Catholic Liturgical Rites

The canonical definition of the word “rite”

In Western ecclesial vocabulary, the word rite has long had two different meanings. In the narrow sense, a rite denotes the ritual form of a celebration: we speak of the rite of baptism, the rite of marriage, the rite of the elevation at Mass. In the broad sense, a rite denotes the whole liturgical, theological, spiritual, and disciplinary heritage of a particular Church — it is in this sense that we speak of the Roman rite, the Byzantine rite, the Coptic rite, or the Maronite rite. It is this second, technical and canonical meaning that structures this entire article.

The most precise official definition is that of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEO), promulgated by Saint John Paul II by the apostolic constitution Sacri Canones on 18 October 1990 and in force since 1 October 1991^[11]. Canon 28 § 1 states:

“A rite is the liturgical, theological, spiritual and disciplinary patrimony distinguished by the culture and historical circumstances of peoples, expressed in a way of living the faith proper to each Church of proper law.” — CCEO, canon 28 § 1^[12]

Four dimensions are therefore constitutive of a rite in the canonical sense: liturgical (euchology — that is, the prayer texts of the liturgy —, the sacraments, the hours, the calendars), theological (its own doctrinal spirituality — for example the emphasis placed by the Greek Fathers on God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with a large place given to the Holy Spirit, where the Latin tradition insists more on Christ and on the rules organizing the life of the Church), spiritual (the schools of prayer, its own mysticism, forms of asceticism), and disciplinary (its own canon law, pastoral usages, modes of electing bishops, the discipline of the clergy — for example the married clergy in most Eastern Churches). A rite in the Catholic sense is therefore never a mere external ceremonial: it is an entire way of being Christian, inherited from a great apostolic Church (Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Constantinople, Edessa).

Rite, particular Church, and liturgical tradition: three notions to distinguish

Three technical notions overlap in current Catholic vocabulary and must be carefully distinguished.

A sui iuris Church (of proper law) is a community of the faithful joined together by a hierarchy according to law, which the supreme authority of the Church — that is, the pope — expressly or tacitly recognizes as being of proper law (CCEO can. 27). The Catholic Church today numbers twenty-four sui iuris Churches: the Latin Church on the one hand, and twenty-three Eastern Catholic Churches on the other^[13]. Each has its own proper canon law, its own head (the pope for the Latin Church, patriarchs and major archbishops for the Eastern Churches), its own synod, and its own historic territory.

A liturgical tradition is a broad ritual heritage on which several sui iuris Churches may depend. The Catholic Church recognizes six major liturgical traditions: the Latin tradition (within which live the Roman rite, the Ambrosian rite, and the Hispano-Mozarabic rite), and the five Eastern traditions — Alexandrian (Coptic rite, Ethiopian rite, Eritrean rite), Western Antiochian or West Syriac (Maronite rite, Syriac rite, Syro-Malankar rite), Armenian, Chaldean or East Syriac (Chaldean rite, Syro-Malabar rite), and Byzantine (14 sui iuris Churches use the Byzantine liturgy, from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic to the Italo-Albanian)^[14][15].

A rite in the narrow sense finally denotes the particular liturgical form of one of these sui iuris Churches. Thus, within the Western Antiochian tradition, the Maronite rite and the Syriac rite are distinct rites, though cousins. Within the Latin tradition, the Roman rite and the Ambrosian rite are distinct rites, which share their Western root but each have their own missal and their own office. This terminology — clarified since the conciliar decree Orientalium Ecclesiarum (1964) and the CCEO (1990) — avoids the confusions, frequent in older works, which equated rite and Church.

Why so many different rites for one and the same faith?

The diversity of rites is neither an accident of history nor a political compromise. It reflects, on the liturgical plane, what Christological dogma affirms on the incarnational plane: the Word of God did not become man “in general” but in Bethlehem, in a Jewish family, under the reign of Herod and the census of Quirinius, speaking Aramaic, praying the Hebrew psalms. The Incarnation is culturally situated — this is what is sometimes called the scandal of concreteness. Likewise, Christian liturgy did not spread through the ancient world while remaining abstract: it took on language and flesh in each great apostolic Church, in Jerusalem first, then in Antioch (where “the disciples were first called Christians”, Acts 11:26), in Alexandria, in Rome, in Edessa, in Constantinople — each major city developing its own Eucharistic pattern, its own calendar, its own anaphoras (Eucharistic prayers), its own chants^[16].

For Vatican II, this diversity is so essential that it cannot be reduced to a tolerance granted to non-Roman Churches: it is desired, protected, and honored by the universal Church as a treasure^[17]. The decree Orientalium Ecclesiarum goes even further: it explicitly affirms that the Churches of East and West have the right and the duty to govern themselves according to their own particular disciplines: “These, indeed, commend themselves by their venerable antiquity, are better suited to the customs of their faithful, and seem better adapted to ensure the good of souls”^[18]. Saint John Paul II summed up this intuition with an image that has become famous, in his ecumenical encyclical Ut Unum Sint:

“It is in this perspective that the fullest meaning is given to an expression I have used several times: the Church must breathe with her two lungs!” — Saint John Paul II, Ut Unum Sint, § 54, 25 May 1995^[19]

The idea that all lawfully recognized rites are equal in right and dignity is not a recent ecumenical slogan: it is a stable doctrinal principle of the Catholic magisterium at least since Leo XIII (1894), confirmed by Pius XII (1947), proclaimed by Vatican II (1963–1965), codified by John Paul II (1990), and reaffirmed by all his successors. This principle has very concrete canonical consequences: no rite may be compelled to adopt the usages of another, and the Latin Church — though by far the most numerous — has no superiority in dignity over the Eastern Churches.

