Outstanding commentary and I thank you.
"In some other instances, that communion with Rome has meant an almost complete abandonment of their ancient Faith and liturgical forms and the utter destruction of their phronema, even to the point of accepting the destruction of their books of Holy Tradition and devotions and the imposition of Western forms and the Latin language. Orthodoxy is horrified by this."
As are eastern Catholics. The turnaround started with Vatican II, and has had some success. But that's only a generation ago and change happens slowly and depends on the church. My own parish is headed by a very conservative priest and the latinizations are pretty much excluded. But it's a constant battle. Conservative Roman Catholics tend to migrate to the eastern churches in reaction to the heterodoxy seen in so many RCC parishes, but then those same people have a tendency to want to convert the eastern parishes into traditional RCC parishes.
The tragedies experienced by the Maronites are well known and have been discussed on FR repeatedly.
"Some Orthodox view some Eastern Rite Catholics as a sort of Fifth Column of the Papacy..."
I saw your revised comment. I've seen this belief expressed before. To me, it's laughable. If the eastern Catholics are a fifth column, then we've proven to be an inept one. Simply take a look at the history of the Byzantine Catholic church in the U.S. as an example. A schism in the early part of the 20th century provided the OCA with many of it's priests and parishes.
This is part of the reason why I find some of the more disdainful comments so puzzling. The Orthodox seem to view the eastern Catholics as "siphoning off" Orthodox into the Catholic church. I think that the opposite is probably more true in reality.
"Those comments clearly are not about us, and just as clearly, and loudly and forcefully about exactly what we Orthodox often see as deficiencies in Latin ecclesiology and praxis. What is quite clear, at least to me, is that it is not only the Orthodox Church which rejects Uniatism as a model for a reunion of the Churches, but also the Eastern Rite Catholics themselves!"
Yup. I think that most of the eastern Catholics have made it clear that were there Catholic communion with the Orthodox churches, the eastern Catholics would join the Orthodox.
Eastern Catholics are quite disturbed at what they see happening in the western church. As we are Catholic as well as eastern, it would be foolhardy to deny that we catch a cold when the western church contracts pneumonia.
"Now let me make a little "prediction". Unless the Latin Church hears, understands, accepts and institutes what the Eastern Rite hierarchs are saying, there will be a reunion alright, the Eastern Rite Catholics with Orthodoxy."
Your prediction is not too far off in my view, although I don't think it would play out that way so much in the U.S. churches. But you never know.
I shudder at the thought of a heterodox Papacy; someone in the Jadot or Mahony model. Or even someone who is a traditionalist, but who would try to reimpose latinizations on the eastern churches.
"I saw your revised comment. I've seen this belief expressed before. To me, it's laughable. If the eastern Catholics are a fifth column, then we've proven to be an inept one. Simply take a look at the history of the Byzantine Catholic church in the U.S. as an example. A schism in the early part of the 20th century provided the OCA with many of it's priests and parishes."
I think I phrased my comment inartfully. The observation is of a present belief, the origin of which lies in an historical reality virtually all of which lay in Eastern Europe. Your points about the experience of Eastern Rite Catholicism in the US are of course absolutlely on the money and the trend here is certainly towards, rather than away from Orthodoxy. There are similar things happening in the Middle East.
"But it's a constant battle. Conservative Roman Catholics tend to migrate to the eastern churches in reaction to the heterodoxy seen in so many RCC parishes, but then those same people have a tendency to want to convert the eastern parishes into traditional RCC parishes."
I've seen evidence of that here on FR. Many traditional Latin Rite types seem to think that their idea of Latin ecclesiology and discipline are preserved in Eastern Rite Churches so they show up with their Western/Latin phronema and, as you say, immediately try to change things. We've seen it in Orthodoxy from the same people. As you know, the inculcation of an Orthodox phronema takes years. I've also heard these stories directly from a Melkite friend and a Maronite one. The Maronite is a woman who married an Orthodox fellow in our parish. As is traditional in the old country, she simply came over to us, but in so doing she told be she was glad to leave her old parish because, as she put it, it was "overrun" with "angry, conservative Latin Rite types" who want to drive the Maronite Church back to a pre-Vatican II state of total subjegation to an imperial papacy.
I think that most of the eastern Catholics have made it clear that were there Catholic communion with the Orthodox churches, the eastern Catholics would join the Orthodox.
Most assuredly not true for the Maronites, who were never part of the Orthodox Churches and hold great allegiance to the Holy Father. In his remarks delivered at the National Apostolic Maronites NAM Convention in Orlando, Florida on July 18, 2004, Professor Walid Phares addressed His Beatitude and Excellency Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir on the identity of the Maronites.
"All World Maronite Congresses and seminars have openly and clealy stated that the historical identity of the Maronites, and the Maronite Church is Antiochian Syriac
.As related by main historians and experts, particularly past Maronite historians, including the Church's chronicles, the historic identity of the Maronite people is Aramaic, Syriac and Eastern. This identity, as a national community was born in Mount Lebanon as of the 7th century AD. It has since survived, florished and never abdicated. From ibn al Qalai, to Patriarch Estefan al Duaihi, Paul Noujaim, Fuad Afram al Bustani, and Father Butros Daw, the overwhelming majority of Maronites intellectuals and historians have underlined this reality.
The Maronites themselves used Syriac as a language, then transformed it into a cultural and spiritual language. Their spoken modern Language, the Lebanese, is a form of a Syriac in its structure.
Maronites, particularly the national community that lived in Mount Lebanon and its peripheries for 13 centuries, have maintained their historical identity despite attempts by regional powers, including Arab and Ottoman empires to impose an alien identity. The Maronites defended their culture and identity while many among them excelled in other languages and even participated in the renaissance of other nations languages such as Arabic.
The Maronite Diaspora of more than 8 million around the world declare clearly that it is attached to its historical identity, the Syriac Aramaic Eastern and Catholic identity. As ciitzens of many countries, Maronites around the world are organically linked with this identity."
The Patriarch, together with delegates from around the world, have just completed a Synod. The third and final session of the Maronite synod focused on approving the 24 texts studied and reviewed in the first session, held in October 2004, and the second session, held in June. The final texts will be declared official next June.
The three-phase Maronite synod represents the most exhaustive reflection and examination of issues and suggested reforms related to the Maronite Catholic Church. The last Maronite synod was held in Lebanon in 1818; among the recommendations at this meeting was that a Maronite synod be held every five years.