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Latin Rite, in the singular and accompanied, in English, by the definite article ("the Latin Rite"), designates the particular Church, within the Catholic Church, which developed in western Europe and northern Africa, when Latin was the language of education and culture, and so also of the liturgy. It is now present in all continents and is the majority Rite or particular Church within the Catholic Church. It is also called the Western Church, distinct from the Eastern Rite Churches, whose liturgies use the languages dominant in their areas at the time of their formation or a modern language such as Arabic. The Latin Church is a third term, used, for instance in the opening canon of both the 1917 and the 1983 editions of the Code of Canon Law.

The term Latin rite is used also, in singular or plural ("a Latin rite" or "(the) Latin rites"), to refer to one or more of the forms of sacred liturgy used in different parts of this Latin Church. (See Latin liturgical rites.) They include the widely used Roman Rite, the Ambrosian Rite of Milan and neighbouring areas, and the Mozarabic Rite, in limited use in Spain, above all at Toledo. The Roman Rite replaced other Latin liturgical rites at various times: the Carolingian emperors favoured it in their territory; Pope Pius V suppressed those with an antiquity of less than two centuries; and several religious orders abandoned theirs after the Second Vatican Council, when languages other than Latin began to be generally used in the Latin-Rite liturgies.

Some treat the term "Roman Catholic" as synonymous with "Latin Rite", a usage not found in official documents of the Catholic Church itself.

Distinctiveness of the Latin Rite or Church

The Latin Rite (in the first-mentioned sense) is distinguished from others not only by the use of the aforementioned liturgies, but also by customs, practices and Canon law distinct from those of the Eastern Churches. In these, Confirmation is conferred immediately after the baptism of an infant, but in the Latin or Western Church it is normally administered only to people who have reached the age of reason. Celibacy is obligatory for Latin-Rite priests, though in the Eastern Rites ordination to priesthood (but not to the episcopate) may be conferred on married men. Bishops are appointed directly by the Pope, while Eastern patriarchal and major archiepiscopal Churches elect bishops for their own territory (though not outside it), receiving from the Pope only letters of acknowledgement.

Canon law for the Latin-Rite Church was codified in the Code of Canon Law of 1917. Pope John Paul II promulgated a completely revised edition in 1983.http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_INDEX.HTM

Distinctiveness of the Latin Rite or Church

See also