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Thomas Ross Valentine
Originally written whilst a Roman Catholic in response to requests from others, it has been updated a few times, and (God willing) will never be complete.
With this change of attitude, I became more thoroughly catholic. I’m sure that to many people, I
was thoroughly catholic. I became involved with apologetics, even teaching classes to others. I was
convinced that the Roman Catholic Church was the Church established by our Lord Jesus Christ. I felt comfortable
refuting any Protestant argument. However, I still didn’t feel completely comfortable in Roman Catholicism. My
Anglican background was still with me. I preferred religious art appropriate to the reserve of Anglicanism. In the
Roman Catholic environment I found a choice between ultra-Romanticism (e.g. paintings and statues depicting saints with
eyes outrageously rolled up towards heaven, and gory crucifixes) and a modern trend towards puritanical / iconoclastic
austerity. The one left me uncomfortable, the other unsatisfied. I loved hymnody — distinctly religious music
well-suited to active congregational participation; I found a choice between nightclub-like pop music and overly
sentimental schmaltz (e.g. On This Day, O Beautiful Mother
, To Jesus’ Heart All Burning
) which
reminded me of the type of bad Protestant music we had avoided in the Episcopal Church. The distinctively Roman Catholic
music I had come to love (in English translation) whilst an Anglican — plainsong chant — was virtually
neglected. When used, it was treated as suitable for choir only.
I had grown up with worship that was dignified, reverent, and beautiful, where active congregational
participation in the vernacular was the norm. Unfortunately, I did not find this available, but only a choice between
dignified, reverent, and beautiful, but in a foreign language with no real congregational participation (I don’t
count following along in a book or participating in a parallel
prayer such as recitation of the rosary); or
congregational participation (ranging from minimal to good, depending on the parish) in a casual summer camp
atmosphere that seemed undignified, irreverent, and unattractive.
An Episcopalian priest told Jeanne and me we had forever given up good liturgy when we left the Episcopal Church. We knew there was no reason why this had to be true, but knew in practise it was. We believed it was better to be Roman Catholic with poor liturgies and correct doctrine than Episcopalian with good liturgies and false doctrine, but the unsatisfying liturgies remained a source of frustration that hindered my spiritual growth.
I also found distasteful those devotions that tended towards sentimentalism (e.g. Sacred Heart devotions, Stations of the Cross). I knew these devotions were optional, but my lack of comfort with them contributed to the feeling of not fitting into Roman Catholicism. I was able to find some spiritual company through reading older authors (Newman and Chesterton, both of whom were English) and newer authors (Scott Hahn, Thomas Howard, Sheldon Vanauken, the latter two coming from Episcopalian backgrounds). These helped, but the lack of a healthy parish spiritual life became increasingly burdensome.
In my studies, I had become increasingly dissatisfied with the view that the principle Roman Catholic-Protestant
difference was the issue of authority. Protestants saw the main difference elsewhere (particularly in assurance of
salvation
) and there were other differences for which the difference of authority could not account. I gradually came
to recognise the fundamental difference between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism was in their different understanding of
the consequences of the Incarnation. I saw this manifested in the Protestant understanding of salvation, the Church, grace,
the sacraments, and its inherent anti-materialism. In every area where Roman Catholics and Protestants disagreed, this
difference was at the root of the disagreement. I concluded that a stronger emphasis on the Incarnation and its consequences
would help apologists demonstrate Protestantism’s inadequacy. The doctrine of the Incarnation thus became very important
to me.
Just as God had once used different experiences to prepare me for and lead me to catholicism, so He was now using my dissatisfaction with the Roman liturgy and my recognition of the importance of the Incarnation to prepare me for a new stage in my spiritual journey. A friend familiar with Eastern Catholicism suggested I check out a Byzantine Catholic parish. My perspective was still Western. I knew nothing of Eastern Christianity, but decided to take a look. I found a Romanian Catholic parish (Byzantine Rite) reasonably close to home. My first experience with the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom was wonderful. There is a story contained in the Russian Primary Chronicle explaining why Russians adopted Byzantine Christianity. According to the story, Prince Vladimir sent envoys across Europe to observe different religions so he might know which religion to choose. The envoys first encountered Muslims who seemed to be without joy. Then they visited German Catholics where they found joy, but no beauty. Finally, they travelled to Constantinople where they experienced the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom. They reported:
The Greeks led us to the edifices where they worship their God, and we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. For on earth there is no such splendour or such beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it. We only know that God dwells there among men.
This is what I experienced: a liturgy more beautiful, more dignified, more awesome, than what I had known as a High Church Episcopalian. I was immediately attracted.
The priest who administered the parish, Fr. George, was a Roman Rite priest with bi-ritual
faculties.
He had studied Eastern Christian theology, was enthusiastic about it, and eager to teach. He gave me an extensive list of
books to study. What a wonderful world I discovered! I learnt that Eastern Christian theology had a strong emphasis on the
Incarnation, insisted on beauty in the Divine Liturgy, and strongly insisted on adherence to Tradition. I learnt that
Eastern Christian theology emphasises the heart as the centre of the human person. I had often felt that Western theology
was too focused on intellectual principles and paid insufficient attention to the heart. It took me a long time to recognise
that it was through the heart that God speaks to us, that the heart was closer
to God. Eastern Christians had
continued to hold and teach this.
In addition, I found that Eastern Christian theology more clearly expresses respect for creation than is generally found in traditional Western theology. This fit with my belief that Christians should cooperate with nature instead of trying to control it — beliefs that were manifested in my respect for life, in my support for organic farming, and in being a whole-foods vegetarian.
These are just some of the reasons why I found Eastern Christian theology so attractive. In only a few weeks, I felt more comfortable with Byzantine Rite Roman Catholicism than I had felt in years of being a Latin Rite Roman Catholic. A few months after first attending the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, our petition to Rome was granted: Jeanne and I, with our (then) five children, became Byzantine Rite Catholics in the Romanian Catholic Church.
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