A
Aramis
Guest
Sui Iuris means “Self Governing”, or more literally “Self law”.I heard someone, like Jimmy Akin or else, say that they’re not really Churches or rites, but some other term, variations of the same thing. I believe the use of these terms still confuses me and I’m trying. I’ll have to look up the term “sui iuris”. I don’t recall it. Your post facinates me and I’ve been meaning to read more on the history of the Mass/DL. One day.
Thanks.
What it means in practice is that they are answerable to the Pope, and certain dicasteries, but have their own separate system of hierarchs and their own canon law. (A few don’t have their own hierarchs, but they are the exception.) And most importantly, their own revisions of the liturgies and traditions.
The 14 churches sui iuris of the Byzantine Rite are each in theory autonomous but answerable to the pope.
In places where there are sufficient parishes of a particular church, a separate diocese will be set up for them. Some of them are large… The Eparchy of Phoenix overlaps a dozen Roman dioceses… and has about as many parishioners as one of the smaller of those roman dioceses.