/christian/ - Christian Discussion and Fellowship

>>815763

Call them and simply ask if you can meet about conversion to the faith, they will take it from there.

What makes you want to convert?

What do you mean by "Orthodox Catholicism"?

>>815763

Sorry, but you're a heretic and a turncoat. You mock God by rejecting the Church that He Himself founded.

>>815769

The Eastern Orthodox Church is also known as the Orthodox Catholic Church. The only other thing I can think of is he means Eastern Catholicism, but if he was already Roman Catholic, he wouldn't need to convert to go to an Eastern Catholic parish.

>>815763

>How should I approach an Orthodox priest?

With full confidence that this is the right choice to make, and nothing less. The Orthodox have received a large number of LARPers in recent years, so don't be surprised if he questions your faith or brushes you off. I've read of several different anons on here having Orthodox priests ignore or dismiss them outright.

>I sorta have social anxiety and don't want to seem awkward

Well, you'll have to get used to that feeling in an Orthodox Church, where you'll generally be viewed as an outsider. Most will speak a different language than you, you'll have to do face-to-face Confessions with the priest rather than between a divider, they may have you publicly renounce your Roman Catholic beliefs in front of everyone, etc.. It would be an awkward conversion experience. I'm a recent convert to Roman Catholicism, and the priests and parishioners were incredibly welcoming towards me and overjoyed to have a young convert. I'm not sure what your reasons are for leaving the Church, but I do hope you'll reconsider. There's always Eastern Catholicism.

>>815763

Just become Eastern Catholic.

You get all the Pomp and Circumstance of the Eastern rite while still being in communion of Jesus's Church

>>815791

EC =/= EO.

>>815801

>t. Galaxy brained OrthoLARP that thinks his church's clergy is immune from sexual abusers.

>>815772

>>815804

>Surely if I insult and degrade the anon as a person, he'll come back to the RCC! Look at how great our RC logic is. :)

>>815806

>>815801

>>815804

Christian charity at an all-time high, buy now!

>>815763

BASED

If you are nervous, just have dialog with the priest through email at first to get the ball rolling.

>>815763

Congratulations anon, I'm on the same path myself. Was a cradle catholic but just became a catechumen after much research and attending orthodox services for a couple months. Don't worry about the awkwardness, we converts all go through it (my parish is made up mostly of converts), and priests are usually experienced enough to diffuse the tension and know what to do to guide you through everything smoothly, so long as you show an interest.

I only recommend not being too eager about it, to the point that you'd basically ask for a conversion on the spot. The preist has to use his discernment and get to know you first before he can adequately know whether you're ready to become a catechumen. While they love newcomers to the faith, the orthodox take conversion very seriously, and it's not something they hand out like candy. If they sense that you're still "soul searching"/"Church shopping", they will very likely tell you to wait a while until you're certain and your honeymoon phase with Orthodoxy is over. And if you're still around after that, they'll happily invite you to hop on board the ark. But the best way to reassure them that you're committed is to just consistently show up to services as much as you can, and engage with them learn more about the church and its practices. Because if all your conversations with the priest just revolve around you asking for conversion, it's gonna come off as you being misguided or having misplaced intentions.

Other than that, if you're a native English speaker, try to find a parish that does services in English (like the OCA in the US), because that'll likely signal the presence of a priest that's experienced with lots of converts. Not to mention that really understanding what's going on during the liturgy is pretty important to the catechumen process.

>>815795

also this tbh.

>>815769

>What do you mean by "Orthodox Catholicism"?

Officially the Eastern Orthodox Church is known as "Orthodox Catholic Church", while the Catholic Church is officially the "Roman Catholic Church". Catholic just means universal in Greek, and the Eastern Orthodox Church is universal since it contains all the national Orthodox Churches.

>>815790

>I've read of several different anons on here having Orthodox priests ignore or dismiss them outright.

How can this possibly be acceptable? Priests could be responsible for someone's damnation by intentionally making them feel like they're not welcome in Christ's church.

