The "R" Word!

[bpbasilphx]

“Rite” means a liturgical use or family (Byzantine Rite) or a particular service (baptismal rite).

It should not be used to refer to a sui juris church.

Furthermore, there is no such thing as “The Eastern Rite” in the singular, as I’ve seen used here too much.

There are Eastern RiteS used by Eastern ChurcheS in communion with the Roman Church.

There are not “Churches of the Eastern Rite”. The Chaldean Qorbano is quite different from the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.

 

[SiempreFiel]

There are not “Churches of the Eastern Rite”.

So why did Pope Paul VI refer to them as “Catholic Churches of the Eastern Rite” in ORIENTALIUM ECCLESIARUM?

 

[jj2011]

So why did Pope Paul VI refer to them as “Catholic Churches of the Eastern Rite” in ORIENTALIUM ECCLESIARUM?

Latin doesn’t have a definite or indefinite article, so strictly speaking you can’t say “the eastern rite” in Latin.

This ‘eastern rites’ lingo was understandable, although not correct, when the churches were so small that perhaps we thought of them as ‘rites.’ We should call them “eastern churches.”