Eastern Catholic liturgy
The Eastern Catholic Churches of the Catholic Church utilize liturgies originating in Eastern Christianity, distinguishing them from the majority of Catholic liturgies which are celebrated according to the Latin liturgical rites of the Latin Church. While some of these sui iuris churches use the same liturgical ritual families as other Eastern Catholic churches and Eastern churches not in full communion with Rome, each church retains the right to institute its own canonical norms, liturgical books, and practices for the ritual celebration of the Eucharist, other sacraments, and canonical hours.
Historically, tension between Latin Catholics and those worshipping with Eastern liturgies resulted in the latinization, restriction, or prohibition of Eastern liturgies within the Catholic Church. Since the early 20th century, popes have encouraged the usage of traditional liturgies among Eastern Catholics and delatinization. Further emphasis on Eastern Catholic liturgical practice was made during the Second Vatican Council with the publication of the 1964 Orientalium Ecclesiarum.
Terminology
While the Eastern Catholic Churches are autonomous particular churches that practice multiple liturgical rites, they have been collectively addressed as "Eastern-rite Churches" to distinguish themselves from the Latin Church and its Latin liturgical rites. The term "rite" has also been used to mean sui iuris particular churches; the Second Vatican Council's 1964 decrees Orientalium Ecclesiarum specified that, within Catholic contexts, "rite" addresses the particular "liturgy, ecclesiastical discipline and spiritual heritage" of a given group of Christians. Increasingly, the term "rite" has been considered more appropriate only when discussing liturgical ritual families or the ritual celebration of the Eucharist, other sacraments, and canonical hours.Some liturgical rites used by Eastern Catholics possess multiple names, both within the same church or to distinguish use of the same rite by different churches. For example, in the context of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, the Byzantine Rite has also been called the "Greek Rite" while Melkite worship according to this rite has also been called the "Melkite Rite". Additionally, the specific version of the Byzantine Rite used by Melkites might be referred to as the Melkite "recension" of that rite; the term "use" is also applied to this concept among other Eastern Catholics such as the Maronite Church's permutation of the West Syriac Rite.
History
The Byzantine Rite was regularly practiced in territories adjacent to traditionally Latin liturgical regions in the southern Italian peninsula and Sicily through the first millennium, the result of hellenized monasteries and political divisions. This lineage of Byzantine ritual practice within Latin dioceses survived in Reggio Calabria until the early 18th century, but was gradually absorbed following an influx of Albanian immigrants in the 15th century; this later lineage forms the historic basis of the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church.Michael Rohoza, the Metropolitan of Kiev and all Rus', spent the latter years of the 16th century pushing for union between the Eastern Orthodox Church and Rome on the terms of the Council of Florence. The Union of Brest in 1595-1596 was an agreement among Ruthenian members of the Eastern Orthodox Church to break with Constantinople and enter into full communion with the pope and Catholic Church. The union, both political and religious in nature, saw a list of 35 concessions written by Eastern Orthodox eparchs that would preserve their Byzantine liturgical practices. The accepted terms, particularly with regard to retaining Byzantine liturgy and not requiring the Filioque within the Nicene Creed, were assessed as "remarkably liberal" by historian Walter Frederic Adeney. The Ruthenian Uniate Church would be among the bodies formed from those who became Catholic under this union and it evolved into Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the largest Eastern Catholic Church.
Other Eastern Catholics saw their liturgies largely treated with suspicion from the Latin Church and the broad introduction of Liturgical Latinization, wherein Latin practices were added to or replaced native ritual. Among these were the Maronites of the Levant and the Syrian Christians of the Malabar Coast of India that eventually became the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. The latter group resisted Latin impositions, resulting in significant schism.
In 1964 at the Second Vatican Council, the decree Orientalium Ecclesiarum was issued. This document sought to improve unity both between Latin and Eastern Catholics and between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Christian churches while placing a renewed emphasis on the distinctive elements of each tradition. These elements included not only liturgy but also canon law and autonomous administration. Scholarship on Eastern Catholic spirituality and liturgy benefited from the decree, resulting in some Eastern Catholics "rediscovering their own distinctive liturgical vestments and actions." Orientalium Ecclesiarum also sought to undo "mutilations" accrued within Eastern Catholic liturgies through latinization and ethnic interests; Boniface Luykx appraised these efforts as incomplete 30 years after the council. The process of reviving Eastern Catholic patrimony was bolstered by the post-conciliar Code of Canons for the Eastern Churches–containing the revised Eastern Catholic canon law–and the 1996 Instruction for Applying the Liturgical Prescriptions of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches–which provided guidance on further implementing objectives described in Orientalium Ecclesiarum.
