Regardless of who was brought in, the forum has hit the bottom and landed on spikes.
There is no way anyone can man a defence for Orthodox over there now. I guess the war is officially over, especially when they start threads attacking Eastern Orthodox and there isn't any substance to a single post in those threads and I simply can't say anything, I'm going toe-to-toe with the two or three main opinion groups that make up the posts on the forum anymore. I know the responses and I would be lead into citing, referencing and making elaborate replies to the post and they'd just repeat themselves and not argue with any academic style.
Example:
P:Eastern Orthodox are all ________ ________ because on this date _____ this happened and in _______
the great Pope ________ made this comment. Therefore they are out of the church and there is no salvation or grace.. blah blah blah
Response: Enough information to get your master's thesis in front of the judges
P: there is no salvation outside of the church and therefore the Eastern Orthodox have ________ and are _______ because the Pope is ___________ and therefore I'm right and everyone else is wrong
There is no point in wasting time if it isn't going to be read or disputed with a real post!!!!! That is the point of discussion.
If that forum wants to look and support attitudes that run contrary to the position of the Roman Catholic Church, then so be it. I know there are plenty of knowledge laden Eastern Catholics that read all of these boards that could add much over there. Because not only are the Orthodox ridiculed the Eastern Catholics are as well.
It is a shame when the forum was to revert back to an informational spot for Catholics to learn about the Eastern Rites, which is one thing... but when it turns into a place for attacks by Catholics against Catholics... that's just a whole other box of cigars.
And while I am ranting, I have seen the latin-refugee attitude that the Eastern churches are just good enough to escape the mass in the Roman churches, they aren't mindful of the very deep and cultural histories of the churches they use as a feel good place and they aren't respectful enough to learn the different methods of worship or anything about the community. They just demonstrate that it is just another offering on the buffet table of Catholicism they get to choose from whenever one Rite of Worship style tires them. This is not what the Eastern Churches are made for, I can assure you that.
They are communities that were formed by and most likely still consist of families who have strong and old country ties to the very existence of the particular sui juris church in the first place. These members are are Greek Catholic/Byzantine Catholic not only by their personal convictions but also by actual historical events that happened to their ancestors. When people go in and use their churches as feel good places it is a mockery of not only the church members beliefs but also their shared heritage. While there is nothing wrong about attending a Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church* as a Latin Catholic one should be mindful of the history of the people and why they have a UGCC and also perhaps more important, or another part of the equation, they should be willing to learn and understand the worship practices of the Byzantine Rite.
Anyway, I'm done ranting.
*I chose the UGCC for this example but you could insert any of the Eastern Catholic Churches.
Everyone one of them has a history to their existence. For example, besides the historical happenings in the mid to late 1600's the UGCC exists as it does today because the persecution during the Soviet rule created a strong faith among the Ukrainian Catholics and after communism fell the UGCC came out of the catacombs with their faith having been made stronger by the trials they faced. I don't care what a person's argument for or against the Eastern Catholic churches are, you simply can not help but admiring the faith and love for the church despite such persecution. Things to remember, everyone has a story, sometimes the story should be very respected even though you may have different beliefs.
