"Our predecessors declared not only that nothing is to be blamed in the sacred rites of the Eastern Church, that nothing in them is opposed to the true faith; but also that these rites must be kept and reverenced, being worthy of all respect by the antiquity of their origin, coming as they do, in great part, from the holy fathers. Particular constitutions have forbidden those who follow these rites to abandon them without special permission of the Supreme Pontiff. Our predecessors knew that the spotless bride of Christ presents in these external notes an admirable variety, which in no way alters her unity. The Church, spreading beyond the frontiers of States, embraces all peoples and all nations, which she unites in the profession of the same faith, in spite of diversity of customs, language, and rites; these differences being approved by the Roman Church, mother and chief of all."[1]
So, on the Epiphany, 1862, Pius IX founded a special Congregation for Eastern rites. It was perhaps less happy that this was made a subdivision of Propaganda, with the title "S. Congregatio de propaganda Fide pro ritibus orientalibus"; but in founding it the Pope used again the same language of respect for the Eastern rites, made again the same assurances that he had no wish to destroy these:
"Our predecessors not only never had the intention to bring Eastern people to the Latin rite, but, every time they thought it expedient, they have declared in clear and precise terms that the Holy See does not ask Eastern Christians to abandon their own rites, venerable by their antiquity and by the witness of the holy fathers. The Holy See demands one thing only, that in these rites nothing be introduced which would be contrary to the Catholic faith, dangerous for souls, or opposed to virtue; as one of our predecessors, Benedict XIV of happy memory, shows in his Encyclical Allatæ sunt, of July 5, 1755, addressed to missionaries in the East. If, then, any harm has ever been done to the rites of the East, it is not to the Holy See that it can be ascribed."[2]
Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) was perhaps even more eager in his zeal for the Eastern Churches and their rites. Almost as soon as he became Pope, on April 1, 1879, he said: "How dear to us are the Churches of the East! How we admire
