February 8, 2026 - "Rites in the Catholic Church"

As Sister Jane Frances explained it, in the city of Butler and the neighboring village of Lyndora, there were seven Catholic Churches: five Roman Rite Churches:  St. Andrew, St. Conrad, St. Michael, St. Paul, and St. Peter; a Ruthenian Rite Catholic Church; and a Ukrainian Rite Catholic Church.  Now to make it more confusing for a pre-adolescent, there was also a Ukrainian Orthodox Church and a Russian Orthodox-Greek Catholic Church in Lyndora!  Sister Jane Frances told us we could go to Mass at the Ruthenian Rite Catholic Church or the Ukrainian Rite Catholic Church. But we could not fulfill our obligation to attend Mass on Sunday or a Holy Day of Obligation by going to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church or the Russian-Orthodox Greek Catholic Church. I received a lot more clarity about the question of rites in the Catholic Church when the Catechism of the Catholic Church was published in 1994.

 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church reports the following at paragraph 1203:

 

The liturgical traditions or rites presently in use in the church are the Latin (primarily the Roman rite, but also the rites of certain local churches, such as the Ambrosian rite, or those of certain religious orders) and the Byzantine, Alexandrian or Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Maronite, and Chaldean rites. In “faithful obedience to tradition, the sacred Council declares that Holy Mother Church holds all lawfully recognized rites to be of equal right and dignity, and she wishes to preserve them in the future and to foster them in every way” (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy [Sacrosanctum Concilium], 4). 

 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church also states the following about rites:

 

1207: It is fitting that liturgical celebration tends to express itself in the culture of the people where the Church finds herself, though without being submissive to it.  Moreover, the liturgy itself generates cultures and shapes them.

 

1208: The diverse liturgical traditions or rites, legitimately recognized, manifest the catholicity of the Church, because they signify and communicate the same mystery of Christ.

 

1209: The criterion that assures unity amid the diversity of the liturgical traditions and its fidelity to Apostolic Tradition, i.e., the communion in the faith and the sacraments received from the apostles, like being in that is both signified and guaranteed by apostolic succession.

 

Until next week,

Fr. John