>>815772

based and redpilled but unironically

>>815816

Besides the nice drawing, that is a low effort meme. The early Christian church did not teach that everyone in the church was equal when it came to ecclesiastical affairs and the government of the church, so the comment that the Orthodox priest makes in the meme is a strawman. Secondly, the fathers did praise Rome and when Rome guarded Orthodoxy which, asides for a few exceptions (Honorius comes to mind) they mostly did, all other churches had to agree with Rome, because Rome taught the faith delivered from the apostles. Yet this duty was not solely Rome's prerogative, and often the lead defenders of Orthodoxy were Easterners. Such was the case at the Third Ecumenical Council where it was Cyril of Alexandria who played the part as guardian of the faith. Also, anyone who has read church letters and documents from the councils know the fathers use, in contradiction to our common language, exceedingly exalted language when speaking to each other. Therefore, Irenaeus saying that all church must agree with Rome because of its superior origin no more proves that Rome has universal jurisdiction or infallibility than the letter St. Avitus of Vienne writes to the Patriarch of Jerusalem proves that Jerusalem had the primacy, writing to him that, "Your Apostleship exercises a primacy granted by God, and seeks to show not by your privileges alone, but also by your merits that you hold pride of place in the Universal Church of God."

>>815763

Op I would just be yourself and be honest with the priest. I've never met an Orthodox priest who hasn't been welcoming, respectful, and intelligent. It's natural to be nervous, but don't worry, it will be be fine and you'll be glad you contacted him. :)

I really do think that a lot of people who were raised Catholic or even protestant, choose to become Orthodox because it's exotic and not western (boring). It's kind of sad, because western Latin Christianity has so much mystical depth and beauty, but people don't see it because they hate their own culture

>>815839

Or because Latins don't present their mystical side first and foremost where it can be seen.

>>815839

Lol people aren't converting to Orthodoxy because they hate Western culture, that's just silly.

>>815844

>Because these people are often clueless atheists or superficial "trad" Catholics before their conversion

>"This denomination isn't legitimate because the adherents were either non-Christian or of a different Christian sect before converting"

This is so dumb dude.

>>815823

Imma take a wild guess and say that was likely hyperbole. But priests do have to use their discernment to judge whether a person is really approaching the faith with a genuine heart and not as a result of misguided expectations. Otherwise, bringing someone into the fullness of the faith who's likely to just fall out again, is much worse. Damnation is effectively certain for anybody who is properly introduced to the faith, but then explicitly rejects its teachings. Which is why they can't just be carelessly put into a situation where they might accidentally do that prematurely. Uncertain damnation is better than certain damnation:

http://orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/status.aspx

>>815847

There's an inordinate amount of /pol/ LARPers drawn to paganism and catholocism as well. Surely you're not just conveniently ignoring all the tradcats E. Michael Jones and the like have brought in? Once people in the west realize that civilization is going to hell, they flock to what's most familiar to them, and often that's Catholicism, not Orthodoxy. Vid related is great example of how the /pol/ pipeline usually plays out in reality.

>>815850

From what I have seen, Catholicism is simply "cucked" in the eyes of most /pol/ types, because of Francis and Vatican II.

>they flock to what's most familiar to them

lolno.

>>815851

Imagine being part of the biggest church in the world and trying this hard to act contrarian

>>815851

>EMJ is a /pol/ darling that advocates for and pulls people towards Catholicism

<lolno

>provided with evidence of a high profile Catholic conversion exhibiting the same /pol/ line of thought

<lolno

>/pol/ LARPers that want to be edgy and different are predominantly Pagans

<lolno

>just ignoring reality to suit a particular narrative

<lolyes

welp, alrighty then.

>>815790

>things that never happened.jpg

Even if these extremists flock to Orthodoxy, that doesn't means that their views are accepted with them. Quite the contrary, in fact. Just because Orthodox Church is not quite as winnie the poohed as our Roman friends when it comes to modernism, liturgical abuse, clerical scandal one after the other, does not mean that our church is free from such vile invasions, nor that we are a Church of anti-refugee, anti-POC, anti multiculturalism, etc that welcomes such neo-nazi/pagan trash (their views, not them personally persay). Of course, I don't mean any of these terms the way Marxists do, who want weaponized immigration, forced miscegany, and an irrational and stupid love for contradictory, completely opposes cutures existing side by side.

