Renewal In The Eastern Rite Catholic Churches

The Eastern Rite Catholic churches are communities that follow a form of the Eastern liturgy but which are under the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff rather than one of the Eastern Orthodox patriarchates. Renewal in the Eastern Catholic churches has involved a slow process of the rediscovery and implementation of a variety of ancient traditions of worship. The Second Vatican Council in its Decree on Eastern Catholic Churches expressed its high esteem for the rich traditions of these churches and urged the latter to preserve and honor their liturgical rites and restore them where they had been altered or abandoned. Changes within Eastern Catholic liturgical rites since that time have come about at a slow pace through local desire to return to authentic traditions as well as through the urging of the Oriental Congregation in Rome. Many of these changes have appeared in the form of the return to traditional vesture and the reintroduction of ancient liturgical anaphoras (central euchari…