Your Excellency:

The Eastern Catholic Pastoral Association of Southern California (ECPA) is an organization made up of Eastern Catholic clergy active in ministry in this region, together with liaison representatives from a number of Latin Catholic dioceses. One of the main goals of the ECPA is to work in collaboration with all local Catholic Churches in Southern California in furtherance of the pastoral needs of our Eastern Catholic faithful, including those with limited access to a parish or mission of their particular church.

The ECPA has asked me to write this letter to bring to the attention of local Catholic hierarchs certain matters of concern that continue to affect Eastern Catholics as they negotiate the tension of living as members of a religious minority within the larger ecclesial world around them. These issues relate to the pastoral care of children and young adults and, therefore, are of great importance to our people as they touch on the future viability of our communities.

I must first emphasize that generally speaking we are incredibly blessed in Southern California by the care and deference for Eastern Catholics among the hierarchy, clergy and laity of our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters. What follows is offered within the context of that deep love and concern that I know characterizes our relationship. Usually the problems I mention arise from simple misunderstandings, pressures of time and other limited resources, and not from any malice or prejudice.

The four issues I would like to bring to your attention are:

1. the importance of schools and parishes checking sacramental records to identify Eastern Catholic children;
2. bestowing the sacrament of Confirmation on Eastern Catholics who have already received it at Baptism;
3. refusing Holy Communion to Eastern Catholic children who have been fully initiated into the Church; and
4. requiring Eastern Catholic families to support Roman Catholic parishes as a condition for their children to attend local Catholic schools.

Records

ECPA clergy find quite often that children who are canonically enrolled in one of the Eastern Catholic sui iuris churches are not identified as such in the context of catechetical or sacramental formation. While it is not always easy to make this determination, especially when one or both parents are themselves unsure of their ecclesial status, we find that the misunderstanding arises simply from failing to look closely at the child’s baptismal certificate.

We would be most grateful if you could remind all staff who deal with the catechetical training and sacramental formation of children to ensure that do everything possible to ensure that they determine the canonical status of everyone for whom they have pastoral care.

Confirmation

I regret to say that from time to time ECPA members come across instances of Eastern Catholic children who, having received the Mystery of Holy Chrismation as infants, are nonetheless enrolled in Confirmation classes in Roman Catholic parishes. Sometimes it even happens that children actually receive what purports to be the administration of that sacrament a second time.

We would be grateful if you could remind all those involved in this area of the following principles, as enunciated by the Committee on the Relationship between Eastern and Latin Catholic Churches of the USCCB in their document Eastern Catholics in the United States of America (1999):

       As many Eastern Catholic children attend Catholic schools under the control of the Latin Church, it often happens that they are involved in sacramental preparation programs. It is at these times that the question of Chrismation arises. As the Sacrament of Chrismation cannot be repeated, any attempt to do so is strictly prohibited.

      If, at the time of confirmation for the class or group of children in the sacramental program, it is found that a child belonging to an Eastern Church has not yet received the holy mystery of Chrismation, the child must then be chrismated in his or her proper autonomous ritual Church.

Communion of Infants

Not infrequently Eastern Catholic families attend Eucharistic services in the Latin Rite. This is particularly the case in a region like Southern California, where distances and travel times often make it difficult for these families to attend their own Church. We are blessed to be able to manifest our inter-Communion in this way.

A problem arises when children in these families, under the usual age at which Roman Catholic children receive their first Communion but who have themselves received the three sacraments of Christian initiation as infants, approach to receive the sacred Eucharist and are refused it.

On one hand, we appreciate the difficulty that pastors often face in these circumstances. On the other, we feel we must stand up for the pastoral and theological principle at stake. To refuse Holy Communion to a fully initiated Catholic solely on the basis of age betrays a lack of understanding of the nature of Christian initiation. It implies, contrary to the principles enunciated by the second Vatican Council and by many popes, that the practice of the Latin Church is normative, with oriental practices permitted as “exceptions” to the rule.

We would like to suggest that rather than seeing these cases as problematic, we embrace their potential for helping to teach ordinary Catholics about the existence of other Churches within the Catholic Communion. Not only would this help Eastern Catholics, but it would be of inestimable value to practical ecumenism with the Orthodox. It is essential that as many Catholics as possible understand that there exists within the Catholic Church a legitimate diversity of practice which is absolutely essential to the genuine catholicity of the Church.

As an association we would be happy to work together with diocesan staff to prepare resources to assist pastors in these circumstances.

Catholic Schools

Sometimes it happens that Eastern Catholics who want to give their children the benefit of a Catholic education find themselves caught financially, being asked to contribute money not only to their own parish, but also to the parish to which their child’s school belongs. We understand how difficult the current economy is for the parochial school system, and we would hope that as pastors we can work collaboratively with our Roman Catholic colleagues to find solutions on a case by case basis. But we must insist that one solution is unacceptable, namely that parents be encouraged either openly or by implication to attend a Roman parish in preference to their own.

I commend these matters to the consideration of your Excellency, and would be pleased to work with you and your arch/diocesan pastoral staff to work positively to building up our mutual communion in the Lord in this region.

Sincerely,

Rev. Hieromonk Maximos (Davies)

President,

Eastern Catholic Pastoral Association of Southern California