Understanding the Rites

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I’ve heard a lot of people use the terms “Byzantine Rite, Roman Rite, Coptic Rite” etc. I have a vague notion (or thought I did) about what they mean but things are getting more confusing. Someone mentioned on another thread that the Latin Church was part of the Roman Rite, but there were others in the Rite as well… :confused: So now I’m getting a little lost.

Can anyone point me out (or just explain to me) the ‘breakdown’ of it all? What makes the Rites different? What makes the churches within the Rite different?

I’ve also heard of indult, Anglican Use, and maybe some other things like that. What are those? (Again, vague idea but…) is the indult different from the TLM?
 
Wow. There’s a lot of breakdown of everything. Thanks very much!

(And sorry about posting in the wrong spot)
 
Rawb said:
I’ve heard a lot of people use the terms “Byzantine Rite, Roman Rite, Coptic Rite” etc. I have a vague notion (or thought I did) about what they mean but things are getting more confusing. Someone mentioned on another thread that the Latin Church was part of the Roman Rite, but there were others in the Rite as well… :confused: So now I’m getting a little lost.

Can anyone point me out (or just explain to me) the ‘breakdown’ of it all? What makes the Rites different? What makes the churches within the Rite different?

I’ve also heard of indult, Anglican Use, and maybe some other things like that. What are those? (Again, vague idea but…) is the indult different from the TLM?
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Rites are found within a Church, not Churches within a Rite.

A Rite is a way of celebrating Liturgy or Sacraments. For instance the Rite of Baptism or the Rite of Marriage. Or for Liturgy, it would be the Roman Rite, the Maronite Rite, or the Byzantine Rite. There are others I believe seven in use today, and in a few small areas a couple of others. The Byzantine Rite is used for example by several Eastern Catholic Churches.
 
Go back and search the CA Live archives, the y have been running shows on the various Rites, 1 about every 6-8 weeks, for about a year! They are really good.
 
Also try the KoC online pamphlet here. I haven’t read all their pamphlets though, only some. Scroll down and pick the one about Eastern Churches.
 
awalt said:
Go back and search the CA Live archives, the y have been running shows on the various Rites, 1 about every 6-8 weeks, for about a year! They are really good.
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They have been running shows on the different Eastern Churches. Even though the show is improperly named “Know Your Rites” it’s really about the different Eastern Churches.
 
Br.Rich_SFO said:
They have been running shows on the different Eastern Churches. Even though the show is improperly named “Know Your Rites” it’s really about the different Eastern Churches.
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I am not sure I understand the difference you are citing - it seems to me from what I have heard they discuss each of the different rites, contrast with Latin rite, give some background, whatever one is featured for that show!?!
 
I agree, these things should be understood. However, and at the risk of sounding like someone from traditio.com, which I find risible, the Roman Rite is the precedential rite of the Catholic Church. Exceedingly few people (comparatively) in communion with Rome belong to any other. And it is not a precedence only of majority. We may be fascinated by the other rites, but AFAIK it is the teaching of the church that. well, do as the Romans do.

In my opinion, the probelm with this situation is that the Roman Rite has become so vitiated in practice that no one can tell what it is anymore, leaving the impression that anything goes. And if you have ever seen a service of another rite, there is a huge spillover effect.
 
Br.Rich_SFO said:
Rites are found within a Church, not Churches within a Rite.

A Rite is a way of celebrating Liturgy or Sacraments. For instance the Rite of Baptism or the Rite of Marriage. Or for Liturgy, it would be the Roman Rite, the Maronite Rite, or the Byzantine Rite. There are others I believe seven in use today, and in a few small areas a couple of others. The Byzantine Rite is used for example by several Eastern Catholic Churches.
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With all due respect, I believe that it is the other way around …
  • *]Alexandrean Rite
    1) Coptic Catholic Church
    2) Ethiopian (& Eritrean) Catholic Church

