- This topic has 1 reply, 7 voices, and was last updated 18 years, 3 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
One Evangelical Protestant apologist once claimed that the Catholic Church isn’t really catholic. “After all,” he argued, “if it’s ‘Roman,’ it cannot be catholic,and if it’s ‘catholic,’ it cannot be Roman.” The fact is,the moniker “Roman Catholic” is actually a term imposed on Catholics from the outside. stemming mainly from Anglican efforts in past centuries to portray themselves as also truly Catholics, their claim being there are three “branches” of the Catholic Church: the Orthodox,”Roman” Catholic, and Anglican. But this argument is not true and it clashes completely with how the early Christians understood their use of the word “Catholic.”
Roman Catholic specifically refers to Catholics of the Latin Rite (the largest).
There are Byzantine Catholics, Melkite Catholics, etc. Overall there are 23 rites. The Latin Rite is the Western Church and the other 22 are Eastern Rites.
http://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/cath … urches.htm gives a good explanation.
The Universal, Catholic Church is one, unified body, but the faith developed slightly different in each rite. Most of the differences are liturgical logistics, but there are others as well.
How do you guys as Roman Catholics feel towards the other rites? Are they in error?
[quote:2tz1clco]How do you guys as Roman Catholics feel towards the other rites? Are they in error?[/quote:2tz1clco]
No, not at all. It basically that it developed in a slightly different culture but the truths are still the same.Essentially the different rites are like the different churches talked about in the Bible – i.e. the church at Corinth, the church at Jerusalem, the church at Phillippi, the church at Rome, etc.
Gesundheit, the other rites are all 100% fully Catholic in communion with the Pope at Rome. The only difference between Catholics of different rites are their traditional practices (such as the order of Holy Mass or how they make the sign of the cross), not their beliefs.
I think they are wonderful. Our Eastern brothers have a different history and, thus, a different focus than those of us in the Latin Rite. For example, as a generalization, we focus on the crucifixion while they focus on the Incarnation.
I noticed a thread from earlier in which I mentioned to Victor that in the East they hold that Jesus would have been incarnate even if Adam never sinned, because the Incarnation brought man and God closer than even the condition of an unfallen Adam. When you contemplate the Incarnation as a facet of God’s original plan, rather than an element necessitated by the fall of mankind, it opens a whole new dimension of significance.
No longer are you focused only on the Incarnation as a necessity for Christ’s atoning sacrifice, but as God’s plan to bring mankind even closer to Him than at our creation.
“God became man so that man might become God.”
[quote:l25fm4w8]Gesundheit, the other rites are all 100% fully Catholic in communion with the Pope at Rome. The only difference between Catholics of different rites are their traditional practices (such as the order of Holy Mass or how they make the sign of the cross), not their beliefs.
I think they are wonderful. Our Eastern brothers have a different history and, thus, a different focus than those of us in the Latin Rite. For example, as a generalization, we focus on the crucifixion while they focus on the Incarnation.
I noticed a thread from earlier in which I mentioned to Victor that in the East they hold that Jesus would have been incarnate even if Adam never sinned, because the Incarnation brought man and God closer than even the condition of an unfallen Adam. When you contemplate the Incarnation as a facet of God’s original plan, rather than an element necessitated by the fall of mankind, it opens a whole new dimension of significance.
No longer are you focused only on the Incarnation as a necessity for Christ’s atoning sacrifice, but as God’s plan to bring mankind even closer to Him than at our creation.
“God became man so that man might become God.”[/quote:l25fm4w8]
[color=darkblue:l25fm4w8]Little do you know how much that has helped me…
” title=”Smile” />
Thanks Benedict…’
It helped develop my understanding in more then one area…[/color:l25fm4w8]
That explaination helped me a lot as well. Thank you so much Benedict.
For anyone who is interested, on Wednesday June 21, His Emminence the Bishop Richard Seminack, of St. Nicolas of Chicago, will be on Catholic Answers Live[/url:3rdhna0c] program Know Your Rites.
He will be speaking about the Ukrainian Rite of the Catholic Church. You can listen to the show live on the web or download it later.
(And as an off-topic note, on Monday June 26, two of my favorite Scriptural apologists, John Martignoni and Dave Armstrong, will be on Catholic Answers Live. John will be doing Scriptural Apologetics and Dave will be doing Scriptural Evidence for the Communion of Saints.)
[quote:382uzjos]For anyone who is interested, on Wednesday June 21, His Emminence the Bishop Richard Seminack, of St. Nicolas of Chicago, will be on Catholic Answers Live[/url:382uzjos] program Know Your Rites.
He will be speaking about the Ukrainian Rite of the Catholic Church. You can listen to the show live on the web or download it later.
(And as an off-topic note, on Monday June 26, two of my favorite Scriptural apologists, John Martignoni and Dave Armstrong, will be on Catholic Answers Live. John will be doing Scriptural Apologetics and Dave will be doing Scriptural Evidence for the Communion of Saints.)[/quote:382uzjos]
[color=darkblue:382uzjos]Awesome…..thanks for letting us know. John Martignoni have a website that you know of Benedict?[/color:382uzjos]
Yes.
[url:2zhzcdzf]http://www.BibleChristianSociety.com[/url:2zhzcdzf]
You can get all his tapes for free (as I have done thrice; once cassette, once CD, and just now MP3). He also has a (sporadic) newsletter.
John Martignoni is my favorite Catholic apologetics speaker. I’ve been to the website and purchased the CD’s as well. I also have his mp3 downloads on my ipod shuffle so I listen to him while driving too.
wow, it sounds like he’s your baptist Billy Graham! just kidding…
Peace be with all!
[quote:xx9o98ip]John Martignoni is my favorite Catholic apologetics speaker. I’ve been to the website and purchased the CD’s as well. I also have his mp3 downloads on my ipod shuffle so I listen to him while driving too.[/quote:xx9o98ip]
He is one of the best! I have had many email conversations with him in the past. He and his website have been a great source of help to me. I encourage all of you to go to his website[/url:xx9o98ip] and order, for free, his CD’s. They will [b:xx9o98ip]WOW[/b:xx9o98ip] you and put you on fire to explain the Faith!
” title=”Smile” />- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.