Sacrosanctum Concilium § 4 and § 38: the conciliar charter

The constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, promulgated by the Second Vatican Council on 4 December 1963 as the council’s first document, contains the foundational affirmation:

“Finally, 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 that she wishes to preserve them in the future and to foster them in every way; and it desires that where necessary they be revised completely and prudently in the spirit of sound tradition and given new vigor to meet the circumstances and needs of today.” — Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium, § 4, 4 December 1963^[20]

This sentence contains in germ the whole Catholic doctrine on liturgical rites. It lays down three principles: (1) the equal dignity of lawfully recognized rites — no hierarchy of prestige between the Roman, Ambrosian, Byzantine, or Maronite rites; (2) the pastoral will to preserve and actively foster them; (3) the legitimacy of prudent revision when necessary, but always in fidelity to sound tradition. § 38 specifies a little further the legitimate margin of adaptation within the Roman rite itself:

“Provided that the substantial unity of the Roman rite is preserved, legitimate differences and adaptations to the diversity of assemblies, regions, and peoples, especially in mission lands, should be admitted, even in revising the liturgical books; and this principle should guide the arrangement of the structure of rites and the establishment of rubrics.” — Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium, § 38, 4 December 1963^[21]

It is precisely this paragraph that made possible, twenty-five years later, the approval by the Congregation for Divine Worship of the Missale Romanum pro Dioecesibus Zairensibus (1988) — the first officially approved inculturated missal within the Roman rite^[22].

Orientalium Ecclesiarum (1964): the charter of the Eastern rites

The council completes its liturgical doctrine with a decree entirely devoted to the Eastern Churches in full communion with Rome: Orientalium Ecclesiarum, promulgated on 21 November 1964 — that is, during the third session, almost a year after Sacrosanctum Concilium^[23]. The decree affirms from its opening:

“The Holy Catholic Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ, is made up of the faithful who are organically united in the Holy Spirit by the same faith, the same sacraments and the same government, and who, combining into various communities held together by a hierarchy, form particular Churches or rites. Between these Churches there exists an admirable communion, so that diversity within the Church, far from harming her unity, sets it forth.” — Second Vatican Council, decree Orientalium Ecclesiarum, § 2, 21 November 1964^[24]

§ 3 goes further and defuses from the outset any temptation to Latinization: the Eastern Catholic Churches are not an inferior category within the universal Church, they have nothing to catch up on the Latin model, they must not be assimilated to “secondary rites”: “these particular Churches […] are therefore equal in dignity, so that none of them is superior to the others by reason of its rite”^[25]. And § 5 lays down the golden rule of all post-conciliar Eastern pastoral care:

“History, tradition and the many ecclesiastical institutions bear outstanding witness to how much the Eastern Churches have merited of the universal Church. That is why the Council not only pays to this ecclesiastical and spiritual heritage the esteem and praise due to it, but firmly regards it as the heritage of the whole Church of Christ.” — Second Vatican Council, Orientalium Ecclesiarum, § 5^[26]

The CCEO (1990): the codification of proper law

What the council had laid down in principle, the Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium (CCEO) codifies into law, in a body of 1,546 canons promulgated by Saint John Paul II on 18 October 1990 via the apostolic constitution Sacri Canones^[27]. This code, distinct from the 1983 Latin Code of Canon Law, applies to all the Eastern Catholic Churches without exception. It is completed, in each sui iuris Church, by particular constitutions voted by its own synod.

Canons 27 to 41 of the CCEO lay down the fundamental definitions: what a sui iuris Church is (can. 27), what a rite is (can. 28 § 1, quoted above), how one belongs to a Church of proper law (can. 29–31), how one may transfer membership to another sui iuris Church (can. 32–38, transfer being juridically strict). Canon 39 recalls, as an untouchable charter, the duty of Eastern patriarchs, hierarchs, and all the faithful to carefully preserve their own rite, against any temptation of insidious Latinization.

The 1983 CIC: personal membership and transfer of rite

For the Latin Church, the Code of Canon Law promulgated by Saint John Paul II on 25 January 1983 governs in parallel the modalities of personal membership in a rite and of transfer between rites. Canon 111 § 1 provides that a child is, by baptism, enrolled in the Church of his parents (or of his father in case of disagreement); § 3 (numbering from De concordia inter codices, 2016) opens, at fourteen years of age, the freedom for the candidate for baptism to choose between the Latin Church and any other sui iuris Church. Canon 112 provides for the three cases of canonical transfer between Churches of proper law: (1) with the permission of the Apostolic See, (2) by marriage of a spouse who passes to the Church of the other spouse, (3) for children under fourteen when the parents transfer their own membership^[28]. These canons were slightly modified by Pope Francis’s motu proprio De concordia inter codices of 31 May 2016, which harmonizes the provisions of the CIC and the CCEO in cases of inter-rite mixed marriages.

