formula for survival.
distant east but hard by the Latin west. Greater Moravia
was a Slavic state covering modern Czech Lands,
North of the Carpathian mountains, living alongside
Slovakia, parts of Hungary (old Roman Pannonia), Latin Catholics in Poland, the Byzantines followed
the southern edges of Poland, south-western edges the Ukrainian Catholics into renewed unity with
Ukraine and western edges of Romania. Some of the Rome in 1691. Today they number 55,000 and serve
people were already Christians with historical ties to the current healing of memories between Poles and
the Latin West; but in 862, prince Rastislav turned to Ukrainian Catholics after centuries of repression and
Constantinople to evangelise the pagans and organise mutual suspicion. Across the north of Latin Croatia
his state Church on Byzantine lines.
and Orthodox Serbia, the Byzantine Catholic Church’s
40,000 trace their renewed unity with Rome to 1611,
Expelling Latin clergy belonging to the archbishopric following the expulsion of the Muslim Ottomans by
of Salzburg in modern Austria, and with his own the Catholic Hapsburgs. Another movement in 1646,
Slavic clergy, he could assert his independence from the Union of Uzghorod, saw the renewed unity with
Franks and Germans. Thanks to Cyril and Methodius Rome for the Rusyns or Ruthenians along the southern
translating the Bible and services into Old Slavonic, side of the Carpathians.
a court language, Ratislav could reduce dependency
on the Greeks too. With the huge region, the mission
Today they are in three groups, at last fully recognised
and which rite to use – Latin or Byzantine – disputed by Rome and organised as churches in their own right
between Rome and Constantinople, the brothers were in the 20th century. In north-eastern Hungary, the
invited to Rome.
half of the Hungarian Greek Catholic Church’s 26,000
have Ruthenian Slavic ancestry and others include
Approval for the Slavic mission was won from Pope the descendants of Protestants who chose to become
Adrian II, who ordained Methodius and five other Slav Greek rather than Latin Catholic. Second, the Slovak
priests. It appears they celebrated their first masses Byzantine Catholic Church numbers 210,000 faithful,
in Rome in their own language, but according to 4,000 of whom have a diocese in Canada. Third is the
Latin rites, a condition for approving the mission. In 570,000-strong Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church,
practice, a Slavic-language Church forbidden to use the with 319,000 Rusyn faithful in Transcarpathia, southByzantine rite was unviable; the rule was disregarded,
... continued at the foot of page 22 Ø