Confused about the various Catholic rites

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I’m confused about the Latin Rite and Eastern Rites, and their respective relationships to the Holy Father. Can anyone point me in the direction of a sort of introduction to the concept of rites and the Eastern Rite in particular?

I understand that the various rites are different expressions of the same Holy Mass, and that we are all united perfectly through the Eucharist. And I understand that differentiation in the rites allows us to accomodate different cultures.

How much authority does the Holy Father exert over the Eastern Rites, though? Do encyclicals apply to them? Did Vatican II apply to them? Does the Roman Curia have jurisdiction over the Eastern Rite churches? Do their prelates appeal to the Vatican for “the final say” on liturgical or doctrinal disputes?

Does the Holy Father explicitly state each time he speaks on behalf of the Universal Church and when he speaks specifically as patriarch of the Roman Church? In practice, how much of his pronouncements and decrees apply to the Eastern Rite churches? Does the Holy Father have the authority to impose certain disciplinary practices upon the Eastern Rites? (For example, mandate that their priests be celibate; or mandate that they do Baptism, First Holy Communion, and Confirmation separately, rather than at one time as they do now.)

And why, when I attended a Ukrainian Catholic Mass, in the missal, in the Creed, it said:
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the Giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father (and the Son) …
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Why was “and the Son” in parentheses? Doesn’t the parentheses cast doubt on on the truth value of the statement? Do Eastern Rite Catholics still have doubts about the Filioque?

I only know bits and pieces about the Eastern Rites, and it seems to me that they are very much divided from the Roman Rite. I know in my heart that that’s not true, though. Please help me clarify these things!
 
I’m confused about the Latin Rite and Eastern Rites, and their respective relationships to the Holy Father. Can anyone point me in the direction of a sort of introduction to the concept of rites and the Eastern Rite in particular?
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The pope is the head of the Catholic Church, but he also is the patriarch of the Latin Rite.

As such he has a closer relationship with those in the Latin Rite than he does with those in the eastern rites.

Further he is the Bishop of the Diocese of Rome, so to Romans , he has even a closer relationship than he does with other Latin Rite people. To those folks, he is the local ordinary.

To the people who live in Vatican City, he is also the civil authority as well as a religious authority. Even if someone isn’t Catholic, if they live in that realm, the pope is the law of the land.

The job of pope is for someone comfortable with multi-tasking.
 
newadvent.org/cathen/05230a.htm
This is the Catholic encyclopedia’ s information about the Eastern churches. There is lots to read and decipher, so plan to read it slowly. It was interesting to see them actively participate in the committal rite at the end of the Pope’s funeral. Their prayers were recited I believe Greek which coincides with their rites. God is good…All the time!
 
HI Justb__,

Why was “and the Son” in parentheses? Doesn’t the parentheses cast doubt on on the truth value of the statement? Do Eastern Rite Catholics still have doubts about the Filioque?

The original text of the Nicene Creed does not have “and the Son”. These words were introduced in the liturgical version of the creed in the Latin Rite several centuries later. Thnis wa due to problems with the Arians, who denied some of Christ’s divine prerogative.

Eastern Church Christians who have re-joined the Catholic Church are free to use the original version or the liturgical version, in other words, to use the Filioque or not.

Without entering into the Filioque controversy here, let us just say that discussions held in latter years have shown that both Orthodox and Catholics hold the same views about the Trinity. They just have different ways of expressing them.

Verbum
 
Recently, I was reading about Taiwanese Cardinal Paul Shan Kuo-hsi, who has argued for “inculturation, or allowing Catholicism to take shape in Asian ways”.

Says he: “The Catholic faith will not be intelligible or attractive to the peoples of Asia if it continues to be a carbon copy of the Catholic Church in the West.”

This got me thinking – is it possible to *create *another rite? This one, I’m thinking, would be particularly for East Asian cultures.
 
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justbeinfrank:
How much authority does the Holy Father exert over the Eastern Rites, though?
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The pope is the Supreme Pontiff of the entire Catholic Church and he has absolute authority over all of the Rites.
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justbeinfrank:
Do encyclicals apply to them?
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Yes; although not all encyclicals are addressed to the entire Church.
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justbeinfrank:
Did Vatican II apply to them?
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Yes. In fact, Vatican II explicitly addressed the Eastern Rites. However, many of the pastoral changes addressed by Vatican II were explicitly for the Latin Rite.
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justbeinfrank:
Does the Roman Curia have jurisdiction over the Eastern Rite churches?
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Because the Roman Curia is an office of the Papacy, the answer is yes. However, the individual bishops do not have this authority and any directive from the curia must be approved by the pope to have any force.
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justbeinfrank:
Do their prelates appeal to the Vatican for “the final say” on liturgical or doctrinal disputes?
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Yes. They might have a local council to address such matters first, but even in those cases, they submit the decisions of the council to the pope for approval.
 
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justbeinfrank:
This got me thinking – is it possible to *create *another rite? This one, I’m thinking, would be particularly for East Asian cultures.
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Basically the answer is yes. Such a rite would need to be established by the pope. In the case of the existing Eastern Rites, however, their liturgies are traced back to the Apostles who founded their Rites.
 
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Kielbasi:
The pope is the head of the Catholic Church, but he also is the patriarch of the Latin Rite.

As such he has a closer relationship with those in the Latin Rite than he does with those in the eastern rites.

Further he is the Bishop of the Diocese of Rome, so to Romans , he has even a closer relationship than he does with other Latin Rite people. To those folks, he is the local ordinary.

To the people who live in Vatican City, he is also the civil authority as well as a religious authority. Even if someone isn’t Catholic, if they live in that realm, the pope is the law of the land.

The job of pope is for someone comfortable with multi-tasking.
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That’s simply not true. I think Pope JPII would almost take offense at that…
 
Pariah Pirana:
That’s simply not true. I think Pope JPII would almost take offense at that…
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Actually I do not thing that Pope John Paul II would take offense to such a statement.

I would like to add that while there are about 5 rites in the Catholic Church people do not belong to rites, Churches do.

The Catholic Church is made up of 23 separate Churches. The Latin Catholic Church being the largest.

Do a search on the forum as this has been discussed at length in the past.

I would caution against taking what the Catholic Encyclopedia has to say as the Gospel on the matter as it is a very Latin minded document and does have errors within it especailly where the other rites of the Churches are concerned.

I would also suggest reading the document from Vatican II on the Eastern Churches as well as what the pope wrote on them.

One further note of caution, I would take the answers provided here from non-eastern Catholics with a grain of salt. Most are great and they truely know about us, a very small minority are colored by their Latin mindset and view us though that and measure us by it.
 
Good points all, David!

There are many things that we in the Latin Rite never bother to learn about our fellow CATHOLICS in the Eastern Churches. The role, and authority, of the patriarch is not one to be underestimated. It is unfortunate that tomes dedicated to explaining the Church do not do a better job presenting accruate information. I think it would be absolutely fascinating to see the reaction if one of the Eastern cardinals were elected to the papacy! It just might spur the Latin majority to take more notice of the light that resides in the East!
 
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