Membership in a rite is therefore, in Catholic doctrine, personal (and not merely geographic or parochial): one is born into a given rite by baptism or profession, and remains there except by regular canonical transfer. A Frenchman who attends the Maronite liturgy every Sunday remains a faithful of the Roman rite if he was baptized as such, and vice versa. This juridical stability is what protects, on a worldwide scale, the survival of the small Eastern Churches in the diaspora.

Although the expression “Latin rite” is often used in the singular — as opposed to the “Eastern rites” — there are in reality several distinct rites within the single Latin Church. All descend from the ancient Latin liturgy, elaborated between Rome, Milan, and Visigothic Hispania from the 4th to the 7th century. All share Latin as their historic liturgical language, the Roman liturgical calendar in its broad lines, and the same sacramental deposit. But their euchologies (prayer texts), gestures, proper calendars, and systems of chant diverged enough for us to speak today of several rites in the canonical sense.

The Roman rite: the common trunk of Catholic West

The Roman rite is by far the most practiced liturgical rite in all of Christendom: it brings together about 1.37 billion faithful, more than 98% of the world’s Catholics^[29]. It takes its name from the liturgy of the Church of Rome, elaborated progressively between the 3rd and 7th centuries, codified in the great Roman sacramentaries (Leonine, Gelasian, Gregorian — circa 590–750), then spread throughout the Carolingian West at the impetus of Charlemagne, who asked Adrian I for a “pure” sacramentary and imposed its use throughout the empire.

Throughout the Middle Ages, the Roman rite coexisted with numerous local usages (Sarum at Salisbury, the usages of Paris, Lyon, Toledo, etc.) which constitute so many diocesan variants of the Roman trunk. The Tridentine reform (1545–1563) decided to put an end to this fragmentation. In accordance with the decrees of the Council of Trent, Saint Pius V, a Dominican and friar preacher, promulgated on 14 July 1570 by the bull Quo primum tempore the unified Missale Romanum, whose use became obligatory throughout the Latin Church^[30]. Pius V nevertheless granted a major exception: local liturgies attested for more than two hundred years (hence prior to 1370) could keep their own usage. This clause saved the Ambrosian rite (Milan), the Hispano-Mozarabic rite (Toledo), the Lyonese rite, the Carthusian rite, the Dominican rite, the Carmelite rite, and the Premonstratensian rite.

The Tridentine Roman Missal of 1570 would be revised several times (Clement VIII 1604, Urban VIII 1634, Leo XIII 1884, Pius X 1911, Pius XII 1956 for Holy Week, John XXIII 1962), but its essential structure remained unchanged for nearly four hundred years. This missal, in its last typical edition under John XXIII (1962), is what is today called the ancient Roman usage.

The Roman rite in its present forms: 2002 and 1962

Since the conciliar reform promulgated by Paul VI, the single Roman rite exists in practice in two main liturgical forms:

• The now-ordinary form of the Roman rite, celebrated according to the Roman Missal promulgated by Paul VI by the apostolic constitution Missale Romanum of 3 April 1969^[31], whose editio typica tertia (third typical edition) was published by Saint John Paul II in 2002 and revised in 2008. This form is, since 2021, the “sole expression of the lex orandi of the Roman rite” (“the rule of prayer”) in the very words of the motu proprio Traditionis custodes;
• The ancient Roman usage, celebrated according to the 1962 Roman Missal (last pre-conciliar typical edition, under John XXIII). Widely liberalized by Benedict XVI in his motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of 7 July 2007 — which then made it the “extraordinary form” of the same single Roman rite^[32] — this usage has been heavily restricted since 16 July 2021 by Pope Francis’s motu proprio Traditionis custodes^[33].

The ordinary form differs from the ancient form in several major features: (1) three new Eucharistic Prayers added to the historic Roman Canon (which becomes Eucharistic Prayer I) — Eucharistic Prayer II inspired by Hippolytus of Rome (3rd c.), III written anew, IV inspired by Eastern anaphoras; (2) a considerably enriched lectionary (three-year Sunday cycle, two-year weekday cycle); (3) a simplified ordo missae, with the restoration of the universal prayer and the possibility of Communion under both kinds for the faithful; (4) the optional use of the vernacular alongside Latin — a use that has in practice become universal everywhere. The essential structure of the Mass (introductory rites, Liturgy of the Word, Liturgy of the Eucharist, concluding rites) nevertheless remains identical to that of the Roman Canon.

Traditionis custodes (2021): the single “lex orandi” (the rule of prayer)

Fourteen years after Summorum Pontificum, Pope Francis published on 16 July 2021 the motu proprio Traditionis custodes on the use of the Roman liturgy prior to the 1970 reform. Article 1 contains a central affirmation that significantly revises Benedict XVI’s doctrine:

“The liturgical books promulgated by the Holy Pontiffs Paul VI and John Paul II, in conformity with the decrees of Vatican Council II, are the unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite.” — Pope Francis, motu proprio Traditionis custodes, art. 1, 16 July 2021^[34]

Article 8 of the same motu proprio explicitly abrogates Summorum Pontificum and Universae Ecclesiae: “previous norms, instructions, concessions and customs that do not conform to the present motu proprio are abrogated”^[35]. Concretely, the motu proprio now subjects celebration according to the 1962 Missal to explicit authorization by the diocesan bishop (and no longer possible of its own right — iure proprio — for every priest), restricts the places of celebration, and mandates the bishop to verify that groups attached to the old missal recognize the validity and legitimacy of the conciliar reforms. The Responsa ad dubia published on 18 December 2021 by the Congregation for Divine Worship (dated 4 December 2021) specify the application: confirmation and the other sacraments according to the 1962 ritual are withdrawn, and the bishop may not grant these celebrations in parish churches without express authorization from the Holy See^[36].

