Who are we? 

    We are the Byzantine Church or Eastern Rite Catholics, and yes we really are Catholics, not Orthodox.

CATHOLICISM: DIFFERENT EXPRESSIONS OF ONE FAITH

    The Christian Church began in Jerusalem and within 300 years the Church had grown to include people from many nations on earth.  They were all members of the family of God, the Church.

    Every great nation in the Church expresses the "one faith" in different ways and with different customs.  For example, they may celebrate the Mass (Divine Liturgy) in different ways; they all meet Christ in the Seven Sacraments (Holy Mysteries) but they each receive them in different ways; feast days and time of fasting may be different, too.  Each local Church that has its own special customs and ways of experiencing the "one faith" we call a Rite of the Church.

    As missionaries traveled to different countries, they brought their rite with them and passed it on to the people they converted.  These new Christians treasured their rite and passed it on to their descendents. Whenever these people left their homelands to live in other countries, they brought their rites with them.

    Catholicism is not intrinsically connected with any particular rite.  It can be and is practiced in any rite, both Latin and Eastern.  All Catholics are full-fledged Catholics.  The essence of being a Catholic consists in these three conditions: one must profess the same faith taught by our Lord, accept the seven Sacraments and recognize the Pope of Rome as the visible head of Christ's Church on earth.

HOW THE CHURCH SPREAD

    In the apostles' journey to establish Christ's Church, they went out from Jerusalem to four important centers: Antioch, Alexandria, Rome and Constantinople.  From Rome the one faith spread to Western Europe and is therefore referred to as the Western Church, or the Roman or Latin Church.  From Antioch, Alexandria and Constantinople, the faith moved through the Middle East and into Eastern Europe. They are therefore referred to as the Eastern Churches.

    From the great Syrian city of Antioch came the following rites: Armenian, Chaldean, Melabarese, Malakarese, Maronite and Syrian.  The Chaldean Church originally came from Iraq; but Chaldean missionaries soon brought the faith to Persia (Iran) and India. They set up churches in China some 800 years before the time of St. Francis Xavier.

    From Alexandria in Egypt, missionaries brought the Gospel to Sudan and Ethiopia. The Churches  include: Coptic and Ethiopian.

    The Roman or Latin Church developed in the city of Rome. Missionaries of this rite traveled all through western Europe and converted the people of these countries to Christ. Most of the Catholic churches in America are this rite because most of the people who settled America came from these countries of Western Europe.

    The Byzantine Church began in Byzantium or Constantinople (modern day Istanbul, Turkey). Originally the Byzantine Church was used in Greece and Turkey, around the great capital of the Byzantine Empire. Because the divine services were offered in Greek, the church soon spread to the Greek-speaking colonies in Albania, Sicily, Southern Italy and then to northern Europe.  Churches include: Albanian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Georgian, Greek, Hungarian, Italo-Greek, Melkite, Romanian, Russian, Ruthenian, and Ukrainian.

    If you visit St. Stephen Byzantine Catholic Pro-Cathedral for Sunday Liturgy (Mass) you will notice:

1. there are icons rather than statues,
2. the altar traditionally faces the East,
3. there is an icon screen separating the sanctuary from the body of the church,
4. the priest and congregation face the East,
5. before entering the pew or passing in front of the tabernacle parishioners bow from the waist,
6. they cross themselves from right to left,
7. they do not kneel during Sunday Liturgy (because Sunday Liturgy is a celebration of Christ's resurrection and standing is considered a sign of respect),
8. they receive the Eucharist from the priest on a spoon under the species of both bread and wine,
9. no musical instruments  are used (you will hear vocal music).

You may fulfill your Sunday obligation by attending Liturgy in any Catholic Church. Western or Eastern.