    *] Antiochene Rite
    3) Syriac Catholic Church
    4) Syro-Malabarese Catholic Church
    5) Syro-Malankarese Catholic Church

    *] Armenian Rite
    6)- Armenian Catholic Church

    *] Byzantine Rite
    7) Albanian Catholic Church
    8) Belarusan Catholic Church
    9) Bulgarian Catholic Church
    10) Croatian Catholic Church
    11) Georgian Catholic Church
    12) Greek Catholic Church
    13) Hungarian Catholic Church
    14) Italo-Greco-Albanian Catholic Church
    15) Melkite Catholic Church
    16) Russian Catholic Church
    17)- Romanian Catholic Church
    18) Ruthenian Catholic Church
    19) Slovakian Catholic Church
    20) Ukrainian Catholic Church

    *] Latin Rite
    21) Roman Catholic Church

    *] Maronite Rite
    22) Maronite Catholic Church
 
jbuck919 said:
…the Roman Rite is the precedential rite of the Catholic Church.
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This statement is blatantly false. The Catholic Church has no precedential rite. To assume that the rite of the Latin (Roman) Church takes precedence over all others because of majority, geography or whatever is to undermine the very universal nature of our Church. A statement such as this is an affront to the legacy of our late Holy Father +John Paul II who strived throughout his papacy to stress the absolute equality of all rites and sui iuris Churches, as is evident in his 1995 encyclical, Orientale Lumen (Light of the East).
jbuck919 said:
We may be fascinated by the other rites, but AFAIK it is the teaching of the church that, well, do as the Romans do.
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Believe me, there are many Catholic faithful for whom the liturgical praxis and theological life of the sui iuris Church in which they enjoy canonical membership is something much more profound than a mere novelty that the rest of Catholicism can be “fascinated by,” as you say. If you persist in making the claim that “…do as the Romans do” is the official teaching of the Catholic Church, then you should be prepared to back that claim up with a specific reference stating so. And if no such specific reference can be cited, I respectfully ask that you retract your claim, lest we risk perpetuating the preposterous myth that the Latin Rite enjoys some sort of preeminent position within the fabric of our Church.
 
I respectfully ask that you retract your claim, lest we risk perpetuating the preposterous myth that the Latin Rite enjoys some sort of preeminent position within the fabric of our Church.

Perhaps this is a myth but at least some and me who initially were interested in Greko Catholic church were returned to Holy Orthodoxy by such kind of presumption by Latin Catholics. Absurd that God is pleased more by Latin Church than by other. Difficulty is too great in going to Greko-catholic church - it is not balanced. It is forcing to accept all Latin and be ashamed about Eastern.
 
Well, there you have it…

Thank you, Volodymyr, for your eye-opening testamony.

Volodymyr speaks from first-hand experience (his own and others, he says) with regard to investigating a conversion to Catholicism. He speaks of an interest in the Greek Catholic Church (a commonly used title for the Byzantine Catholic Church in communion with Rome in his part of the world) and the presumption he encountered with regard to the image of his potential Church of choice vis a vis the Latin Church. Reading his post, it’s not at all a stretch to sum up what he relates as an elitist attitude among the Latins he encountered on his journey. Sadly, this attitude is all too prevalent, not just in Volodymyr’s homeland but here in the USA as well. We’ve seen this attitude all too often; we’ve seen it on this forum; we’ve seen it within this very thread, as I pointed out in an earlier post. Perhaps this attitude is born in large part out of ignorence, perhaps it’s fear of the unknown, maybe even a sense of prideful superiority. The reasons may be numerous, but the result remains the same: another potential convert to Catholicism has turned away from our Church for fear that by embracing our Catholic faith in the liturgical format that is most in line with his own culture and spirituality, he would be taking on the trappings of some sort of second-class citizen within our Church. How very sad!

The OP titled this thread “Understanding the Rites.” True understanding can only occur if the information we exchange on this forum is factual and not laced with our own presumptions nor clouded by attitudes of superiority or elitism.
 
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