These Eastern Rites are no recent innovation in the Catholic Church, but they have existed in it right from the -beginnmg. They have always been protected and helped by the Popes, who consider them on an equality with the Roman rites and customs. As Pius XI puts it; "The Church of Jesus Christ is not Latin, not Greek, not Slavonic, but Catholic.
When Chtist Our Lord founded the Church and sent His Apostles into the world to teach all nations, He gave them a clear doctrine they must preach, clear truths about His Heavenly Father, the Holy Spirit and Himself and other divine teaching. He ordered them to baptize, forgive sins, change bread and wine into His Body and Blood and admimster the other Sacraments, But Me left the Church free as to the manner of doing this, what pinyers to use, in what language, and other secondary details, since these would vary according to the needs in different places, Liturgical Forms The different liturgical forms or rites naturally tended to "develop themselves according to the character and psychology of the people who used them. The type of prayer and ceremony which please the practical-minded Roman, made less appeal to the speculative Greek, and vice versa. As these prayers and ceremonies in no way touch the essentials of the Sacraments, in the days before litur-Bical forms were fixed, each people was entitled to express itself in the way it liked best. -That is why the Greek Rite is beautifully adapted to the character of the Greeks, and the Latin Rite to that of the west.
Hence, it is quite clear thet a Christian with Eastern blood in his veins will usually find it easier to pray ina church of an Eastern Rite than in a Western one. In this way it came about that, though for the first nine hundred years after Christ all Christianity was one in Faith, the ceremonial varied in different parts of the world. All the Bishops of the one Church, successors of the Apostles of Christ were united, and all looked to St. Peter's successor to confirm his brethren, when guidance was required, In ordinary times, the Pope's activity was confined to his more immediate work, as Bishop of Rome or Patriarch of the West. Only when questions concerning the good of the Universal Church ame up did he' intervene in the East, with his supreme authority of Pope. It was only when some great heresy or scandal or abuse occurred in the East, such as that in 858 and 1064, that he intervened. One of the lamentable results that followed was the great schism of East and West when the Church of Constantinople separated from Rome Greek Church The great Church of Constantinople was not and never has been excommunicated by the Popes, who accused her of no heresy, but she separated from Rome, and the other Oriental Patriarchates who were dependent on Constantinople, followed for lead. Russia at that time was also dependent on the Greeks in Church matters, Her first missionaries were from Greece, and these introduced the Greek rite into Russia, Sts, Cyril and Methodius translated this Greek rite into the language of the country and so ever since that time Russia uses the Greek ceremonies in the ancient Slavonic language. These ere the same ceremonies as now used in the Russian Catholic Church on Rue Bourgeat, Shanghai. The first Bishops of Russia were also Greeks, and when Constantinople separated from Rome these Bishops naturally followed that lead and dragged the whole of Russian Christianity with them. So it was that Russia became part of what is generally known as the Orthodox Church. The Faith and the Rites of the Orthodox Eastern Church during the 900 years since she sep-atated from Rome have remained practically the same, sà that now between Catholic and Orthodox the during the 900 years since she sep-ritual allegiance to the Pope.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.