This decision, presented by Francis as an act of pastoral governance intended to protect the unity of the Church against sedevacantist or anti-conciliar temptations, sparked strong controversy: many faithful attached to the old missal see in it a break with the doctrine of Summorum Pontificum, where Benedict XVI had written that “what was sacred for past generations remains sacred and great for us too.” The canonical and theological discussion remains open. At the time of writing (October 2026, under the pontificate of Leo XIV), no act modifying Traditionis custodes has been published: the framework in force therefore remains that of the unicity of the Roman rite, whose normative expression is the 2002 Missal^[37].

The Ambrosian rite: the liturgy of Saint Ambrose in Milan

The Ambrosian rite is the particular Latin liturgy celebrated in most of the Archdiocese of Milan (northern Italy), in a few parishes of the neighboring dioceses of Bergamo, Como, Lodi, and Novara, and in the Swiss diocese of Lugano (Ticino) which historically depends on Milan. The Archdiocese of Milan numbers about 5 million Catholics, making it the second Latin rite by number — far behind the Roman rite but ahead of all other particular Latin or Eastern rites^[38].

The Ambrosian rite takes its name from Saint Ambrose (340–397), bishop of Milan from 374 to 397, Doctor of the Church, who baptized Saint Augustine on Easter night 387. Ambrose is not the sole author of the rite — which was elaborated progressively between the 4th and 8th centuries in Milan, then in the suffragan dioceses — but he is its tutelary figure. The rite underwent several waves of Romanization during the Middle Ages (notably under Saint Charles Borromeo in the 16th century), but always resisted total absorption by the Roman rite. The clause opened by Saint Pius V in 1570 (Quo primum: preservation of rites attested for more than two hundred years) allowed it to survive the Tridentine unification intact.

On the liturgical plane, the Ambrosian rite differs from the Roman rite in several remarkable features:

• Its own liturgical calendar: Ambrosian Lent begins on the Sunday following the Roman Ash Wednesday — in other words, Ash Wednesday does not exist in the Ambrosian rite, and Milan knows five days of “extended carnival” (until sabato grasso) unknown to the rest of the Catholic world;
• A markedly different Paschal Triduum: the Ambrosian Easter Vigil and Good Friday office preserve archaic structures inherited from ancient Syrian liturgy;
• Its own liturgical chant (Ambrosian chant), distinct from Gregorian, which survives in several Milanese basilicas;
• Its own euchology: Ambrosian prefaces, orations, and anaphoras have their particular formularies;
• Three Sunday readings since antiquity — an innovation the Roman reform only adopted in 1969.

Following Vatican II, Cardinal Giovanni Colombo, Archbishop of Milan, promulgated on 11 April 1976 under the authority of Paul VI the reformed Ambrosian Missal, which adapts to the Ambrosian rite the principles of Sacrosanctum Concilium (vernacular language, enriched lectionary, simplification of the ordo) while preserving the essential particularities of the Milanese tradition^[39].

The Ambrosian rite is therefore, still today, a living rite, celebrated each Sunday by millions of Italian and Ticinese faithful, in the only case in the world of a great Catholic metropolis where a non-Roman Latin rite is the ordinary liturgy of the cathedral and the parishes.

The Hispano-Mozarabic rite: the Visigothic liturgy of Toledo

The Hispano-Mozarabic rite is the direct heir of the Visigothic liturgy celebrated in the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to the 11th century, before the arrival of the Roman rite imposed by the Castilian kings and their Cluniac allies. It received its doctrinal codification at the Fourth Council of Toledo (633), presided over by Saint Isidore of Seville, which established the liturgical unity of the Visigothic kingdom. The Hispanic liturgy was then of remarkable richness: it preserved a great variety of Eucharistic anaphoras (the Illationes, equivalents of the Roman prefaces) and a lectionary with three Sunday readings from the very beginning.

From 1080–1085 onward, under Alfonso VI of Castile and Gregory VII, the Hispanic liturgy was progressively supplanted by the Roman rite throughout the reconquered peninsula, except in Toledo where six Mozarabic parishes preserving the old usage survived. It is this islet that Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros (1436–1517), Archbishop of Toledo and regent of Castile, saved four centuries later. Cisneros had printed in 1500 a Missale Mixtum (printed Mozarabic Missal) and a Breviarum Gothicum, and founded the Capilla Mozárabe (Mozarabic chapel) in Toledo Cathedral, endowed with its own chapter charged with daily celebration of the Mozarabic liturgy^[40].

Following Vatican II, the Archbishop of Toledo, Msgr. Marcelo González Martín (cardinal in 1973) undertook a scholarly and pastoral restoration of the Mozarabic rite, in the spirit of Sacrosanctum Concilium and Orientalium Ecclesiarum. In 1982 he had a liturgical commission formed, bringing together philologists, theologians, and liturgists, which led to the publication, on 18 December 1991, of the Missale Hispano-Mozarabicum, volume I (Ordo Missae and temporal euchology), followed between 1991 and 1995 by the Liber Commicus (lectionary) and the other necessary liturgical books^[41]. Since 1992, celebration of the Mozarabic rite has also been authorized outside Toledo in several designated parishes across Spain.

