LATIN RITE

LATIN RITE. The use of the term “rite” here is of Roman Catholic (q.v.) provenance. It means not merely the ceremonies, but the piety, Canon Law (qq.v.), and theological self-expression of a given Christian community. “Latin rite” thus signifies all these things as applied to the Christians of the Latin tradition, i.e., Western Europe (less, of course, the Protestant nations and the Romanians). In fact the “rite” of the Western Church was not uniform in its earlier days. Right up until the Second Vatican Council it counted several local variations in terms of liturgical use, for example the Ambrosian (Milan), Mozarabic (parts of Spain), Dominican, and-much earlier-Celtic and Gallican “rites.” This century has also seen attempts on the part of local Orthodox churches to establish “Latin” or “Western rite” communities in communion with the Orthodox oikoumene, most notably by the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of New York and all North America (qq.v.).

In general, the Latin rite (meaning in particular the liturgy of Rome) is characterized by a great sobriety and, in its pre-Vatican II days, by a markedly scriptural orientation. This is especially noticeable in the monastic offices, which, unlike the Byzantine rite’s (q.v.) love for elaborate theological poetry, are built largely on the chanting of the Psalter. Later developments, particularly the long struggles over the Trinity and Christology (qq.v.), had vastly more influence on Eastern worship than on Western. Certain changes that came into the Latin rite in the early and later medieval periods caused considerable opposition in the East when they became known, for example the use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist (q.v.), the withholding of confirmation until later in childhood accompanied by the withdrawal of the Eucharist from infants, and the withholding of the consecrated wine from the laity.