We weren't always Byzantine Catholic, part 1

Today, I'm introducing my new Thursday series, which is not-yet named. I had thought about Theology Thursday, but I'm not a theological scholar and my posts will be more than that. On Thursdays, I'll be talking about faith, religion, my experiences with both, stories involving them, etc. Anything that can fall under this topic will be discussed. So here we go...

For a long time I've been hinting, both here and on other blogs (mainly Priest Wife's) that we weren't always Byzantine Catholic. I kept saying "I've gotta tell the story!" but haven't taken the time to write it all down. Some of you who have paid close attention might be thinking you've heard me mention things about C being raised Byz Cath or attending his church.

Aha. Just because one attends a church doesn't make them a member of that religion.

I'm going to tell the story as I lived it, instead of at the beginning, just because it makes more sense to me and I wasn't alive at what would be considered the beginning. Neither was C.

When I met C, I found out he was Byz Cath, and quickly got educated in what that was. I met his priest while C was in the hospital, and he looked just like any priest that I'd known growing up and in college. After C's recovery, we attended some divine liturgies at his family church. Very different. I didn't like it. It was "weird" and not what I had grown up with.

Then we got engaged. Where to have the wedding? I, of course, wanted it at my family church, where I'd received all of my sacraments up to that point. C wanted it at his church. I argued that it was always at the bride's church. C felt that we'd probably have to raise our kids Roman,* so why not at least get married at his church. While I really liked C's priest (he was young and friendly, and reminded me a lot of the priests I had gotten to know in college) and would have wanted him marry us,** I wasn't so sure about getting married in a "weird" church, not to mention most of the people attending would be Roman and familiar with my church. C thought what better way to teach more people about the Byzantine rite than a wedding, when people WANT to attend? On the other hand, my attendance at my family church had been sporadic (see, I'm FAR from perfect) and we had a new pastor, who I hadn't met. I had my aunt ask her good friend (a Roman priest) if C and I could get married in the Roman church, or if we'd need any paperwork. He said there would be no issue.

We decided to go talk to each priest and see what they had to say about the issue of where to get married. We started with Fr. G, C's priest...which is where we found out something very interesting about C and his family.

To be continued next Thursday!


*We weren't sure where we'd live or have a family, but we probably knew we wouldn't be near any Byz Cath churches, hence the assumption.
**I know, in all Catholic wedding ceremonies, the priests don't marry the couple. The couple marries each other.