Latinization and de-latinization
"Latinization" was a general name applied to efforts to modify Eastern Catholic practices with "the spirit, practices and priorities of Latin liturgy and theology." These processes were sometimes imposed by Latin authorities upon Eastern Catholics, though it was not uncommon for some Eastern Catholics to self-latinize.Despite long-standing claims from members of the Maronite Church, communion between Rome and Maronites was inconsistent from their origins by the 6th century until the 12th century. Following the stabilization of communion, the West Syriac liturgies of the Maronite Church were gradually modified to match Roman Rite liturgies and norms. For instance, the practice of communicating infants was prohibited by Pope Benedict XIV. The Maronite liturgies as they existed in the early 20th century were considered "disfigured" by this latinization and were distinguished from other Eastern Catholic liturgies by the significant adaptation to Roman Rite forms.
The arrival of the Portuguese on the Malabar Coast saw efforts to integrate the indigenous Saint Thomas Christians into the Latin Padroado ecclesiastical structure. The 1599 Synod of Diamper was the result of the Padroado efforts, bolstered by Jesuit missionaries. The synod prohibited native East Syriac Rite practices–these practices likely closely related to those of the Apostolic Assyrians–and subordinated Saint Thomas Christians to Latin ordinaries. Resentment towards this arrangement spurred the 1653 Coonan Cross Oath and the establishment of the Malankara Church.
While some Saint Thomas Christians remained in communion with Rome or returned shortly after the 1653 oath, others joined the Malankara Church that has itself divided into several churches, some influenced or in communion with the Syriac Orthodox Church. Late 19th-century efforts by Syro-Malabar Catholics to achieve greater ecclesial and liturgical autonomy failed to subordinate them to the Chaldean Catholic Church but resulted in the creation of a papal commission in 1934 to create a de-latinized pontifical. This process of de-latinization has continued progressively with opposition from a significant proportion of the Syro-Malabar; the debate continues to divide the church. Also in the 20th-century, the creation of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church for Saint Thomas Christians converts from the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church–previously in communion with the Syriac Orthodox–that used the Malankara Rite version of the West Syriac Rite saw efforts to address latinization within that church, sometimes leading to increased rifts between them and the Latin Catholics in India.
At the 1720 Synod of Zamość, the Ruthenian Uniate Church unilaterally authorized "latinizing" modifications to their Divine Liturgy to emphasize unity with Latin Catholics. These alterations included the insertion of the Filioque into the creed and a commemoration of the pope in the Ektene. Russian Orthodox commentators would harshly criticize the move, while later Catholic criticism would point to the unmodified Byzantine liturgies of the Melkite, Italo-Albanian, and Romanian Greek Catholics as evidence that the 1720 revisions were unnecessary. The synod's Latinizations have also been contrasted with the guidance described within Orientalium Ecclesiarum. Latinization of the Byzantine Rite continued in the successive centuries in both Europe and the United States due to influence from the Latin Church. For the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the United States, Latinization was slowed during the 20th century by the arrival of educated native clergy and increased independence, particularly following the increased repression of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the Soviet Union in 1945–1946. These de-latinization trends continued in the 50 years following the Second Vatican Council.
A form of the Anaphora of Addai and Mari, an East Syriac anaphora, was adapted for use by Eastern Catholics. The anaphora has traditionally lacked explicit Words of Institution–"Take and eat; this is my body...Take and drink: this is my blood...Do this in memory of me"–which the Catholic Church has long held as necessary for the consecration of the Eucharist; an explicit narrative of consecration was introduced to the Catholic version of the anaphora. The matter became an ecumenical barrier between the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church. Ultimately, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity issued a statement that the unmodified Anaphora of Addai and Mari without the institution narrative implicitly consecrates the Eucharist. This allowed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to formally approve reciprocal admission to the Eucharist between Chaldean Catholics and Assyrians in 2001. The decision was met with criticism by some traditionalist Latin theologians and church officials. Chaldean Eucharistic liturgies—such as that celebrated by Pope Francis during his 2021 visit to Iraq—are still celebrated with the Words of Institution and the 2001 document encourages clergy of the Assyrian Church of the East to include them when Chaldeans are in attendance.