Random, Rite Inheritance

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rawb
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
R

Rawb

Guest
This just randomly occurred to me. In The Church, we inherit our rite from our Father, correct? Well, what if a man is Roman, has children, and then switches to an Eastern Rite? Do the children then become Eastern as well, or do they remain Roman because their father was Roman at the time they were born (and have probably already been baptized in the Roman Rite by this time).

Second question, what is the correct terminology when talking about this? I’ve seen people say there are not 23 Rites in The Church, which I always thought was the case, and I’ve seen others use “Latins” instead of “Romans”. Are the two interchangable?
 
Rawb said:
This just randomly occurred to me. In The Church, we inherit our rite from our Father, correct? Well, what if a man is Roman, has children, and then switches to an Eastern Rite? Do the children then become Eastern as well, or do they remain Roman because their father was Roman at the time they were born (and have probably already been baptized in the Roman Rite by this time).

Second question, what is the correct terminology when talking about this? I’ve seen people say there are not 23 Rites in The Church, which I always thought was the case, and I’ve seen others use “Latins” instead of “Romans”. Are the two interchangable?
Click to expand...
There are 23 churches in the Catholic Union, of 6 rites: Roman, Alexandrian, Antiochene, Armenian, Chaldean and Constantinopolitan. (CCEO Canon 29)

Each of these 23 churches has it’s own traditions, and in the case of those with other churches of the same rite, often subtle differences from those churches.

The Rites, except for the Chaldean, are all named for their city of origin.

A child is normally baptised into the church of their father, if he is known, Catholic, and alive. If not, or if the parents request the mother’s, then the mother’s rite. If neither parent lives, the child is baptized into the church of whomever is their guardian.

If an parent with children changes church of enrollment, those children under 14 at the time do so automatically with the parent. A wife may switch church of enrollment at marriage to that of the husband for the duration of the marriage.

Properly, the Rite of Rome is the Rite of the Roman Church Sui Iuris; Latin is language of that rite, and the proper term to describe one who is from Rome. The term “Latin Rite” is used as equivalent to the term “Roman Rite.”

Likewise, the Rite of Constantinople is the proper term for the Byzantine Rite, Rite of Alexandria for the Coptic Rite.

The various western “rites” are all united in one Church Sui Iuris, and really are all “Roman” in as much as they use Latin, are derived (with the possible exceptions of the Mozarabic and Bragan) from the Roman liturgy, and are part of the Patriarchate of Rome.
 
Children tend to get baptized into the rite of one of their parents in case of child Baptism, or that of the god parents if the parents are not alive/legal guardians of the child. Even if the Christian denomination follows adult Baptism (the case with some Protestant denominations like the Baptists) the person becomes a full member of the Christian community only at Baptism. Baptism is about becoming a full member of a spiritual community, the Church. Therefore one has to be baptized in a particular rite. One does not inherit the religion/rite like in religions which have no such specific initiation ceremonies. Following the religion of parents may seem like inheriting the religion, but that is only because the child would automatically be baptized in the church of the parents. As the child grows into an adult it may choose to join another religious group or give up religion altogether. How does the concept of inheriting religion and rites fit with this glaring fact? For example, if a child born to parents who were baptized in an Orthodox Church chooses to baptize their child in a Roman Catholic Church for whatever reason, the child is Roman Catholic, not Orthodox, simply because the parents belong/ed to an Orthodox Church. The child’s name is in the Baptismal register of the Roman Catholic Church, not the Orthodox one.

Simply put, one belongs to the Church/rite into which one is baptized.
 
Aramis mentioned an important aspect, namely switching enrollment to a different rite within the Catholic Church. As a Syro-Malabar Catholic who was baptized, received First Holy Communion and Confirmation in SMCC, I have not had to do anything special to attend the Latin rite Roman Catholic church. I still consider myself an SMC who is attending the Roman Catholic church.

Maybe Aramis disagrees with my take on inheritance of rites?
 
Only in details.

Three sacraments are required to be a Full member of the Church: Baptism, Confirmation aka Chrismation, and the Eucharist.

The inability to receive the latter two is why protestants are not fully christian; they are united to christ in baptism, but have not received the gifts of the holy spirit through valid chrismation nor have they followed Christ’s orders to eat his flesh and drink his blood.

There is no obligation to switch canonical enrollment; that said, those who do, they make a positive choice to do so. It is important, however, that one should make certain that one’s children know the rules of the church in which they are enrolled; it’s only important when getting baptized, chrismated, married or ordained, but still…
 
Up to the age of 14 the children take the ritual particular Church of the father. They can choose to change later if they wish according to Canon 29 of the CCEO.
…a child who has not yet completed his fourteenth year of age is enrolled in the Church sui iuris of the Catholic father…
Click to expand...
 
Thank you everyone! This was just something that occured to me when I was reading another question, and I got curious.

