Liturgical Latinisation

Liturgical Latinisation, also known as Latinisation, is the process by which liturgical and other aspects of the churches of Eastern Christianity (particularly the Eastern Catholic churches) were altered to resemble more closely the practices of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church. This process particularly occurred in the 18th and 19th centuries, until it was forbidden by Pope Leo XIII in 1894 with his encyclical Orientalium dignitas. Latinisation is a contentious issue in many churches and has been considered responsible for various schisms.

In recent years the Eastern Catholic churches have been returning to ancient Eastern practices in accord with the Second Vatican Council's decree Orientalium Ecclesiarum. The decree mandated that authentic Eastern Catholic practices were not to be set aside in favour of imported Latin Rite practices. This further encouraged the movement to return to authentic Eastern liturgical practice, theology and spirituality.

In a somewhat similar development, practices once associated only with the West, such as polyphonic choirs, icons in the style of the Western Renaissance, as in the Cretan School of painting, or even of the Baroque period, and pews, have been adopted also in certain Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches and are today the object of controversy or have been abandoned.

See also

• The Courage To Be Ourselves, Eastern Catholic pastoral letter addressing Latinisation
• Latin liturgical rites

External links

• Latinisation and De-latinisation in the Melkite Catholic Church, found in Chapter 2 of Bearers of Mysteries
• Orientalium dignitas