At the nunciature [in Moscow] there was also a young [Orthodox] seminarian who had stopped studying in order to make some money. I would tell him quite often: “You must not become a Catholic. You have to keep your faith in order to better serve your Church. Now you know us you can dream about going to Rome. You can go to Rome one day in order to study but you should remain a Russian Orthodox.”
Thursday, 24 March 2011
You must not become a Catholic
Archbishop Mennini said:
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5 comments:
Suddenly I'm not so keen for my bishop to retire.
Well considering that the Orthodox Churches have "retained" their Byzantine heritage and traditions way better than most Greek Catholic Churches, it makes sense. Most Greek Catholic clergy refused to rid themselves completely of "latinizations", at the directive from Rome. Do they still say the Rosary at UGCC or Ruthenian Churches. Why do UGCC nuns in the West insist on wearing Western habits. And why are there Franciscan Byzantine priests in the Ruthenian Church. St Francis is a "Western" Saint. Not "Eastern". Well it makes sense!. If you want a pure form of Byzantine spirituality than stay Orthodox.
This seems rather incomplete. I'd have expected the interviewer to ask the Nuncio why he said what he did.
We are given one or two clues about the young man but nothing more. It may have been that his motive was not deemed 100% serious or that he was a young man still searching for his Church.
Not knowing the circumstances makes it difficult to see into the Nuncio's mind on this one.
Robert,
I think it's ridiculous to search for some "pure form of Byzantine spirituality" as if such a thing actually existed. There's always been a lot of mutual influence between the East and West.
If we wanted, we could remove the "Sum Tuum" antiphon from the Little Office on the grounds that it's not "authentically Latin" as it originated in the East. Or we could strip St. Mark's in Venice of its mosaics since they are Byzantine in style rather than a more Latin style. While we're at it, let's suppress all devotions to Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the West since the icon is undoubtedly Byzantine.
Well, it's song really Vatican 2. Swissboy
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