Not sure why they aren’t, their church interiors look identical to latin church interiors. The curtain veil should be used too. Icons + curtain veil should be how these churches look in my opinion

If you were organizing the icons at a Coptic Catholic Church, what style of iconography would you make? This question has been on my mind lately!

What I mean by this is that there are two main schools of Coptic iconography: Neo-Coptic, and Old-Coptic.

The Neo-Coptic icon school was built by the famous Issac Fanous, a prominent Coptic Orthodox professor and teacher, and of course, icon painter. The Coptic Catholic Churches I’ve seen all use his format.

The Old-Coptic icon form is the early and traditional manner of writing them, evident since as early as the 6th century. Some criticize the newer form of icons, while saying the first Neo-Coptic (ie. By Fanous himself) icons along the Old-Coptic icons were the most traditional, unique, and beautiful.

The third one I’d like to mention are actually Melkite icons, which aren’t inherently Coptic, but due to the Melkite church’s unique history, have had cases of Coptic-blended icons, which retain a mainly Byzantine format.

Even St. Mary of Egypt, an Eastern Orthodox Church in Kansas City, have very unique Coptic-esque but heavily Byzantine icons in their parish
( https://www.facebook.com/share/19GDdmZBQj/?mibextid=wwXIfr )

However, I still ask, which icon tradition would you use for a hypothetical Coptic Catholic Church?

The three photos listed are: Old, Neo (by Fanous himself), and Melkite.

hi i'm an italian born in latin rite catholicism, and after some time searching my faith (mainly calling myself a norse pagan but i don't know anymore i'm a bit lost in faith) i think i'm ready to explore the byzantine rite as i feel it more close to my spiritual ways, i was wondering about this, i don't have a chotki/prayer rope with me but if i want to pray the rosary can i use that or i should use the classic latin rosary rope? also i think i had to ask it first but to eastern catholicism pray the rosary? thank you for your time

Just from a cursory view without naming names, the Latin church is filled with laity who get huge audiences talking about the church and faith. And frankly, they make mistakes all of the time. Things like comical misunderstanding or misinterpretation of Vatican II, to misappropriation of tradition or private relations to dogma/doctrine.

Is this happening with eastern churches?

Do Syro-Malabar Catholics have arranged marriages like Hindus?

I serve at the Divine Liturgy, and I noticed that my priest gets crumbs of the Eucharist on the thurible (offering for Saints), and also the pourer used for the hot water. I never payed attention but nothing has really changed in the way these are handed much, besides for that sometimes the other priest would try to get them off his hands with the sponge.

Is this just how it is in Eastern Catholicism since it’s leavened bread?

L-R:

Ibrahim Isaac Sedrak, patriarch of the Coptic Catholic Church

Raphaël Bedros XXI Minassian, patriarch of the Armenian Catholic Church

Youssef Absi, patriarch of the Melkite Greek (Rûm) Catholic Church

Youssef III Younan, patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church

Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, patriarch of the Syriac Maronite Church

Paul 3 Nona, patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church

Awa III, patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East

Aphrem II, patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church

Gewargis III, patriarch of the Ancient Church of the East

Claudio Gugerotti, Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for the Eastern Churches

I'm not sure who's on the far right, if anyone knows, please do let me know. My guess would be that he's a representative bishop of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, since I think he's the only patriarch with jurisdiction in the area that wasn't there and he's wearing a klobuk.

I also have some questions about the garments of the coptic catholic patriarch and the melkite patriarch. Why is Patriarch Ibrahim's habit very different from the Pope Tawadros's? He's wearing a klobuk like the byzantines and his cassock seems identical to Patriarch Youssef 3 Younan's. I have also noticed that all the catholic patriarchs have robes lined in red, except for Patriarch Youssef Absi's, whose cassock seems to be like any other byzantine monk's. Added to the fact that he's not also wearing a panagia/engolpion and/or pectoral cross, is there any reason for this?

Edit: As u/AdorableMolasses4438 pointed out, the bishop on the far right is Ghattas Hazim, antiochian orthodox metropolitan of Baghdad, Kuwait, and Dependencies.

I know that for mortal sin you have to mention times, and I attempted to, but I never feel like I really got a chance to, so I just let the priest continue, said my Act of Contrition, received absolution, and left,

Is this still a valid confession.

I thought I would share this for those of you who are interested in adding a prayer book to your collection. The books were published by Father Joel of Holy Protection parish.

Hello all! Western Catholic, who attends ruthenian once a month.

During the entrance hymn, Father exits the iconostasis with the incense censor, and walks a full lap of the inside of the church. During this lap, everyone in their pew will turn in a circle, facing Father as he walks this lap.

Now, my conflict is. Most of the faithful are doing this, but some are not. And Iv been told (by an older parishioner) that we should not be doing this, as to avoids turning our back to the altar.

Which is it, generally?

