Latin liturgical rites

Latin liturgical rites used within that area of the Catholic Church where the Latin language once dominated (the Latin Church) were for many centuries no less numerous than the liturgical rites of the Eastern autonomous particular Churches. Their number is now much reduced. In the aftermath of the Council of Trent, in 1568 and 1570 Pope Pius V suppressed the Breviaries and Missals that could not be shown to have an antiquity of at least two centuries (see Tridentine Mass and Roman Missal). Many local rites that remained legitimate even after this decree were abandoned voluntarily, especially in the 19th century. In the second half of the 20th century, most of the religious orders that had a distinct liturgical rite chose to adopt in its place the Roman Rite as revised in accordance with the decrees of the Second Vatican Council (see Mass of Paul VI). A few such liturgical rites persist today for the celebration of Mass, since 1965-1970 in revised forms, but the distinct liturgical rites for celebrating the other sacraments have been almost completely abandoned.

Liturgical rites currently in use within the Latin Church

Roman Rite

The Roman Rite is by far the most widely used. Like other liturgical rites, it developed over time, with newer forms replacing the older. It underwent many changes in the first millennium and a half of its existence (see Pre-Tridentine Mass). The forms that Pope Pius V, as requested by the Council of Trent, established in the 1560s and 1570s underwent repeated minor variations in the centuries immediately following. Each new typical edition (the edition to which other printings are to conform) of the Roman Missal (see Tridentine Mass) and of the other liturgical books superseded the previous one.

The 20th century saw more profound changes. Pope Pius X radically rearranged the Psalter of the Breviary and altered the rubrics of the Mass. Later Popes continued to make such changes, beginning with Pope Pius XII, who revised the Holy Week ceremonies and certain other aspects of the Roman Missal in 1955.

The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) was followed by a general revision of the rites of all the Roman Rite sacraments, including the Eucharist. As before, each new typical edition of an official liturgical book supersedes the previous one. Thus, the 1970 Roman Missal, which superseded the 1962 edition, was superseded by the edition of 1975. The 2002 edition in turn supersedes the 1975 edition both in Latin and, as official translations into each language appear, also in the vernacular languages. Under the terms of Summorum Pontificum by Pope Benedict XVI, the Mass of Paul VI is known as the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

The Tridentine Mass, as in the 1962 Roman Missal, is still authorized for use as an extraordinary form of the Roman Rite under the conditions indicated in the document Summorum Pontificum.

Anglican Use

The Anglican Use is a use of the Roman Rite. During the Liturgy of the Eucharist, especially the Eucharistic Prayer, it is closest to the Roman Rite, while it differs more during the Liturgy of the Word and the Penitential Rite. The language used, which differs from that of the ICEL translation of the Roman Rite of Mass, is based upon the Book of Common Prayer, originally written in the 16th century. Most Anglican Use parishes use the Book of Divine Worship, an adaptation of the Book of Common Prayer.

The Anglican Use is permitted under the United States Pastoral Provision of 1980 in several parishes of that country that have left the Episcopal Church. The same Pastoral Provision also permits, as an exception and on a case by case basis, the ordination of married former Episcopal ministers as Catholic priests. On 9 November 2009, Pope Benedict XVI established provisions for the setting up of personal ordinariates for Anglicans who join the church. One such ordinariate was set up for England and Wales on 15 January 2011, a second for the United States and Canada on 1 January 2012, and a third for Australia on 15 June 2012. These ordinariates have the faculty to celebrate the Eucharist and the other sacraments, the Liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical functions in accordance with the liturgical books proper to Anglican tradition, in revisions approved by the Holy See, so as to maintain the Anglican liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions. This faculty does not exclude liturgical celebrations according to the Roman Rite.

Algonquian and Iroquoian Uses

Also called "Indian Masses", a number of variations on the Roman Rite developed in the Indian missions of Canada and the United States. These originated in the 17th century, and some remained in use until the Second Vatican Council. The priest's parts remained in Latin, while the ordinaries sung by the schola were translated into the vernacular (e.g., Mohawk, Algonquin, Micmac, and Huron). They also generally featured a reduced cycle of native-language propers and hymns. At present they are rarely used.

Zaire Use

The Zaire Use is an inculturated variation of the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. It is used to a very limited extent in some African countries since the late 1970s

Western Rites of "Gallican" type

Ambrosian Rite

The Ambrosian Rite is celebrated in most of the Archdiocese of Milan, Italy and in parts of some neighbouring dioceses in Italy and Switzerland. The language used is now usually Italian, rather than Latin. With some variant texts and minor difference in the order of readings, it is similar in form to the Roman Rite. Its classification as Gallican-related is disputed.

Rite of Braga

The Rite of Braga is used, but since 18 November 1971 only on an optional basis, in the Archdiocese of Braga in northern Portugal.

Mozarabic Rite

The Mozarabic Rite, which was prevalent throughout Spain in Visigothic times, is now celebrated only in limited locations, principally the cathedral of Toledo.