Thanks again though. Very interesting.
 
People are confusing parent tradition, rite and sui iuris church.

The parent Traditions are 6:

Latin
Byzantine
Alexandrian
Antiochene
Chaldean
Armenian

The Rites derived from the parent Traditions are 11:

Rites of the Latin Tradition:
Roman
Uses of the Roman Rite: Ordinary, Extraordinary, Anglican, Carthusian, Dominican, Cistercian
Ambrosian
Mozarabic

Rites of the Alexandrian Tradition:
Coptic
Ethiopian

Rites of the Antiochene Tradition:
Syriac
Maronite

Rites of Chaldean Tradition:
Chaldean
Syro-Malabar

Byzantine Rite
Uses of the Byzantine Rite: Old Rite, Russian, Greek, Ruthenian

Armenian Rite

The Sui Iuris Churches are 23:

Latin Church

Coptic Church

Ethiopian Church

Syriac Church

Syro-Malankar Church

Maronite Church

Chaldean Church

Syro-Malabar Church

Armenian Church

Ukrainian Church

Melkite Church

Romanian Church

Ruthenian Church

Slovak Church

Croatian Church

Hungarian Church

Italo-Albanian Church

Bulgarian Church

Greek Church

Macedonian Church

Albanian Church

Russian Church

Belarusan Church
 
Deacon_Lance said:
People are confusing parent tradition, rite and sui iuris church.

The parent Traditions are 6:

Latin
Byzantine
Alexandrian
Antiochene
Chaldean
Armenian

The Rites derived from the parent Traditions are 11:

Rites of the Latin Tradition:
Roman
Uses of the Roman Rite: Ordinary, Extraordinary, Anglican, Carthusian, Dominican, Cistercian
Ambrosian
Mozarabic

Rites of the Alexandrian Tradition:
Coptic
Ethiopian

Rites of the Antiochene Tradition:
Syriac
Maronite

Rites of Chaldean Tradition:
Chaldean
Syro-Malabar

Byzantine Rite
Uses of the Byzantine Rite: Old Rite, Russian, Greek, Ruthenian

Armenian Rite

The Sui Iuris Churches are 23:

Latin Church

Coptic Church

Ethiopian Church

Syriac Church

Syro-Malankar Church

Maronite Church

Chaldean Church

Syro-Malabar Church

Armenian Church

Ukrainian Church

Melkite Church

Romanian Church

Ruthenian Church

Slovak Church

Croatian Church

Hungarian Church

Italo-Albanian Church

Bulgarian Church

Greek Church

Macedonian Church

Albanian Church

Russian Church

Belarusan Church
Click to expand...
Glory to Jesus Christ,

Don’t you mean “Churches of the Antiochian Tradition” et al.? There’s no such thing as the “Maronite Rite” or “Coptic Rite.” Some Eastern Catholics will get very uptight if their church is referred to as simply a rite, as they should.

In Christ,
Andrew
 
Harpazo said:
Glory to Jesus Christ,

Don’t you mean “Churches of the Antiochian Tradition” et al.? There’s no such thing as the “Maronite Rite” or “Coptic Rite.” Some Eastern Catholics will get very uptight if their church is referred to as simply a rite, as they should.

In Christ,
Andrew
Click to expand...
Deacon Lance, I am quite impressed with your list, but Andrew’s post highlights an important aspect: the name of the church is not necessarily the name of the rite. I’m downtight now. 😉

The Syro Malabar Catholic Church follows the East Syrian/c Rite, The members of SMCC, who had been known simply as Apostle Thomas Christians in Kerala, India, had been following the East Syrian/c Rite for many centuries (Apostle Thomas came to Kerala in 52 AD before any rite had been created). But when it came in full communion with RCC (1599), the group was given a new name by RCC to avoid confusion with the newer Latin Rite Roman Catholic coverts in Kerala.
 
Father Deacon is using the older nomeclature; it has changed in ‘recent’ vatican documents. (Recent being post 1983 or so.)
 
Andrew,

That is why I went through the trouble of listing all three designation seperately. A Sui Iuris Church must employ a Liturgical Rite. There are 23 Churches, all of which use one of the 11 Rites. It is wrong to speak of Churches as Rites or reduce them to only their liturgical dimension but that in itself does not mean Rites don’t exist or that it is improper to refer to them in a liturgical context.

Fr. Deacon Lance
 
SJ,

I think there are liturgcal scholars who would agree with me in stating that the Syro-Malabar Church has made enough changes to the root East Syriac tradition that it warrants calling it a seperate Rite at this point. The larger part of that is due to Latinization, a lesser part to inculturation. My own belief is that once two Liturgies from the same parent Tradition can be put side by side and easily distinguished from one another you have seperate Rites. One can easily distinguish the Syro-Malabar Liturgy from the Chaldean version.

Fr. Deacon Lance
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top