Know Your Rites
 
Since the beginning of the COVID shutdown, like many of the parish staff members, I’ve had my office phone permanently forwarded to my cell phone. Calls that come to me that way show up as “No Caller ID.” When this appears on my screen, I know it’s a “work call,” but I never have any idea who the caller is or what the topic will be.
 
About two weeks ago, the caller was Fr. John Jaddou, from St. Joseph Chaldean Catholic Church in Troy, Michigan. Fr. John and another priest had “scouted” the area —and St. Peter’s — a couple of months ago on behalf of their hiking group. And the next thing you know, they will be celebrating Mass according to the Chaldean Rite here at St. Peter’s before heading out on their hike. This almost never happens.
 
The Mass will take place at 11am on April 2, and everyone is invited. It will be a unique experience for everyone — the Chaldeans celebrating here at St. Peter’s, and we of St. Peter’s participating in the worship of another Rite within our Church.
 
So, what is the Chaldean Rite? What is a Rite, anyway? If these are your questions, you are in the right place.
 
We are called Roman Catholics because our experience of the Church is within the Roman Rite of the Church. The structure of the Liturgy, language, wording and numerous other characteristics of religious practice are governed by the Roman Rite. Of the 1.4 billion Catholics in the world, about 1.2 billion are within the Roman Rite.
 
But the Church is universal. It started, as you know, in the Middle East. The apostles traveled to Alexandria, Egypt, into Turkey and Greece, and on to Rome. Thomas headed east into India.
 
These local churches grew up with customs, language, and texts that originated in the earliest days (as do many of ours) and have become formalized through the ages. You might be familiar with some of these Eastern Rites: Coptic (Egypt), Maronite (Lebanon), and Byzantine, which is a group of a rather small population from places that include Syria, Ukraine, Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Russia, and more. Many of the Byzantine Rites use Greek as their main language. All of these rites are part of the Catholic Church that we are a part of, including the Chaldean Rite.
 
The Chaldean Rite is from Iraq. Biblical names for Iraq include Shinar, Sumer, Samaria, Assyria, Elam, Babylonia, and Chaldea. This region is also a part of what the Bible calls Mesopotamia.
 
There are about a dozen Chaldean Rite Catholic Churches in the Detroit metro area. They have their own diocese and eparch (bishop), but their bishop, like ours, is subordinate to the Holy Father. Unlike our bishop, however, the eparch of this diocese (eparchy) is directly subordinate to the Holy Father, and is not part of a province, as Roman Catholic bishops are.
 
The Chaldean eparchy, with it’s cathedral in Southfield, Michigan, covers the eastern half of the United States and was established by Pope John Paul II in 1985. Another eparchy, in San Diego, established in 2002, governs the western states.
 
The language of the Liturgy of the Chaldean Rite is modern Aramaic; Aramaic is the language that Jesus spoke in everyday life. The liturgy also uses English and Arabic.
 
I have never experienced a Chaldean Rite Eucharist, and I look forward to meeting Fr. John and friends and to celebrating the Eucharist with them in our church. I hope you’ll plan to participate as well.
 
Details: While this Mass will be of a different Rite than our own, it is completely within the scope of the universal Catholic Church. You are welcome and encouraged to receive Holy Communion, if you wish.
Further, according to Canon Law, you may receive Holy Communion a second time in the same day (First Saturday morning Mass and the Chaldean Mass at 11, for example), if you are fully participating in the Mass both times. And while Canon Law does not specify it, one could conceivably receive Holy Communion at the Saturday evening Mass as well, since the Mass of Saturday evening is actually the Mass of Sunday. My advice, for what it’s worth: pick two at the most. Then there’s no question.