Editing Pope Benedict XIV (section)

====Oriental rites====

Since his days as a Consultor at the Holy Office (Inquisition), Benedict had been involved in issues pertaining to the missions, both those seeking to convert non-Christians, and those seeking to reconcile heretics and schismatics to the Roman Church.<ref>Lambertini had composes a survey of the history of the Malabar rites in India. Pastor, pp. 463–464.</ref> One concern was the [[Copts|Coptic Christians]] in upper Egypt, where efforts to seek union with the Coptic Patriarch had not been successful. Numbers of Coptic priests and laity had entered into union with Rome, but had no bishop to serve their needs. In the Bull ''Quemadmodum ingenti'' of 4 August 1741, Benedict entrusted their care to the one Coptic bishop who was in union with Rome, the Patriarch Athanasius of Jerusalem, who was given extensive powers to supervise uniate Copts in Egypt.<ref>{{cite book|author=Benedictus XIV|title=Benedicti papae XIV. Bullarium: In quo continentur constitutiones, epistolae, aliaque edita ab initio pontificatus usque ad annum MDCCXLVI.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SDERAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA388|volume=Tomus primus, Volumen 1|year=1826|publisher=P. J. Hanicq|location=Mechlin|language=la|pages=125–127}} Pastor, p. 404.</ref> 

On 7 August the same year, he supervised a commission of cardinals discussing the acts of the [[Lebanese Council of 1736]] against some of which (such as the prohibition of mixed monasteries) one part of the Maronite clergy had brought forward some complaints. The Lebanese Council was declared legitimate by the commission and on 1 September 1741, Benedict XIV approved the acts of the Lebanese Council.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Moosa |first1=Matti |title=The Maronites in History |date=2005 |publisher=Gorgias Press |location=New York |isbn=1-59333-182-7 |page=273 |language=en}}</ref>

In his encyclical ''Allatae Sunt'', promulgated on 26 July 1755, and sent to missionaries working under the direction of the Congregation ''de propaganda fide'',<ref>{{cite book|author=Benedictus XIV|editor= Hieronymus Mainardi|title=Sanctissimi domini nostri Benedicti Papae XIV Bullarium|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=llkoNmNJCQQC|volume=Tomus quartus|year=1758|publisher=Bartholomaeus Occhi|location=Rome|language=la|pages=175–193}}</ref> Pope Benedict addressed the numerous problems arising in dealing with the clergy and laity belonging to various eastern rites, particularly the [[Armenian Rite|Armenian]] and [[Syriac Rite (disambiguation)|Syriac Rites]]. He reminded the missionaries that they were converting people from schism and heresy:<ref>Benedict XIV, ''Allatae sunt'', § 48. {{cite book|author=Agnes de Dreuzy|title=The Vatican and the Emergence of the Modern Middle East|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LBCkDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA93|year=2016|publisher=CUA Press|location=Washington DC |isbn=978-0-8132-2849-5|page=93}}</ref>
<blockquote>We also wanted to make clear to all the good will which the Apostolic See feels for Oriental Catholics in commanding them to observe fully their ancient rites which are not at variance with the Catholic religion or with propriety. The Church does not require schismatics to abandon their rites when they return to Catholic unity, but only that they forswear and detest heresy. Its great desire is for the preservation, not the destruction of different peoples{{snd}}in short, that all may be Catholic rather than all become Latin.</blockquote>

Benedict XIV, however, echoing the words of [[Pope Gelasius I]], universally banned the practice of females serving the priest at the altar, noting that the practice had spread to certain Oriental Rites.<ref>Benedict XIV, ''Allatae sunt'', § 29.</ref>