Latin Church

Latin Rite, in the singular and accompanied, in English, by the definite article, refers to the sui juris particular Church of the Roman Catholic Church that developed in the area of western Europe and northern Africa where Latin was for many centuries the language of education and culture. This sense, synonymous with "the Latin Church", is that in which the term is most often used in Church documents, including the opening canon of the Code of Canon Law.

The term is also used, in singular or plural, to refer to one or more of the forms of sacred liturgy traditional in different parts of this Latin Church. Of these Latin rites, there survive today the widely used Roman rite, the Ambrosian rite of Milan, Italy and neighbouring areas, and the Mozarabic rite, in very limited use at Toledo, Spain. Other Latin liturgical rites have fallen into into disuse, such as the Gallican rite that was associated with France, and the rites that some religious orders practiced until after the Second Vatican Council.

Sometimes, the term "Roman Catholic" is treated as synonymous with "Latin-Rite", though never by the Roman Catholic Church itself.

Characteristic of the Latin Rite (in the first-mentioned sense) are obligatory celibacy of priests, confirmation after the age of reason (but not necessarily as late as pre-adolescence), direct appointment of bishops by the Pope, honorary titles of patriarch and primate, and, of course, the Latin-rite liturgies. The Eastern Rite Churches, to varying extents, differ in these respects. For instance, ordination to priesthood (but not to the order of bishop) may be conferred on married men, and Eastern patriarchal and major archiepiscopal Churches elect bishops for their own territory (though not outside it).

Canon law for the Latin-Rite Church has, since 1917, been codified in the Code of Canon Law. A completely new edition was promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1983.[1]

On the Latin liturgical rites see, for instance, with regard to the Roman liturgical rite, Mass (liturgy), Novus Ordo Missae, Tridentine Mass, but also Mozarabic Rite, Ambrosian Rite and other articles referenced in these.

See also

• Liturgy
• Roman Catholic Church
• Catholicism
• Particular Church
• full communion
• Rites of christian liturgy
• Tridentine Mass

External links related to one of the liturgical rites of the Latin-Rite particular Church

• The Roman Rite (Catholic Encyclopedia)
• Cardinal Hoyos said: the traditional mass liturgy was never abrogated
• Legal status of the traditional Tridentine Mass
• Michael Davies: May Catholics Attend the Traditional Latin Mass?
• Liturgical time bombs
• 1995 official statement on Masses celebrated by the Society of St Pius X
• 1998 official statement on Society of St Pius X