Carthusian Rite

The Carthusian rite is in use in a version revised in 1981. Apart from the new elements in this revision, it is substantially the rite of Grenoble in the 12th century, with some admixture from other sources. Among other differences from the Roman Order of Mass, the deacon prepares the gifts while the Epistle is being sung, the celebrating priest washes his hands twice at the offertory and says the eucharistic prayer with arms extended in the form of a cross except when using his hands for some specific action, and there is no blessing at the end of Mass.

This is now the only extant Mass rite of a Catholic religious order; but by virtue of the Ecclesia Dei indult some individuals or small groups are authorized to use some now defunct rites.

Western Rite of sui generis type

Benedictine Rite

The Order of Saint Benedict has never had a rite of the Mass peculiar to it, but it keeps its very ancient Benedictine Rite of the Liturgy of the Hours.

Defunct Catholic Western liturgical rites

African Rite

The African Rite was used, before the 8th-century Arab conquest, in Latin-speaking North Africa, in particular the Roman province of Africa, corresponding to modern-day Tunisia, of which Carthage was the capital. It was very close to the Roman Rite, so much so that Western liturgical traditions have been classified as belonging to two streams, the North African-Rome tradition, and the Gallican (in the broad sense) tradition encompassing the rest of the Western Roman Empire, including northern Italy.

Celtic Rite

The ancient Celtic Rite was a composite of non-Roman ritual structures (possibly Antiochian) and texts not exempt from Roman influence, that was similar to the Mozarabic Rite in many respects and would have been used at least in parts of Ireland, Scotland, the northern part of England and perhaps even Wales, Cornwall and Somerset, before being authoritatively replaced by the Roman Rite in the early Middle Ages. "Celtic" is possibly a misnomer and it may owe its origins to Augustine's re-evangelisation of the British Isles in the 6th century. Little is known of it, though several texts and liturgies survive.

Some Christians–typically groups not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church, especially some Western Orthodox Christian communities in communion with Eastern Orthodox Churches, e.g. Celtic Orthodoxy–have attempted to breathe life into a reconstruction of the Celtic Rite the historical accuracy of which is debated. Historical evidence of this rite is found in the remnants of the Stowe (Lorrha) Missal.

Gallican Rite

The Gallican Rite is a retrospective term applied to the sum of the local variants, on similar lines to that designated elsewhere as the Celtic Rite (above) and the Mozarabic Rite, which faded from use in France by the end of the first millennium. It should not be confused with the so-called Neo-Gallican liturgical books published in various French dioceses after the Council of Trent, which had little or nothing to do with it.

Local Latin Rites or Uses

Several local rites (more properly, uses or variants of the Roman Rite) of limited scope existed, but are now defunct.

• The Sarum Rite (more properly Sarum Use), a defunct variant on the Roman Rite originating in the Salisbury diocese, which had come to be widely practised in England and Scotland around the 1530s, while the Protestant Reformation swept across continental Europe; practised alongside limited other variants such as the Use of York, Lincoln Use, Bangor Use, and Hereford Use.
• The Cologne Use, used in the diocese of Cologne (German: Köln) prior to 1570.
• The Lyonese Rite of the diocese of Lyon, France, which some consider to have been (rather than Milan) the centre of diffusion of the Gallican liturgy.
• The Nidaros Use, long defunct, based mainly on imported English liturgical books, used in pre-Reformation Norway.[1]
• The Uppsala Use, suppressed during the Reformation, formerly the dominant variant of the Roman Rite used in northern Sweden.
• The Aquileian Rite, a defunct rite originating in the former patriarchate of Aquileia in northern Italy.
• The Benevento Rite, a defunct Latin rite originated in this city in Italy.
• The Durham Rite (defunct: Durham, England)
• The Esztergom Use (defunct: Archdiocese of Esztergom, used between the 12th and 17th centuries primarily in the Archdiocese of Esztergom & in its suffragan dioceses.

Rites of religious orders

Main article: Catholic Order Rites

Some religious orders celebrated Mass according to rites of their own, dating from more than 200 years before the papal bull Quo primum. These rites were based on local usages and combined elements of the Roman and Gallican Rites. Following the Second Vatican Council, they have mostly been abandoned, except for the Carthusian Rite (see above). Religious orders of more recent origin have never had special rites.

The following previously existing rites of Mass, distinct from the Roman Rite, continue to be used on a limited basis by the permission of ecclesiastical superiors:

• Carmelite Rite
• Cistercian Rite
• Dominican Rite
• Premonstratensian or Norbertine Rite

The Catholic Encyclopedia applied the word "rite" also to the practices followed (to some extent even now, a century later) by certain Catholic religious orders, while at the same time stating that they in fact followed the Roman Rite:

• Franciscan Rite
• Friars Minor Capuchin Rite
• Servite Rite

See also

• Alexandrian Rite
• Antiochene Rite
• Armenian Rite
• Byzantine Rite
• East Syrian Rite
• West Syrian Rite
• List of Catholic rites and churches
• General Roman Calendar

External links

• Dom Fernand Cabrol's The Mass of the Western Rites
• Non-Roman Latin or Western Rites
• An African Interpretation of Liturgical Inculturation: The Rite Zairois