Thousands of Roman Catholics Continue to Join Syriac Orthodox Church in Guatemala
Mor Titus & Mor Yacoub Edward
Ann Marai Husser (OCP Delegate of North & South America)
OCP News Service – 27/10/14
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Visit the Guatemalan Archdiocese website here:
Also visit the Mayan Eastern Orthodox Church here:
Guatemala City: Large numbers of Roman Catholics are joining the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch and All East in the country. It is estimated that, during the past few years, nearly two million Roman Catholics have left their church to be part of the ancient Orthodox Church of Antioch. The faithful are organized into the Patriarchal Vicariate of Guatemala. Archbishop Mor Yacoub Edward is the primate, who was ordained by the late lamented Patrairch Ignatius Zakka-I Iwas, on 6th March 2013 at the Monastery of St. Jacob Baradeus in Atshaneh – Bikfaya, Beirut, Lebanon.
Archbishop Mor Titus Yeldho – Primate of the Malankara Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of USA paid a visit to the Guatemala on 23rd October 2014 where he was given a warm welcome. Mor Titus met with Mor Yacoub Edward and visited several congregations.
Apart from Syriac Orthodox Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches also have large number of converts from Roman Catholicism. Orthodox is experiencing exceptional growth in most of the traditional Roman Catholic hubs in several Latin American Countries.
Source:
OCP News Service
If that would happened to the EO the Catholic would have bad name of “unites” anti real ecumenical behaviour, if to the Moscow Patriarchate … I can’t even think of! Look Ukraine Greek Catholics… May the Lord bless of all us, and bring all Humanity to Him!
What do we call this?? Payback proselytism?
The blatant Hypocrisy of the Eastern Orthodox/Oriental Churches – gloating over convert numbers, like small children given new toys – how Exciting for them!!!
However – in the final analysis, it does NOT matter, as at base level – an individualised Aceptance & Belief in Yeshua Ha’Maschiach is All that matters. Confessional allegiance is meaningless, denominational conflict is other than Gospel inspired, so therefore is in Opposition to the Divine Message “That they All be as One”.
As an Eastern Orthodox Christian it gives me great pleasure when seeing people come to Christ! Stop being haters and let Christ change your life!
God in Holy Trinity is my life, whatever I got it comes from Him! Pray with me, pray for me but not accuse me of hating our Lord Jesus Christ. Please brother in Christ do not judge others according to yourself; leave it to Him. I am Catholic of the Latin Rite, the accusations of hate written by you are deeply unjust. May the peace of our Lord be with you. Zenon
Sadly this whole group under Bishop Eduardo was going to go into the Western Rite of Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia before it was sabotaged by a convert priest.
Also sabotaged by your own decisions, subdeacon Anthony. You are not a real bishop. To dare to refer to yourself as one, being that you are divorced, is another cause of the failure of Western rite Orthodoxy to gain acceptance. Humility, not arrogance. You need to be submissive or fail to respect your cultural patrimony to be humble. Neither you nor Bishop Jerome was able to offer strong leadership in the WR which was able to compromise with the Byzantine rite customs enough to please the critics. Your skills in both vetting ex-ministers and being displomatic with suspicious byzantines were not up to par. Perhaps WR orthodoxy’s day will yet arrive… who knows…
Although I have no idea whom I am exchanging comments with, I regret to say that we avoid naming the individuals who have been backstabbing, but I would like “Desiderius” to try doing just about anything, with several groups of attackers hard at work undermining everything he tried to do. We also had difficulty getting any support from the larger Church administration, which left us “sitting ducks”. The Guatemala mission did not “fail”, it was suddenly sabotaged, despite my efforts. As for Fr. Anthony, he worked hard and with his efforts we were on the verge of what should have been a huge and historic breakthrough, not just in Guatemala — but also in this country, and several others.
I find it sad…Orthodox stealing Catholic adherents. And it makes me angry.
and there I was, thinking the Guatemalan Roman Catholics were mostly going Protestant. Live and learn!
What should make you angry is that the state of the Catholic Church is so bad that these people feel like they have to go there in the first place. They are looking for truth, beauty, and a moral compass, and the Church is so screwed up, from the highest levels to the lowest, that she refuses to give it to them. Consider the banal, poorly celebrated Masses filled with altar girls/women, crappy music that does not inspire to the transcendent, and liturgical abuses that are celebrated all over the world. Consider the way most clergy water down teachings on truth and morality. Consider that many countries like this have a faith that is a mile wide but only an inch deep as they were never catechized. Then, ask yourselves if that is not the very reason these people are so susceptible to being lost.