Latin Church

The word Church (ecclesia) is used in its first sense to express
whole congregation of Catholic Christendom united in one Faith,
obeying one hierarchy in communion with itself. This is the sense
of Matthew 16:18; 18:17; Ephesians 5:25-27, and so on. It is in
this sense that we speak of the Church without qualification, say
that Christ founded one Church, and so on. But the word is
constantly applied to the various individual elements of this
union. As the whole is the Church, the universal Church, so are
its parts the Churches of Corinth, Asia, France, etc. This second
use of the word also occurs in the New Testament (Acts 15:41; II
Corinthians 11:28; Apocalypse 1:4, 11, etc). Any portion then that
forms a subsidiary unity in itself may be called a local Church.
The smallest such portion is a diocese -- thus we speak of the
Church of Paris, of Milan, of Seville. Above this again we group
metropolitical provinces and national portions together as units,
and speak of the Church of Africa, of Gaul, of Spain. The
expression "Church of Rome", it should be noted, though commonly
applied by non-Catholics to the whole Catholic body, can only be
used correctly in this secondary sense for the local diocese (or
possibly the province) of Rome, mother and mistress of all
Churches. A German Catholic is not, strictly speaking, a member of
the Church of Rome but of the Church of Cologne, or Munich-
Freising, or whatever it may be, in union with and under the
obedience of the Roman Church (although, no doubt, by a further
extension Roman Church may be used as equivalent to Latin Church
for the patriarchate).

The word is also used very commonly for the still greater portions
that are united under their patriarchs, that is for the
patriarchates. It is in this sense that we speak of the Latin
Church. The Latin Church is simply that vast portion of the
Catholic body which obeys the Latin patriarch, which submits to
the pope, not only in papal, but also in patriarchal matters. It
is thus distinguished from the Eastern Churches (whether Catholic
or Schismatic), which represent the other four patriarchates
(Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem), and any
fractions broken away from them. The Latin patriarchate has always
been considerably the largest. Now, since the great part of
Eastern Christendom has fallen into schism, since vast new lands
have been colonized, conquered or (partly) converted by Latins
(America, Australia, etc.), the Latin part of the Catholic Church
looms so enormous as compared with the others that many people
think that everyone in communion with the pope is a Latin. This
error is fostered by the Anglican branch theory, which supposes
the situation to be that the Eastern Church is no longer in
communion with Rome. Against this we must always remember, and
when necessary point out, that the constitution of the Catholic
Church is still essentially what it was at the time of the Second
Council of Nicaea (787; see also canon 21 of Constantinople IV in
869 in the "Corp. Jur. can.", dist. xxii, c. vii). Namely, there
are still the five patriarchates, of which the Latin Church is
only one, although so great a part of the Eastern ones have fallen
away. The Eastern Churches, small as they are, still represent the
old Catholic Christendom of the East in union with the pope,
obeying him as pope, though not as their patriarch. All Latins are
Catholics, but not all Catholics are Latins. The old frontier
passed just east of Macedonia, Greece (Illyricum was afterwards
claimed by Constantinople), and Crete, and cut Africa west of
Egypt. All to the west of this was the Latin Church.

We must now add to Western Europe all the new lands occupied by
Western Europeans, to make up the present enormous Latin
patriarchate. Throughout this vast territory the pope reigns as
patriarch, as well as by his supreme position as visible head of
the whole Church with the exception of very small remnants of
other uses (Milan, Toledo, and the Byzantines of Southern Italy),
his Roman Rite is used throughout according to the general
principle that rite follows the patriarchate, that local bishops
use the rite of their patriarch. The medieval Western uses (Paris,
Sarum and so on), of which people at one time made much for
controversial purposes, were in no sense really independent rites,
as are the remnants of the Gallican use at Milan and Toledo. These
were only the Roman Rite with very slight local modifications.
From this conception we see that the practical disappearance of
the Gallican Rite, however much the archeologist may regret it, is
justified by the general principle that rite should follow
patriarchate. Uniformity of rite throughout Christendom has never
been an ideal among Catholics; but uniformity in each patriarchate
is. We see also that the suggestion, occasionally made by advanced
Anglicans, of a "Uniate" Anglican Church with its own rite and to
some extent its own laws (for instance with a married clergy) is
utterly opposed to antiquity and to consistent canon law. England
is most certainly part of the Latin patriarchate. When Anglicans
return to the old Faith they find themselves subject to the pope,
not only as head of the Church but also as patriarch. As part of
the Latin Church England must submit to Latin canon law and the
Roman Rite just as much as France or Germany. The comparison with
Eastern Rite Catholics rests on a misconception of the whole
situation. It follows also that the expression Latin (or even
Roman) Catholic is quite justifiable, inasmuch as we express by it
that we are not only Catholics but also members of the Latin or
Roman patriarchate. A Eastern Rite Catholic on the other hand is a
Byzantine, or Armenian, or Maronite Catholic. But a person who is
in schism with the Holy See is not, of course, admitted by
Catholics to be any kind of Catholic at all.

ADRIAN FORTESCUE
Transcribed by Michael C. Tinkler


From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.

Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).

This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the  entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
contribute to this  worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-
mail at (knight.org/advent). For  more information please download
the file cathen.txt/.zip.

-------------------------------------------------------

  Provided courtesy of:

       Eternal Word Television Network
       PO Box 3610
       Manassas, VA 22110
       Voice: 703-791-2576
       Fax: 703-791-4250
       Web: http://www.ewtn.com
       Email address: [email protected]

-------------------------------------------------------

You are viewing proxied material from gopher.ratthing.com. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.