Although numerically very modest — a few thousand faithful attached to the Capilla Mozárabe of Toledo and the designated parishes — the Hispano-Mozarabic rite has the highest patrimonial value: it is the only living survival of the great pre-Roman Latin liturgy of late antiquity, a close relative of the Gallican liturgies (abolished in the 9th century) and Celtic (extinct in the 12th).

The rites of the religious orders

Besides the great diocesan rites, the Catholic West saw the birth in the Middle Ages of proper rites belonging to certain religious orders. All go back to the 12th–13th centuries, when each great religious family sought to codify its own liturgy in a spirit of spiritual identity. Pius V’s clause in 1570 (rites attested for more than two hundred years) allowed them to survive. Four main religious rites coexisted with the Roman rite in the modern West: the Carthusian, Dominican, Premonstratensian, and Carmelite rites. Their present status differs: only the Carthusian rite remains in full use; the Dominican rite survives only in restricted use, while the Premonstratensian rite (abandoned in 1970) and the Carmelite rite (supplanted after Vatican II) are historical forms.

The Carthusian rite: the austere liturgy of the Carthusians

The Carthusian rite is the proper liturgy of the Carthusians, the order founded by Saint Bruno in 1084 at the Grande Chartreuse (Chartreuse mountains, France). Codified during the 12th century, it is characterized by an extreme sobriety willed by Carthusian eremitical spirituality: no polyphony, no organ or musical instruments, very stripped-down Carthusian monastic chant (akin to primitive Gregorian), no processions (except on Holy Thursday and Corpus Christi), a daily office of exceptional length (up to six to eight hours of choral prayer). The Carthusian rite is the only medieval religious rite still fully alive in the Catholic West: it continues to be celebrated in all the charterhouses (some twenty houses of monks and nuns in the world), notably at the Grande Chartreuse, the Chartreuse of Sélignac, and the Charterhouse of Serra San Bruno in Calabria^[42]. The rite was adapted to the directives of the Second Vatican Council while preserving its essential characteristics.

The Dominican rite: a missal codified in the 13th century

The Dominican rite is the proper liturgy of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), founded by Saint Dominic in 1216. The rite was fixed in the mid-1250s under Master General Humbert of Romans (correction approved in 1254–1256), who established its “Prototype” — a manuscript liturgical corpus whose copy is preserved in the Order’s general archives in Rome (ms. XIV L1)^[43]. The Dominican rite presents several notable particularities: an ordo missae more sober than the Tridentine Roman rite — at the foot of the altar, neither Introibo nor the psalm Judica me as in the Roman rite, but a proper formula (Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus) —, proper chants (notably for the Salve Regina that closes each day), and a strong Marian structure (the Order being placed under the particular patronage of the Virgin)^[44]. The Dominican rite was celebrated without interruption from the 13th century until the general chapter of River Forest in 1968, which decided the adoption of the reformed Roman rite for the whole Order. Since Summorum Pontificum (2007), it has seen a partial restoration in several priories, and it continues to be celebrated by the Fraternity of Saint Vincent Ferrer (1988 indult) and by Dominican fathers attached to the Order’s traditional liturgy.

The Premonstratensian rite and the Carmelite rite

The Premonstratensian rite was the proper liturgy of the Canons Regular of Prémontré, the order founded by Saint Norbert in 1120 at Prémontré Abbey (Aisne, France). In use for eight centuries, it was abandoned in 1970 in favor of the reformed Roman rite.

The Carmelite rite was the proper liturgy of Carmel (Ancient Observance and Discalced), elaborated from the 12th century in the hermitages of Mount Carmel in the Holy Land and codified after the Carmelites settled in Western Europe. Issued from the usage of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (the rule of Carmel, circa 1210, prescribed to the hermits to follow the approved usage of the patriarchal Church of Jerusalem)^[45], it was largely supplanted by the Roman rite after Vatican II.

The Lyonese rite: the liturgy of the primatial see of the Gauls

The Lyonese rite is the proper liturgy of the Archdiocese of Lyon, one of the oldest episcopal sees of Gaul — Saint Pothinus is attested as bishop there from the second half of the 2nd century, and his successor Saint Irenaeus (circa 130–202), Doctor of the Church and author of Adversus Haereses, is its great tutelary figure. The rite, attested since the 9th century, is of Romano-Frankish structure but preserves its own ceremonial particularities: numerous cope-wearing ministers at pontifical Masses, altars with seven candles (instead of six), a distinct incensation procession, liturgical gestures codified in the archbishop’s ceremonial^[46].

The Lyonese rite underwent a sharp decline after Vatican II and the Roman reform of 1969–1970, which all but supplanted it in ordinary parish life. It survives today on a chiefly honorary basis: solemn pontifical celebrations at the Primatiale Saint-Jean of Lyon (the cathedral, seat of the Primate of the Gauls), weekly celebrations in the traditional rite at Saint-Georges church in Lyon, and the preservation of ceremonial elements in several major diocesan liturgies.

The Zairian usage of the Roman rite: the Roman Missal for the Dioceses of Zaire (1988)

The Missale Romanum pro Dioecesibus Zairensibus — Roman Missal for the dioceses of Zaire (which became the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1997) — is the only inculturated usage officially approved by the Holy See in the spirit of Sacrosanctum Concilium § 38 (legitimate adaptations to the diversity of peoples). It was approved by the Congregation for Divine Worship on 30 April 1988 after an elaboration begun in the 1960s by the Episcopal Conference of Zaire^[47].

