1. From the website of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church comes news of the consecration to the episcopacy of the bishop-designate for the Syro-Malankara Exarchate of USA, Rt. Rev. Msgr. Dr. Naickamparambil Thomas, who took the name Thomas Mor Eusebius. A picture gallery can be found here.
The all-lace alb (see above) of the new bishop is intriguing. I've noticed from numerous pictures that in the Chaldean, Syrian and Malankar Eastern Catholic Churches, the lace alb (sometimes more "lacy" than baroque-style Roman Catholic ones) continues to be in use.
Other interesting photogalleries can be found in the website, such as the photos for the 78th and 79th anniversaries of the reunion with Rome of the first Malankara Catholics. (In true Indian style, these events were extremely colorful.)
2. The Nazrani, a Syro-Malabar Catholic website dedicated to the revival of the Chaldeo-Malabar liturgical tradition (East Syrian in provenance, in contrast to the West Syrian provenance of the Syro-Malankara Church), is publishing a series on the "Divine Praises" (the Divine Office) according to their tradition. So far the following have appeared:
It is a painful story, noting the decay and mutilation of this Office in the centuries after that Church's reunion with Rome, and its apparent truncation in recent years. At the same time it (and the Nazrani site as a whole) bears witness to the strong desire among a number of the Syro-Malabars to reinvigorate their liturgical tradition, freeing it of undue Latinizations from the past while protecting it from further inroads of the influence of the Novus Ordo.
3. The Monasterio Catolico Bizantino de la Transfiguracion de Cristo, one of the handful of Catholic monasteries in the world where the monastics live according to the Russian tradition, now has its own Youtube channel with videos of parts of some ceremonies, and of sermons.
The Russian Greek Catholic tradition has been of particular interest to me, in that it seeks to live the glorious Russian Orthodox spiritual and liturgical tradition in communion with and fidelity to the Holy See. Founded by Blessed Exarch Leonid Feodorov and other heroic souls, encouraged by Pope St. Pius X, defended by the blood of a number of martyrs for Catholic unity, it enjoyed its greatest success in the 1920's and 1930's. Sadly, this tradition has been undergoing a steady decline since the 1970's, with many parishes and communities either closing or losing their ability to have regular liturgies. (The best directory for the communities outside of Russia can be found here; for Russia itself, a directory of the small Greek Catholic community can be found here.) The last Russian Greek Catholic bishop, Andrei Katkov MIC, died in 1996 and has never been replaced. (Essays that explore the history of this Church can be found here and here.)
4. The official website of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has a photogallery and a video from the recent episcopal consecration of Venedykt (Aleksiychuk), recently appointed as auxiliary bishop of Lv'iv.
5. Salvem a Liturgia has posted photographs of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic parish (Paroquia Sao Josafat) in Prudentopolis, Parana, Brazil. The church itself has been Ukrainian Greek Catholic from the very beginning. The blogosphere is awash with pictures of Greek Catholic parishes and liturgies in Europe and North America, but very few from Latin America, where the population of Eastern Catholics is not insignificant.
Some of the pictures:
While I'm at it, I would like to bring attention to this Melkite Catholic blog from Brazil: Sinaxe.
Some time back, Salvem a Liturgia also posted pictures of the Divine Liturgy in Brazil's sole Russian Greek Catholic parish. (See this and this.)
(H/t for nos. 1 and 4 to the ByzCath forum.)
