Are there different types of Catholicism?

From time to time, people ask, “Are there different types of Catholicism?” The answer is, “Yes (sort of).”

Here’s what I mean. In the Church, there are several different rites: the Latin, Byzantine, Chaldean, Coptic, Syriac, Armenian and Maronite. Furthermore, there are several rites within these rites. For example, the Latin rite includes the Roman rite, the Ambrosian rite (found in Milan), and the Mozarabic rite (found in Toledo, Spain).

In our diocese, most are probably familiar with the Ukrainian churches found in Minot, Belfield and Wilton. If you would like to witness what the Ukrainian rite looks like, I highly recommend that you attend one of their Masses (or as they call it “Divine Liturgy”).  And, yes, going to their Mass on Sunday fulfills your obligation. The Ukrainian rite is one of the Byzantine rites. The Ukrainian rite Catholics, like all others of Catholic rites, are just as Catholic as us Roman Catholics. So yes, they are under the pope and believe all the same things that we do: the articles of the Creed, the sacraments, morality, all of it.

What is different about them is their liturgical heritage. The Catechism explains it this way: “The diverse liturgical traditions have arisen by very reason of the Church's mission. Churches of the same geographical and cultural area came to celebrate the mystery of Christ through particular expressions characterized by the culture: in the tradition of the ‘deposit of faith,’ in liturgical symbolism, in the organization of fraternal communion, in the theological understanding of the mysteries, and in various forms of holiness. Through the liturgical life of a local church, Christ, the light and salvation of all peoples, is made manifest to the particular people and culture to which that Church is sent and in which she is rooted. The Church is catholic, capable of integrating into her unity, while purifying them, all the authentic riches of cultures” (CCC 1202).

This is to say that all these rites possess the same Catholic faith (the “deposit of faith”) but in different areas of the world, different liturgical rites developed around the deposit of faith. While there is legitimate diversity of liturgy (which must be recognized by the highest authority of the Church), can there be legitimate diversity of belief? No. The deposit of faith was given to us by Christ and entrusted to the Apostles, to this we must all humbly submit ourselves.

I will conclude with the following from the Catholic Encyclopedia: "Within the Catholic Church ... Canonical rites, which are of equal dignity, enjoy the same rights, and are under the same obligations. Although the particular churches possess their own hierarchy, differ in liturgical and ecclesiastical discipline, and possess their own spiritual heritage, they are all entrusted to the pastoral government of the Roman pontiff, the divinely appointed successor of St. Peter in the Primacy.”

Fr. Greg Luger is pastor at the Churches of St. Jerome in Mohall, St. James in Sherwood and St. John in Lansford. If you have a question you were afraid to ask, now is the time to ask it! Simply email your question to [email protected] with the “Question Afraid to Ask” in the subject line.