>>815867

>From what I've seen they think he's a Jordan Peterson that just calls out Zionism.

I challenge you to find a single EMJ fan that believes that's an accurate characterization of him. Most of his followers don't seem to be particularly on board with JP, regardless of zionism. And either way, you have to be kidding if you don't think he's having a huge influence on the recent tradcat trend. His stuff is literally all over the place now, and it's always commented on by people who agree with him on supporting Catholicism. I don't think I've ever even seen a highly voted YT comment mentioning Orthodoxy on any of his videos.

>Okay? But, for example, they're racialists

I doubt the guy in the video you're responding to is a racialist, so I don't see how that's relevant. Much of /pol/ is concerned with race yes, but racialism is hardly the deciding factor that gets people to become religious, including many atheist /pol/acks. It usually takes something larger (like the impending collapse of civilization) to scare atheists enough into changing their ways.

Also, /pol/ is much more sympathetic to the whole crusader/"deus vult" mentality than they are to EO's relative weakness and pacifism. The closest thing to an Orthodox "Vatican" is currently under Islamic rule for crying out loud. How on earth would that be satisfying to edgelords paranoid about getting cucked?

>EMJ's position on race is always excoriated.

You're going to have to clarify what you mean by "his position" here. He's criticized just as often for being "racist" against Jews as he is for downplaying the whole "whiteness" thing. /pol/tards that prioritize race above everything else usually become LARPagans or stick to atheism, and those that don't care about it as much become Christian. From there, I don't see any hard evidence to suggest why those leaning towards Christianity would deviate from the general trend in the broader western population of overwhelmingly favoring Catholicism and Protestantism. EO is simply too obscure in the west to be having the kind of influence you're suggesting it has.

>Christianity is, simply, more believable and sane.

yeah to us, but this is /pol/ we're talking about. Can't view them as being simultaneously rational and irrational depending on what's most convenient for the point you're making.

>Francis is thoroughly hated (not that I like him… but I am Catholic), and there are many vocal Catholics that are neolibs, and working for the neolib agenda, drawing the ire of /pol/.

You're forgetting how popular sects like sedevacantism and the SSPX are online. The biggest Orthodox e-celeb meme is arguably Jay Dyer, and even he only has half the subscribers that vaticancatholic.com has. Sedevacantism is practically /pol/ manifested in Christian sect form, so I have no idea how you don't think that would be the most attractive Christian option for them. I doubt most /pol/acks actually become sedes mind you, because again, it's still super obscure.

>Yet we never hear about Bartholomew, or even the liberal clergy within the OCA.

People complain about the EP in orthodox circles all the time. What you're showcasing here is just proving my point that Orthodoxy in the west in general is still incredibly obscure. The OCA is also super tiny and poor, to the point that it isn't even recognized as being independent by other EO churches. If you're expecting an obscure jurisdiction within an obscure denomination to get a ton of attention, you should probably re-evaluate things a bit. The OCA also isn't nearly as scandalous as some of the stuff other jurisdictions are doing, but that's a whole other unnecessary detour.

>>815841

And you sound like you're just LARPing as a Latin because "MUH WESTERN CULTURE". Seriously though, I am Orthodox because the Roman Catholic Church is filled with heresy and degeneracy.

>>815859

Granted, the last post I saw of someone complaining about an ordodogs priest being rude/dismissive was a few months ago. I should have taken screencaps.

>>815851

Exactly. Maybe cradle Catholics don't realize this, but I (and many others) have never considered or even thought about Catholicism until anons on here got me to research and consider it. I've had little interaction with Catholics prior to attending my first Mass, and I live in a state with a 20% Catholic population. The only churches that existed to me were Protestant ones, and the only times I heard about Catholicism were regarding the sexual abuse crisis. If /pol/ is going to flock to any particular denomination, it's going to be what's REALLY familiar to them, such as the denom they were raised or a more conservative variant of it (IFB, LCMS, etc.).

