Parish diversity reflects the changing nature of U.S. society

posted on: Aug 29, 2015

At Our Lady of Redemption, a Melkite parish in the Detroit suburb of Warren, Michigan, active parishioners worry about the threat assimilation poses to their Eastern-rite heritage and their Arabic identity and traditions. More Melkites hail from Lebanon than elsewhere in the Middle East.

The drift away from their roots is already being felt, according to Lebanon-born Father Michael Cheble, pastor. “A lot of our parishioners, they don’t come, they go with Latin (rite churches), because it is closer. They put the kid in the (Roman Catholic) school, they get more and more inclined to go to the American church: ‘We already support the school,’” he said.

Source: catholicphilly.com