On the canonical plane, the Zairian usage is not a distinct rite in the strict sense of CCEO can. 28: it is a usage of the Roman rite, into which several elements proper to Congolese and African culture have been integrated without touching the essential structure of the Mass or sacramental validity. These adaptations include notably: the invocation of the ancestors in the faith (canonized African saints, but also local evangelizing figures) during the entrance rite, the penitential rite placed after the homily (rather than before the Liturgy of the Word), the sign of peace immediately after the penitential rite, the use of African percussion (tam-tam, balafon, mbira) and liturgical dance, notably during the presentation of the gifts, and chants composed in the great Congolese melodic tradition.

Pope Francis celebrated this Mass for the first time at Saint Peter’s in Rome on 1 December 2019, the 1st Sunday of Advent and the 25th anniversary of the creation of the chaplaincy of the Congolese community in Rome; he celebrated it again on 3 July 2022, still at Saint Peter’s in Rome with the Congolese community — the apostolic journey to the DRC planned for early July 2022 having been postponed for health reasons^[48]. These papal celebrations were interpreted as a strong sign of the central magisterium’s reception of the Zairian usage, and as an invitation to other Episcopal Conferences (notably in Cameroon, Burkina Faso, and Madagascar) to elaborate their own legitimate adaptations.

Divine Worship: the usage of the personal ordinariates within the Roman rite (2015)

On 4 November 2009, at the request of several groups of traditional Anglicans wishing to enter into full communion with Rome without renouncing their own liturgical and spiritual traditions, Benedict XVI signed the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus (dated 4 November 2009), which creates the canonical structure of the “personal ordinariates”:

“Without excluding liturgical celebrations according to the Roman Rite, the Ordinariate has the faculty to celebrate the Holy Eucharist and the other sacraments, the Liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical celebrations according to the liturgical books proper to the Anglican tradition, which have been approved by the Holy See, so as to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church, as a precious gift nourishing the faith of the members of the Ordinariate and as a treasure to be shared.” — Benedict XVI, apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, § III, 4 November 2009^[49]

Three personal ordinariates have been erected to date: the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham (United Kingdom, erected 15 January 2011), the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter (United States and Canada, erected 1 January 2012), and the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross (Australia and Japan, erected 15 June 2012). Altogether these three ordinariates bring together a few thousand faithful, several hundred priests (often former married Anglican pastors ordained Catholic priests by dispensation), and several dozen parishes^[50].

For their liturgical use, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, through the interdicasterial commission Anglicanae Traditiones, approved in 2015 Divine Worship: The Missal, brought into use from the 1st Sunday of Advent, 29 November 2015^[51]. This missal is not a distinct rite in the strict canonical sense: it is a form of the Roman rite into which elements proper to the Anglican Book of Common Prayer have been integrated (in particular the hieratic sacral English of the 16th–17th centuries, the collects of Thomas Cranmer purified of all doctrinal ambiguity, certain formularies of blessing and certain chants), while guaranteeing sacramental validity and doctrinal continuity with the Catholic Church.

Besides the Latin Church, the Catholic Church numbers twenty-three Eastern Catholic sui iuris Churches in full communion with Rome. All use one of the five great Eastern liturgical traditions inherited from the first Christian millennium. These traditions and their sui iuris Churches are the subject of a dedicated Ignispedia article — see The Eastern Catholic Churches. Here we give only a synoptic reminder centered on the liturgical dimension.

The Alexandrian tradition

Issuing from the liturgy of Saint Mark at Alexandria, this liturgical tradition is carried by three Eastern Catholic Churches of Northeast Africa: the Coptic Catholic Church (Egypt, about 195,000 faithful), the Ethiopian Catholic Church (about 75,000), and the Eritrean Catholic Church (about 170,000). All use the Alexandrian rite in its Coptic forms (in Coptic and Arabic) or Ethiopian forms (in Ge’ez, the classical Ethiopian liturgical language). The liturgy of Saint Mark, completed by the anaphoras of Cyril, Basil, and Gregory, is one of the most hieratic and most ancient in Christendom.

The Antiochian tradition (West Syriac)

Three sui iuris Churches belong to it: the Maronite Church (Lebanon, about 3.5 million faithful^[52], the only Eastern Church without a counterpart Orthodox Church^[53]), the Syriac Catholic Church (about 195,000), and the Syro-Malankara Church (India, about 460,000). All use the Antiochian West-Syriac liturgy in its classical form of the Holy Qurbana celebrated in Syriac — a late form of Aramaic, the language spoken by Christ — and progressively also in Arabic or Malayalam according to country.

The Armenian tradition

The Armenian Catholic Church (about 740,000 faithful, scattered between Armenia, Lebanon, Syria, France, the United States, and Latin America) is the direct heir of the Armenian liturgy elaborated from the 5th century in the Armenian kingdom — which tradition holds to be the first kingdom in the world to have officially embraced Christianity (traditional date: 301, under the evangelization of Saint Gregory the Illuminator; modern historians also propose 314, after the Edict of Milan)^[54]. The Armenian liturgy is celebrated in classical Armenian (grabar) and presents unique archaic features (for example, the use of pure wine without water in the chalice, inherited from the most ancient liturgical usage of Cappadocia).

