www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Russian Converts and their Rite

Hello all,

I just want to confirm something quickly. A friend of mine is from Moscow, (born, raised, still lives there). She converted in July last year and attends Mass at the Latin Rite Cathedral in Moscow. Technically though, is she still of Eastern (Russian) Rite or is she Latin?

Thank you.

She was enrolled in closest ritual church, which would indeed be Russian Catholic.

Not just "Russian Rite," but the Russian Catholic Church, which is in communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

hawk

If your friend was a baptized and chrismated Orthodox Christian than she is indeed a member of the Russian Catholic Church (which uses the Byzantine rite). If she was not baptized but received the sacraments of initiation in the Latin rite Cathedral, then she is a member of the Latin Church. Of course, if she is a Russian Catholic and no Byzantine Catholics Churches are nearby she should attend Mass at her local Roman parish.

Depends on how she was received into the Catholic Church, as both Hawk and Nelson have noted. There is another scenario... if she had been received into the Catholic Church from Orthodoxy, she would be enrolled/ascribed into the Russian Catholic Church, and in addition she may have petitioned to change canonical enrollment/ascription from the Russian Catholic Church to the Latin Church.

Or, more likely, the Canons were ignored (either out of ignorance or 'politics') and she was enrolled as a Real Roman Catholic.

Me, cynical? Yes.

Amen, Amen, and Amen!