Are There Any Rites That Are The Jewish Rite?

[Cecilianus]

The only rite in the Catholic Church that could be called Semitic is the Maronite Rite, simply because the Phoenicians were part of the Semitic enclave and the Maronites are their descendents. However, this ancestry is not along religious lines but along ethnic lines.

The statement by Pius XI was simply done to address the anti-semitism of the time. While we have Jewish roots in our religion and forms of worship we are not Jews at all. I think that it is a little bit biased to say that we are spiritually Semites as it would be saying that Jews are incomplete Christians. Both statements could be correct under the proper assumptions but used in general terms they can be quite misleading and probably insulting to quite a few people.

The Melkites and Syriacs are also Semitic. The Melkites will consider themselves a separate rite, some of them being very insistent that they are not Byzantine, though the difference is almost indiscernable to a Byzantine like me. They are usually Palestinian, Syrian, Lebanese, or Jordanian.

 

[Cecilianus]

Also, nota bene, while “spiritually we are all Semites” having been grafted onto the stock of Israel, Catholics who are ethnically of Jewish descent still consider themselves Jews. My Byzantine Catholic parish has dozens of parishioners who consider themselves Jews (most of them adult converts to Catholicism), and my fiancee is a Latin Catholic of Jewish heritage.

 

[malphono]

The Melkites and Syriacs are also Semitic.

And don’t forget the Chaldeans.

 

[Cecilianus]

And don’t forget the Chaldeans.

My apologies to them!

 

[Cecilianus]

Although by “Syriac” I meant both East and West Syriac, so they’re doubly included now!

 

[HolyRosario]

And don’t forget the Chaldeans.

Amen! What about syro-Malabar?

 

[malphono]

Amen! What about syro-Malabar?

Ethnically, no. They are Malayali, as are the Syro-Malankara.

 

[HolyRosario]

Ethnically, no. They are Malayali, as are the Syro-Malankara.

Oh I figured , I just mentioned them because I have done research on them and it says they are under the Chaldean rite? Forgive me if I’m wrong haha!

 

[Cecilianus]

Oh I figured , I just mentioned them because I have done research on them and it says they are under the Chaldean rite? Forgive me if I’m wrong haha!

Syro-Malabar use the East Syriac rite.

Syro-Malankar use the West Syriac rite.

Neither are ethnically Semitic, unlike the original users of the East Syriac (Chaldeans & Assyrians) and West Syriac (Jacobites, Melkites, Maronites, and Antiochenes) rites. (The Melkites have since become almost more or less Byzantine, and the Maronites have become more or less Roman )

 

[malphono]

(The Melkites have since become almost more or less Byzantine, and the Maronites have become more or less Roman )

Whether some prefer to say otherwise, the Melkites are Byzantine, all claims by certain parties of some sort of “Syro-Byzantine” hybrid (whatever that means) notwithstanding.

Unfortunately, due to the ongoing (and, in practical terms, never-ending) taint of Novus Ordo-inspired neo-latinization, I can’t argue about the Maronites.

 

[HolyRosario]

Syro-Malabar use the East Syriac rite.

Syro-Malankar use the West Syriac rite.

Neither are ethnically Semitic, unlike the original users of the East Syriac (Chaldeans & Assyrians) and West Syriac (Jacobites, Melkites, Maronites, and Antiochenes) rites. (The Melkites have since become almost more or less Byzantine, and the Maronites have become more or less Roman )

Wow? Haha seems like the Marontes and Melkites won’t be who they really are?