A Brief Talk on Eastern Rites

You may remember Msgr Conrad B. Dachuck (Byzantine priest), who was one of our guests at last year's parish dinner party. He is a priest associated with the Toronto Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Recently, several parishioners and I visited his parish, St. Catherine of Alexandra and Sinai, in Newmarket. We also participated in the Byzantine Rite Mass celebrated by him. Although we are accustomed to the Latin Rites, the participation in this Byzantine Rite Mass has ignited our longing to learn more about the multiculturalism within the Catholic Church. We have invited Msgr. Dachuck to preside over a Byzantine Rite Mass at our parish next year on January 3 (Saturday) at 8pm. All of you are welcome to attend.

As a sidetrack - those Churches of Eastern rites celebrate Christmas on January 7 because they follow the liturgical calendar as devised by Julius Caesar, the Roman Emperor.

On the other hand, the Roman Catholic Church follows the Latin liturgical calendar, which was endorsed by Pope Gregory the Great. In addition, many Eastern Churches (e.g. Byzantine Rite, the Coptic, the Romanian and the Russian etc), are not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church, and are regarded as Orthodox Churches.

In 1968, Pope Paul VI met with Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantine at St. Peter's Basilica. This meeting paved the way for the union of the two Churches.