compliment to his fellow-Catholics of Eastern rites, pronounced certain blessings, chanting them in Greek. It must have been a long time since a Roman Pope publicly officiated according to any other rite than his own.[1]
So we see that, down to our own day, the attitude of the Holy See has not varied in this point. That attitude is always one of entire approval of and respect for those other rites, which have just as legitimate a place in the Catholic Church as the Roman rite. No Pope has ever wanted to force the Roman rite on all Catholics. In faith and morals we all have one standard; in rites, different races have their own customs.
It is true that not all Papal legislation for the Uniates has been happy; moreover, it has varied occasionally in detail. But, as a general principle, no greater mistake could be made than to think that Rome has anything against other rites. She always acknowledges their complete justification in the Catholic Church, she respects and honours them sincerely, and wishes them to be maintained and carried out correctly, just as much as she wishes this in the case of her own rite.
The Catholic who desires to conform his ideal to that of the Holy See will find in this matter, too, that he has a very definite standard set by the Popes. To disparage Eastern rites, to think them less Catholic than ours, to look upon Uniates as a kind of compromise between us and schismatical sects, is not only a gross injustice to them, it is also in clear contradiction to the attitude of the Holy See.
- Summary.
In this chapter we have seen what a Uniate is. The name is used for a Catholic of any other rite than the Roman rite, or, rather, in practice, for a Catholic of some Eastern rite. There is no essential reason why all Catholics except those of one rite should be classed under a general name; yet the preponderance of the Roman rite, and certain qualities common to Eastern Christians, and special to them, are no doubt sufficient justification for the usual term.
However, Uniates are in no sense one body as distinct from Latins. They are, of course, all members of the one Catholic Church, together with us Westerns; but under that genus there is no one Uniate species. Each Uniate Church is independent of the others; all are equally dependent on the central authority of the whole Church at Rome.
- ↑ See the full account of this liturgy in the Echos d'Orient, xi, 131.