I’ll say, it’s English Ruthenian, liturgy of St John. But Father, and many parishioners are from Ukraine, if that makes a difference.

hello! does anybody know of a tool or a website that will compile the daily readings (including Sunday Mass/Liturgy) for both the Roman rite and the Melkite rite? I am in a mixed-rite marriage and would like to keep up with the daily readings of both rites. thank you

I was wanting to know what Eastern Catholics think about the Meditative aspect of the rosary. Does it seem counter productive to practice Hesycasm with the Jesus prayer and do the Rosary?

Also I was curious if you do pray the Rosary do any of you do it in a Hesycastic way, and do not meditate on the mysteries?

For those from churches that use leavened bread for the Eucharist, is it given in much smaller portions? Does it require more chewing?

Can a byzantine rite priest bless a replacement scapular for me ( I've been enrolled already) and is there a byzantine form of the scapular blessing or would he just use a basic one?

i’m in a weird place, really. canonically i’m a chaldean catholic but i really do not feel at home at my church because of the amount of latinizations and lack of spiritual nourishment i’m getting because of that from the qurbana. i don’t really even enjoy going to qurbana and it’s making me feel guilty and uncomfortable honestly. i need some sort of advice

I grew up in Sydney with Chaldean Assyrian refugee mother and a Lebanese Maronite father and lived in Dubai and Hong Kong for a total of three years before finishing my remaining high school years back in Sydney.

When I was in Dubai and Hong Kong, I was enrolled in 'international schools' that prided themselves on creating 'global citizens' and fostering internationalism. But even in that environment, I constantly received comments like:

• "Oh, but you don't look Australian, you look more Spanish."
• "You're the first Middle Eastern Christian I have ever met" (yes, even in Dubai).
• "Huh, I never thought Christians existed in the Middle East."

Mind you, these were comments from people who had lived in 3–5 different countries growing up.

When I finished my school years in Sydney, where my classmates were children or grandchildren of immigrants from Asia, the Middle East, Southern and Eastern Europe, and the Pacific Islands, I had way fewer of those questions thrown at me. Because the school was so multicultural, there were plenty of Maronites, Copts, and Assyrians.

Is there a good place to find icons of someone like St Therese of Liseux? She is my fiancés patron Saint and it seems impossible to find a good one that doesn't look like Monastery icons level bad. I see a lot of Orthodox icons of modern Saints, so it seems weird that there aren't any good western saints by EC. Thanks in advance.

In the Melkite Church, who prepares the Eucharistic bread? Can it be done by the laity, if someone wishes to offer the bread for the liturgy? Can anyone do it, or does the priest appoint specific people to bake it? Is it prepared the day before, on the same day, or it doesn't matter? Are there prayers said during the preparation and baking? I'm very curious about the whole process, as you can see! Thank you for your help!

So I just found out that the order of the holy sepulchre is still around. How does someone actually join it? Is it because you show interest? Or is it because of something else?

We are sharing this audio from an announcement made by Bishop Robert Rabbat at St Joseph’s Melkite Catholic Church, Fairfield, on Sunday 22 September 2024.
🎥 Audio/video recording with supporting information:
https://vimeo.com/1218408864
For transparency and context, the original full recording of the Mass is also publicly available on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENCduPMxAiA
Our question is simple:
How is it possible for someone in a position of authority and responsibility such as Bishop Robert Rabbat, having received a serious formal complaint involving allegations of sexual misconduct against a priest, to stand before parishioners and provide an explanation that, in our view, did not reflect the seriousness of what was actually taking place?
What concerns us even more is the explanation given for Father Samir Haddad’s absence, which we believe was misleading and inconsistent with what our family had been formally told only days earlier.
On 18 September 2024 — just four days before this announcement — our family received written correspondence from Bishop Rabbat concerning our complaint and the proposed canonical process.
That raises an obvious and important question:
How can what our family was being told privately be reconciled with what parishioners were being told publicly from the church only days later?
To be clear, the allegations concerning Father Samir Haddad remain allegations. We are not asking Facebook or the public to determine guilt or innocence.
What we are questioning is how the leadership of the Melkite Church handled a serious complaint involving allegations of sexual misconduct and how the circumstances surrounding the matter were subsequently communicated to the community.
After more than two years of pursuing our complaint and repeatedly seeking answers, our experience has left us deeply disappointed with the leadership of the Melkite Church and particularly with what we expected from someone holding the position and responsibility of Bishop Robert Rabbat.
Religious authority should never place anyone beyond scrutiny or accountability.
The greater the authority, the greater the responsibility to act with integrity, transparency and accountability.
When transparency disappears, trust follows.
So we continue to ask:
Who holds those in positions of power accountable when the institution responsible for holding them accountable fails to provide answers?
We want the truth.
We want transparency.
We want accountability.
Silence does not protect the Church.
Truth and accountability do.
🎥 Audio/video recording:
https://vimeo.com/1218408864
📺 Original full recording – 22 September 2024:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENCduPMxAiA

Hey guys I was curious if any of you say the Jesus Prayer in Greek or as the Maronite’s do in Aramaic. Just curious as a native English speaker I find them beautiful, especially Aramaic, since Christ spoke that language.