www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Which Rite am I?

Hey all,
I have a question regarding my heritage and which Catholic Rite I technically belong to. My dad, as far as I am aware was Latin (Roman) Catholic. My mom on the other hand was baptized and confirmed Ruthenian Catholic, but grew up in the Latin Church (Her dad was Byzantine and her mom was Latin), and then married my dad. As far as I am aware, my mom never officially changed rites. I was baptized in the Latin Church.

Now, I have been looking into this a bit, as I am starting to get more and more interested in the Eastern Churches and wanted to see if I have any kind of blood rite or something to the Byzantine Church. I found this from the Eastern Canon (from another forum post):

Canon 29 (Eastern Code)
1. By virtue of baptism, a child who has not yet completed his fourteenth year of age is enrolled in: the Church sui iuris of the Catholic father; or the Church sui iuris of the mother if only the mother is Catholic or if both parents by agreement freely request it, with due regard for particular law established by the Apostolic See.

Now, this would seem to indicate that because my father was a Latin Catholic, that’s what I would be, and I assume that because I was baptized in the Latin Church, that’s what I would be. Another twist to this is that my dad passed away when I was 14, and so I had not completed my 14th year of age. I don’t know if that makes a difference here, I am just trying to figure out what I actually am and/or maybe have a right to.

Please let me know if you have nay other questions, I’d be happy to answer them. I'm sorry if this is confusing.

Praise be Jesus Christ!

Welcome to the Forum!

You are of the Rite into which you were baptized regardless of your age or the status of your parents. Of course, you can change rites with the help of a good parish priest of that rite who can take you through the canonical procedure, if you wish, and you are always free to worship anytime in any rite of the Catholic Church you choose.

Reading the Canon, my understanding:

A person is baptized into a Church not a Rite. (The word rite does not appear in the canon. A Rite is the form of worship used by a church.) If under 14 the Church is that of the father or the mother if the father is not Catholic.

Canonically, being under 14, you were enrolled at baptism in the Church (Diocese) to which your father was a member, that Diocese being a Church of the sui juris Roman Church (that uses mostly the Latin rite). Whoever may have baptized you, of whatever Church, parish or rite or even no religion at all, you would still be enrolled as just indicated.

To illustrate: My grandfather was Ukrainian Catholic from Galicia and, after emigrating, a member of the the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Philadelphia (that uses the Byzantine Rite). His son, my father, when baptize as a child became a member of that Church. I was baptized in a parish of the Roman Church where my family worshiped, my mother's parish. Eventually, my wife, children and I began worshiping in a parish of the Ruthenian Church of Passaic (NJ). Canonically we were all members of the Ukrainian Church of Philadelphia. When I was to be tonsured and ordained Reader in that Ruthenian Church, I had to be a member of the Church; a bishop can only ordain a member of his particular (not just sui iuris) Church. So I and my wife by choice and my children over 14 by choice wrote letters requesting a change of Church (not rite) from the Ukrainian Church of Philadelphia of the sui iuris Ukrainian Catholic Church (of Livi at the time I believe) to the Ruthenian sui iuris Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh (aka BCC), Church of Passaic. Our children under 14 then also became members of the same BCC without needing to petition for a change of Church.

At least, that's how I think it worked -- not simple, but orderly.

You are correct; the language I used was inaccurate, and I apologize. Nevertheless, he is baptized into the Church sui juris of his father which was a Church of the Latin Rite. If he wishes to change Curches sui juris, he needs to go through the canonical procedure.

You, however, in virtue of your father's Church affilation were of his Church that uses the Byzantine rite, but had to go through the canonical procedure to change to another Church sui juris that uses the same rite. Did I get that right?

Yes, that's correct.