“...therefore I assumed he was a Byzantine Catholic, not a Latin Catholic.”
I could be wrong, but I am quite sure the Catholic Church in Romania is part of the Church of Rome; so is the one in Bulgaria for that matter.
Dear Kolokotronis,
From what I can gather, the Catholic Church in Romania is called “Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic.”
From Wiki:
“The Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic (Romanian: Biserica Româna Unita cu Roma, Greco-Catolicais) an Eastern Rite or Greek-Catholic Church ranked as a Major Archiepiscopal Church, which uses the Byzantine liturgical rite in the Romanian language.”
sitetest
Bishop Alexandru Mesian belongs to the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church, a sui legis Byzantine rite church, i.e. a Catholic church united with Rome but not a part of the Church of Rome.
You seem not to understand the Ecclesiology, but I don’t under stand the use of the word Deacon to refer to Deaconessessess in the Greek Orthodox Church.
The Latin Church is the Church that uses the Latin Rite, the Byzantine Churches in Communion with Rome are those that use the Byzantine rite, the Maronite Church is the Church in Communion with Rome that uses the Maronite Church etc.
To use an overly simplistic and secular comparison, to call a Byzantine Rite Catholic Church Latin is like calling a Cadillac and Lincoln, both fine cars, but entirely different.
They don’t see themselves as Latin Bishops, and the Latin Bishop of Rome does not see them as Latin Bishops.
It is therefore out of courtesy that they should be addressed thus.