27. Such occurrences - and many could be recalled - are invoked by those who favor transference from the Oriental and Greek rite to the Latin rite. They think they act rightly in their eager attempts to bring Oriental converts to abandon, without Our prior consent, the rite they used to observe, even though this has been firmly maintained from ancient times by all other Orientals and Greeks.

But the events mentioned above and those which could be mentioned do not in the least support their opinion. For in the first place, transferring from an Oriental rite to the Latin rite removes all the prescriptions of the Oriental rite which are at variance with Our rite. But this is not what happened in the events We have mentioned; although a specific Greek ritual was abolished, the Greek rite itself and all its other prescriptions were preserved unchanged. In addition, to remove even a part of the rite is not within the power of any individual, but requires the intervention of the public authority of the supreme head of the universal Church, the Roman Pontiff.

For the Apostolic See possesses the preeminent right to decide what rituals are to be taken over from the Oriental church by the Latin church. As often as this Apostolic See has noticed that a dangerous or unfitting rite has made its way into the Oriental Church, it has condemned, criticized, and forbidden its use in the Latin Church. Lastly, whenever the Apostolic See sees Orientals or Greeks eager to take up a Latin ritual, particularly when this ritual is ancient, widely established, and either expressly or implicitly approved by the bishops, it has confirmed this practice by toleration and approval.