Latin Rite

This is a page regarding the majority rite in the Roman Catholic Church. For the Orthodox Western Rite based on pre-Vatican reforms, see Liturgy of St. Gregory the Great.

The Latin Rite designates the particular church which developed in western Europe and northern Africa when and where Latin was the language of education, culture, and diplomacy, and also of the liturgy. It is now present worldwide and is the majority rite within the Roman Catholic Church. It is distinct from the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches, whose liturgies use the languages dominant in their areas at the time of their formation, such as Church Slavonic, or a modern language such as Arabic.

Interactions with the Orthodox Church

The Latin Rite being the majority rite of the Roman Catholic Church has caused internal problems, most notably in America, where bishops (who were of the Latin Rite) would not, for various reasons, accept Eastern Rite Catholic priests or practises, or would attempt to latinise the churches, by insisting on the filioque or clerical celibacy. This caused two large-scale conversions to Orthodoxy: the first led by St. Alexis Toth into what is now known as the OCA, and the second into the especially-formed American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese, led by Metr. Orestes Chornock.

External link

• Latin Rite at Wikipedia