The Chaldean tradition (East Syriac)

Two sui iuris Churches are its heirs: the Chaldean Catholic Church (issued in 1553 from the Church of the East, about 630,000 faithful in Iraq and the diaspora) and the Syro-Malabar Church (India, about 4.5 million faithful, direct descendants of the Saint Thomas Christians). Their principal Eucharistic liturgy, the Holy Qurbana, originally employed the Liturgy of Addai and Mari, one of the oldest preserved Christian anaphoras — Addai and Mari being considered by tradition as two of the Seventy-Two disciples of Christ. Notably: by the Guidelines for Admission to the Eucharist between the Chaldean Church and the Assyrian Church of the East (decision of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of 17 January 2001, approved by John Paul II and made public on 26 October 2001), the Holy See recognized the validity of the anaphora of Addai and Mari — including without an explicit account of the words of institution — solely for the purposes of reciprocal Eucharistic admission, in cases of pastoral necessity, between these two Churches^[55].

The Byzantine tradition

This is by far the most numerous tradition in sui iuris Churches: fourteen Churches belong to it, the most important being the Ukrainian Greek Catholic (about 4.5 million faithful), the Melkite Greek Catholic (about 1.6 million, chiefly in Lebanon, Syria, Israel-Palestine, and the diaspora), the Romanian Greek Catholic (about 510,000), the Ruthenian Catholic (about 420,000), and the Hungarian Greek Catholic (about 290,000). All use the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom (the most frequent), of Saint Basil the Great (for solemn days), or of Saint Gregory the Great (Presanctified, celebrated on certain days of Great Lent), celebrated in Greek, Arabic, Church Slavonic, Ukrainian, Romanian, Hungarian, or Italo-Albanian according to the Church^[56].

The Byzantine liturgy is, by its structure, its duration (often more than an hour and a half for the Sunday Divine Liturgy), its symbolic richness (iconostasis, processions, abundant incense, antiphonal chants), and its pneumatological theology (the epiclesis to the Holy Spirit is central there), profoundly different from the Latin liturgy. It illustrates, better than any other, what Vatican II calls the equal dignity of the rites: a Melkite or Ukrainian Greek Catholic faithful does not celebrate a “variant” of the Roman rite — he celebrates another entire apostolic form of the one Eucharistic mystery of Christ.

The history of the Catholic liturgical rites is inseparable from the history of the spread of Christianity. It is marked by three great moments: the formation of the great ancient rites (1st–8th century), the Tridentine unification (1570) which standardized the Roman rite in the West, and the conciliar reform of the 20th century (1969–1970) which produced the present missals.

The diversity of the first millennium

In the early centuries, Christian liturgy knew no international uniformity. Each great apostolic Church — Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Rome, Edessa, Constantinople — developed its own euchology, its own calendar, and its own lectionary, in substantial fidelity to the apostolic tradition and the canon of the Scriptures. The Eucharistic anaphoras — that is, the Eucharistic prayers in the technical sense — multiplied: the anaphora of Saint James at Jerusalem, the anaphora of Saint Mark at Alexandria, the anaphora of Hippolytus of Rome (circa 215, later the origin of Eucharistic Prayer II of the Missal of Paul VI), the anaphora of Addai and Mari at Edessa (1st–2nd c., still in use among Chaldeans and Syro-Malabars), the anaphora of Saint Basil the Great in Cappadocia (4th c.), the anaphora of Saint John Chrysostom at Antioch then Constantinople (4th–5th c., still the most used in the whole Byzantine world), and many others.

At Rome itself, the Roman Canon took its definitive form between the 4th and 7th centuries (the mention of the saints of the Canon — Linus, Cletus, Clement… — is attributed to Saint Gregory the Great, pope from 590 to 604). It would be the sole Eucharistic anaphora of the Roman rite for more than thirteen hundred years, until Paul VI’s reform added three new Eucharistic Prayers to it in 1969.

In the West, alongside Rome, lived the Gallican liturgies (in Gaul, until Charlemagne imposed the Romano-Frankish rite in the 9th century), Celtic (in Ireland and among the insular Britons, until the 12th century), Mozarabic (in Visigothic Hispania, supplanted in the 11th century except at Toledo), and Ambrosian (at Milan, which survives to this day). This is the only period of Western history in which four great distinct Latin rites coexisted on European soil.

The Council of Trent and Quo primum (1570): the unification of the Roman rite in the West

The great Council of Trent (1545–1563), convened to answer the Protestant Reformation, asked the Roman Church for a liturgical reform that would end the medieval fragmentation of diocesan usages. Saint Pius V, a Dominican elected pope in 1566, executed the conciliar decision and promulgated by the apostolic bull Quo primum tempore of 14 July 1570 the unified Missale Romanum:

Saint Pius V therein decreed that, in all the churches of the Christian world, Mass would henceforth no longer be sung or said according to any formulary other than that of the Missal thus promulgated — with the already-mentioned exception of liturgies attested for more than two hundred years^[57].

