CATHOLICS OF THE EASTERN RITES 

 IN THE UNITED STATES 



THE Catholic Church, with its expansion in every land 

 throughout the world and its existence since the days 

 of the Apostles, has always kept the faith intact. But 

 in doing so it has not at all times and in all places imposed the 

 same form of worship in every detail upon the faithful, nor 

 insisted upon the same language being used. This variation in 

 form and language constitutes the diversity of rite. 



In the beginning this could hardly have been otherwise. 

 The Apostles and their disciples scattered to various lands, 

 with various races and languages. In each locality the Church 

 grew up separately, save for the bond of union — the same- 

 ness and identity of the faith. Difference in manner of wor- 

 ship might be permitted, but no divergence in matters of 

 faith was allowed. 



The powerful, the civilized and cultivated East, with its 

 peculiar variations and attempts to break away from the faith, 

 elaborated one form of worship, whilst the West, uncivilized 

 except as to the Italian peninsula and Spain, elaborated an- 

 other form of worship, while both retained the same faith. 



The Eastern and Western Church 



The Catholic Church has existed in many lands and its wor- 

 ship has found many forms of expression throughout the ages 

 since the times of the Apostles. The two principal forms of 

 its worship, and particularly that of the Mass (or the Holy 

 Liturgy, as it is called in the Greek Church), have been the 

 one followed in the Eastern or Greek Church and the one in 

 the Western or Roman Church. The former was celebrated in 

 the Greek language, and the latter has always been celebrated 

 in the Latin tongue. The various rites and ceremonies of the 

 Mass, the usages and vestments of the priests, and the form of 

 the altar and sanctuary gradually grew to be quite different in 



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