Latin Church

Western Church is a redirect to this article. Further meanings are listed under Western Church (disambiguation) .

Latin Church

Latin Ecclesia Latina, Ecclesia Romana
Basic data
Jurisdiction status	Patriarchal Church
rite	roman rite
Liturgical language	Latin , national languages
calendar	Gregorian calendar
Establishment date	1st century
Seat	Rome
Hierarch	Pope Francis
statistics
Jurisdictions	2900
Believers	1,197,000,000
Bishops	5038
Status: 2015

The Latin Church or Roman Church , also called Western Church or Western Church , is the largest and most important ritual church of its own right within the Roman Catholic Church . Latin here refers to the rite or group of rites, the dominant of which is the Roman rite , and to the traditional church language Latin , which is used in this particular church. The 23 Eastern Catholic Churches , which use Orthodox or Oriental rites and other liturgical languages, are also part of the Roman Catholic Church. In a narrower sense, the term Roman Catholic Church is also used restricted to the Latin Church.

The Latin Church comprises the dioceses of the Patriarchate of Rome , which had changed over from the Greek to the Latin liturgical language since the 2nd century and retained this in their mission areas. This western part of the old church, just the Western Church, separated in a historic split process in the Great Schism peaked in 1054, from the eastern part of the church, the Eastern Churches . Later, parts of the various Eastern Churches joined the Roman Church, in particular by recognizing the primacy of the Pope and creating parallel hierarchies to their Orthodox ancestral churches; In doing so, however, they largely retained their legal independence and their ritual. These Eastern Catholic Churches are called uniate . The code of law of the Latin Church is the Codex Iuris Canonici ; in the United Churches the Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium applies .

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome both head of the whole Catholic Church and head of the Latin particular Church. Since the Council of Chalcedony in 451, the popes have also called themselves Patriarchs of the West or the West within the Justinian Pentarchy . After the 2nd Vatican , in 1964 the Latin Patriarchates of the East , which had been established during the crusade, were abolished again in the service of reconciliation with the Eastern Church and ecumenism with Orthodoxy and Pope Benedict XVI. put down the title of Patriarch of the West in 2006 .

Much of what is commonly regarded as “typically Catholic”, such as the celibacy of priests , the appointment of bishops by the Pope and numerous peculiarities of the liturgy and canon law , only applies to the Latin Church. However, most Catholic particular Churches eastern embossing for example, allow the ordination of married men to the priesthood, choose in many cases their own bishops, who are only confirmed by the Pope, and sit in their ecclesiastical and liturgical life otherwise closely to the tradition of their Orthodox origin churches .

As before, Latin is of fundamental importance as the church language for the liturgy of the Latin Church, even if the liturgy is mostly celebrated in the national language today. Ecclesiastical pronouncements and documents intended for the entire Latin Church are usually written in Latin and translated into other languages. Even negotiations before the papal courts are still held in Latin. However, the influence, the unifying effect and, last but not least, the knowledge of Latin in the Catholic Church has diminished in the last few decades.

In addition to the Pope, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem has its own patriarchal jurisdiction over Palestine and Cyprus and has since been the only incumbent Latin Patriarch with its own jurisdiction.

Liturgical rites

When speaking of the Latin rite or the Latin rites , one - usually the Roman - or the entirety of the liturgical rites that are or were in use in the Latin Church today or in the past can be meant. The following are particularly important:

• The Roman rite is so dominant in the Latin Church that it is often simply equated with the Latin. The liturgical books and forms of the Roman rite were extensively revised following the Second Vatican Council as part of the liturgical reform . Most celebrations today are no longer held in Latin only, but on the basis of authorized national language translations of the forms. This is especially true for Holy Mass . In addition, the celebration of Mass in the extraordinary form according to the missal from 1962 is permitted, which is somewhat imprecisely referred to as the “ Tridentine rite ” and is always held in Latin. In the 1980s, two other special forms of the Roman rite were permitted to a limited extent, the Zairean mass rite and the Anglican custom .
• The Ambrosian rite is still used alongside the Roman rite in most of the ecclesiastical province of Milan , in some neighboring areas and in about fifty parishes in the diocese of Lugano ( Switzerland ). This rite exists in a form worked out according to the specifications of the liturgical reform and is actually only celebrated in Italian.
• The Mozarabic rite is largely extinct, but is used sporadically and also only in a form based on the requirements of the liturgical reform in Spain , especially in and around Toledo . As early as in the context of the church reforms of the 11th century , it was replaced by the Roman rite in large parts of the Christian areas on the Iberian Peninsula under pressure from the then popes (see Reconquista ).
• The Glagolitic rite , which used to be widespread in Yugoslavia , has also almost died out and is now rarely celebrated.
• Other, previously existing rites, in particular special forms ( religious liturgies ) of certain orders or monastic communities, such as the Dominicans , Carthusians and Cistercians , special diocesan rites such as the "Rite Bracarensis" in the Archdiocese of Braga in Portugal or country-specific developments such as the Gallican rite in France have largely disappeared with the liturgical reform after the Second Vatican Council.
• The Anglican Rite with Roman elements is used in the personal ordinariates for former members of Anglican Rite Churches who are in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church without giving up their particular Anglican heritage. The basis for this personal ordinariate was in 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI. created with the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus . Since then, the staff ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham , the staff ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross and the personal ordinariate of the Kathedra Petri have been established.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rites of the Catholic Church. Dioceses, bishops. Retrieved January 30, 2015 . 
2. ↑ cf. Apostolic Journey of Pope Benedict XVI. to Turkey (November 28th - December 1st, 2006) . Joint declaration by Pope Benedict XVI. and Patriarch Bartholomew I.
3. ↑ The title was no longer given in the Annuario Pontificio 2006 under. Speculation was countered with an explanation. In particular, it was emphasized that the "West" was not very specific from ancient times, whether only the particular Latin Church (i.e. the classical-ancient West) or the entire Western world was meant, so the term of this patriarchy was out of date.
   Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity ( Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity ): Communique on Dropping of Papal Title . March 22, 2006 (English, pdf , lumenchristischool.org [accessed November 21, 2011] In: Church History , Chapter 5). pdf ( Memento of November 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Vatican explains why pope no longer 'patriarch of the West'. Catholic Online January 12, 2013; Archived from the original January 12, 2013 ; accessed on October 4, 2017 .