Thirty-Third Sunday of the Year
15 November 2003
Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and forever!
Dear Friends in Christ,
Not all Catholic Christians are Roman Catholics or Latin Rite Catholics. There are many Byzantine Churches of the Christian East that are completely Catholic and yet pray in a form quite different from the patterns of Western Christianity. In the 5th century a Syrian monk named St. Maron gathered many monks and lay disciples into what became over time the Maronite Church. Maronite Christians, under the pastoral care of the Patriarch of Antioch, have been in full communion with the Bishop of Rome since the 12th century, and the Maronite Church is the one Eastern Church which does not have an Orthodox counterpart to its Catholic form. In the world today, there are about 1.5 million Maronite Catholics, and of those the vast majority are residents of Lebanon or the descendants of Lebanese immigrants to other countries.
In August, 2002, the Bishop of the Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn (the diocese for all Maronites in the eastern United States) established the Mission of St. Rafka in Spartanburg to provide the sacraments in the Maronite Rite to the Lebanese Americans who live in Upstate South Carolina, and after months of discussion between the Bishop of Charleston and the Maronite Bishop, it has been decided that the seat of St. Rafka will move to Greenville and the Maronite priest will reside at St. Mary’s and have faculties in both the Latin and Maronite Rites.
On the First Sunday of Advent, the new administrator of St. Rafka, Father Bartholomew Leon, will be installed during a Maronite Divine Liturgy celebrated at St. Mary’s at 1 pm. Father Bart will also have a simultaneous appointment as Parochial Vicar to the pastor of St. Mary’s, and he will begin immediately to assist me in the celebration of Mass and the other sacraments here. Also beginning that Sunday, the 1 pm Mass will be celebrated (in English) in the Maronite Rite for several months to see how we can share the same faith and sacraments in a rich variety of forms. Parishioners of any ethnic background are welcome at any Mass in the Latin or Maronite Rite, and during the weeks of this transition I ask for the patient and joyful cooperation of all.
Father Newman
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us.