The bull nevertheless reserved — as already mentioned — the major exception of rites attested for more than two hundred years: thanks to this clause, the Ambrosian rite, the Hispano-Mozarabic rite, the Lyonese rite, the Carthusian rite, the Dominican rite, the Carmelite rite, and the Premonstratensian rite survived the unification. The Tridentine Roman Missal would see punctual revisions under Clement VIII (1604), Urban VIII (1634), Leo XIII (1884), Saint Pius X (1911), Pius XII (1956, reform of Holy Week), and Saint John XXIII (1962), but its fundamental structure remained unchanged for four centuries.

The Liturgical Movement (19th–20th century)

From the mid-19th century onward, a great movement of liturgical renewal crossed the Catholic Church. Born in France with the restoration of Saint-Pierre Abbey of Solesmes by Dom Prosper Guéranger in 1833, continued by the great Belgian (Mont-César with Dom Lambert Beauduin, from 1909), German (Maria Laach, Klosterneuburg), and French centers (Centre de Pastorale Liturgique, founded in Paris in 1943), this movement aimed to rediscover the liturgy as source and summit of Christian life, beyond mere external rubricism. Saint Pius X opened the way for it magisterially with his motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini of 22 November 1903 on sacred music, which calls the faithful to “take a more active part in the ecclesiastical office.” Forty-four years later, Pius XII gave it its doctrinal charter in the encyclical Mediator Dei of 20 November 1947, the first pontifical encyclical entirely devoted to the liturgy^[58].

For a detailed panorama of this decisive movement, see The Liturgical Movement (1832-1963).

Vatican II and the reform of the Roman Missal (1969)

The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) welcomed all the intuitions of the Liturgical Movement and promulgated them in the constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium of 4 December 1963, the council’s first document. The constitution called for a revision of the Roman liturgical books “so that their meaning may appear more clearly” and to allow active participation of the faithful (actuosa participatio).

Implementation was entrusted to a Consilium ad exsequendam Constitutionem de Sacra Liturgia chaired by Cardinal Lercaro then Cardinal Gut, and strongly animated by Archbishop Annibale Bugnini. On 3 April 1969, Paul VI promulgated by the apostolic constitution Missale Romanum the restored Roman Missal, which progressively entered into use from Advent 1969 (English and other vernaculars followed in 1970)^[59]. The typical editions followed one another: 1970, 1975 (revised), and 2002 (under John Paul II, the third typical edition currently in force, slightly revised in 2008).

Benedict XVI, Francis, and the current debates

Benedict XVI published on 7 July 2007 the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, which described the 1962 Missal as the “extraordinary form” of the Roman rite and widely liberalized its use: any priest could celebrate it without special authorization, and any stable group of faithful could request it from its pastor. The motu proprio defended the idea of an organic continuity between the two forms of the same single Roman rite. In his accompanying letter to the bishops (same date), Benedict XVI wrote: “What was sacred for previous generations remains great and sacred for us”^[60].

Fourteen years later, Francis published Traditionis custodes (16 July 2021) which abrogated Summorum Pontificum and significantly restricted the use of the 1962 Missal (see above). This decision opened an intense controversy in the Catholic world, which continues at the time of writing (October 2026), after notably the Responsa ad dubia of 4 December 2021 (published 18 December 2021)^[61]. In July 2026, Cardinal Arthur Roche, Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship, declared in an interview granted to the British weekly The Tablet (published 29 July 2026) that, in his view, Leo XIV intended neither to modify Traditionis custodes nor to return to Summorum Pontificum. In August 2026, Leo XIV himself confirmed this framework by a message addressed to Cardinal Roche and to the participants of the liturgical colloquium at Mount Angel Abbey (Oregon), recalling the respect due to the rites promulgated by Paul VI and John Paul II — without modifying Traditionis custodes^[62]. On this matter as on others, the hermeneutic of continuity recalled by Benedict XVI in his famous address of 22 December 2005 to the Roman Curia remains the magisterial compass: the liturgical reforms of Vatican II and their post-conciliar applications are not a break with the earlier Roman liturgy, but an organic development called to integrate the best of tradition.

The table below summarizes the main liturgical rites currently in use in the Catholic Church, classified by major liturgical tradition, with their reference sui iuris Church, their present form, and their estimated faithful. It is not exhaustive (in particular, the numerous minority Byzantine Churches of the diaspora are grouped under the common entry “other Byzantine Catholics”; the rites of religious orders no longer in regular liturgical use are not listed).

Reading the table — The five great Eastern traditions together bring together about 18 million faithful; the Roman rite in all its forms about 1.37 billion^[64]. Catholic liturgical diversity thus remains, in numbers, massively unbalanced in favor of the Roman rite: this is precisely why the magisterium since Leo XIII insists so much on the duty to actively preserve the Eastern rites against all Latinization, and to value the minority Latin rites (Ambrosian, Mozarabic) against any temptation of forced Roman uniformization.

This article belongs to an Ignispedia collection devoted to liturgy and to Catholic unity and diversity:

• The Eastern Catholic Churches — the 23 sui iuris Churches in full communion with Rome
• The Liturgical Movement (1832-1963) — from Dom Guéranger’s Solesmes to Sacrosanctum Concilium
• The Great Eastern Schism — the symbolic 1054 rupture between Rome and Constantinople
• The Chinese Rites Controversy (1610-1939) — Jesuit inculturation and the long Roman debates
• The Real Eucharistic Presence — the doctrine common to all Catholic rites
• Those who call themselves Catholic but reject the present authority — the ecclesial debate surrounding Traditionis custodes