There is a good article on the Eastern Catholic churches in Crisis Magazine this month. I learned that John Paul II's mother was Eastern Catholic, which was an exciting fact for me. No wonder he had such an interest in the Eastern Churches.
There is a good article on the Eastern Catholic churches in Crisis Magazine this month. I learned that John Paul II's mother was Eastern Catholic, which was an exciting fact for me. No wonder he had such an interest in the Eastern Churches.
For more information on the Italo-Albanian and the Italo-Greek Catholic Byzantine Churches in Sicily and other parts of southern Italy, see "Italy's Byzantine Catholics" at http://www.byzantines.net/OurLadyofGrace/article.htm
reprinted from volume 21, number 6, issue of "Catholic Near East," the magazine of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA).
The historical explanations about the various Eastern churches is interesting and helpful, but I'm not sure the article's use of present-day terminology is all that reliable.
The author's glossary calls "Greek Catholic" an "outdated term", but that's a matter of opinion. Some of the Eastern Churches use that expression in their official names: the "Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church", "Melkite Greek-Catholic Church", etc.
He's also not clear about identifying the Ruthenian Church: in Europe, there are four eparchies, each directly subject to the Holy See; in the US, the Ruthenian Metropolitanate uses the name "Byzantine Catholic Church". And to muddle things, the by-line at the end of the article says the author belongs to the "Carpatho-Rusyn" Church, without indicating that this refers to the same Ruthenian-Byzantine Church.
But I shouldn't nitpick too much: it's an informative piece.