Eastern Catholic Liturgical Development and Ecclesial Identity in the United States

Date of Award

5-1-2025

Degree Name

M.A. in Theological Studies

Department

Department of Religious Studies

Advisor/Chair

Timothy Gabrielli

Abstract

This thesis examines the history of Eastern Catholics in the United States, primarily as encountered in and through their liturgical traditions, to offer ways in which deeper awareness of the many particular Catholic Churches adds nuance to Latin Catholic (Roman Catholic) discussions of liturgy, Catholic identity, and relationships among the Churches. To accomplish this goal, this thesis uses a historical-theological method that situates Eastern Catholics in their place in the larger story of U.S. Catholicism and analyzes the themes that unveil themselves in that history. This thesis begins with the period between the 1850s and the 1950s, portraying the ways in which U.S. Eastern Catholics negotiated the influences of Americanization and Latinization in the practice of their own liturgical traditions and in their relationships with the Latin majority of U.S. Catholicism. This period reveals ecclesiological conceptions of Latin superiority and of unity in uniformity that, together, often resulted in failure to recognize and treat Eastern Catholics as true Catholics. Next, a reading of three Vatican II documents — Sacrosanctum Concilium, Orientalium Ecclesiarum, and Unitatis Redintegratio — affirms the Eastern Catholic Churches as true Churches equal in dignity with the Latin Church, encourages them to return to the sources of their own traditions to meet the needs of their faithful today, and identifies them as having a particular ecumenical vocation to the Orthodox Churches. Returning to the U.S. context, this thesis examines progress in Eastern Catholic liturgical development and Latin-Eastern Catholic relations in light of the Second Vatican Council in the period from the 1960s to the 2010s. This period reveals that Eastern Catholics, by being who they are in and through their particular liturgy and theology, urge the Latin Catholic Church to consider itself, not as the universal form of Catholicism to which all Catholics must conform, but as a particular Church, shaped by its own historical and cultural influences, in the communion of the universal Church. The conclusion of this thesis takes the insights of unity in diversity, the local church, and inculturation and local theologies as found in U.S. Eastern Catholic history to uncover constructive resources that can be applied to Latin Catholic discussions about liturgy, ecclesiology, and ecclesial identity.

Keywords

American History, Religious History, Theology

Rights Statement

Copyright 2025, author.

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