>>815874

>>815867

Both of you are LARPing HARD in two different directions.

It's definitely Summer.

>>815772

Quit being a dick and an idiot.

>>815791

Not really the best motivation tbh

>>815840

We do, nobody looks. Lukewarm Catholics exist for the same reason Orthos are low af in america and the world in general: people don't care enough to try.

>>815905

>Maybe cradle Catholics don't realize this, but I (and many others) have never considered or even thought about Catholicism until anons on here got me to research and consider it. I've had little interaction with Catholics prior to attending my first Mass, and I live in a state with a 20% Catholic population. The only churches that existed to me were Protestant ones, and the only times I heard about Catholicism were regarding the sexual abuse crisis. If /pol/ is going to flock to any particular denomination, it's going to be what's REALLY familiar to them, such as the denom they were raised or a more conservative variant of it (IFB, LCMS, etc.).

I was raised Catholic but almost became protestant until the way people talked about the Solas rubbed me the wrong way, even as someone who knew jack about Christianity. Prior to that, I sort of just went to PSR and Mass because I had to, and didn't really care. Then I became a Marxist Athiest in early Highschool, an Alt-Righter in Late Highschool and early college, and finally a Devout Catholic. bit of a rollercoaster to say the least.

I was initially evangelized by Presbyterians and Methodists though. I had contemplated both Catholicism and Orthodoxy, but found myself more drawn to Catholicism in the end. The Orthodox just seemed closed off to a negative degree, and their views on the Church fathers were bizarre to me, having read St. Augustine's works.

The /pol/ crap about blood and soil was a major influence as well in all honesty, but that's a position I could also have held of any denom as a mix of Eastern European and German descent.

>>815867

>90% of Western/Latin American Catholics today are not Catholic in entirety. Fallen away Catholics still identify as so. It's a sad state of affairs.

It's their own fault speaking from experience, not the fault of the church. Being a Catholic takes effort, effort most people aren't willing to put in. even when the church is accommodating. They identify as it because they have some vague emotional attachment to it, but it's their lie not the Church's. Constant insistence that hyper conservatism is the only way to restore the church misses the core of the issue. The church has made itself as accessible too the laity as possible. The only other conclusion is that it's the Laity's fault for falling away. Those who have true devotion will do the work, those who don't will fall away. The only issue is that they still identify as catholic in polls.

>Disagree.

Have you been on /pol/ recently? It's an Atheist/Pagan shitshow atm, and has been for years.

>I think you have to be disingenuous to say that Eastern Orthodoxy isn't the denomination of Christianity which is the darling of /pol/. Francis is thoroughly hated (not that I like him… but I am Catholic), and there are many vocal Catholics that are neolibs, and working for the neolib agenda, drawing the ire of /pol/. Yet we never hear about Bartholomew, or even the liberal clergy within the OCA.

Constant concern over internal politics in the church as a member of the laity misses the point of faith an obedience. The leadership of the church doesn't change the entirety of the church. We are no a hive mind. And at the same time I would say that regardless of alignment the reality is that most church leaders act with what they feel is in the church's best interest. I know that's a much more bitter pill to swallow than conspiratorial nonsense, but if you understand human nature it's the most likely case.

I work with Benedictines, and we live our lives detached from church politics because all such concerns do is get in the way of our faith. We follow church doctrine and leadership, but we are devoted to Christ above all.

>>815874

>The closest thing to an Orthodox "Vatican" is currently under Islamic rule for crying out loud.

(◔_◔)

>>815923

>Quit being a dick and an idiot.

They said the same thing about Jesus Christ. The Truth hurts and the Truth is that there is only One and Holy Church the God Himself established.

>>815998

The truth doesn't have to be conveyed confrontationally though. You do more harm than good that way. You are the fruit of the church, try not to be so rotten towards others.

'A'