Eastern Catholic Churches

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The Eastern Catholic Churches[1] are 23 self-governing particular churches in full communion with the Pope. Together with the Latin Church, also known as the Western Church, they make up the Catholic Church. Liturgies of the 23 Eastern Catholic churches include the Byzantine, Alexandrian, Armenian, East Syrian, and West Syrian Rites, traditions that are shared with other Eastern Christian churches with which they were once associated, such as the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches. Although some theological issues divide them from other Eastern churches, they admit members of the latter churches to the Eucharist and the other sacraments, as governed by canon law.[a]

As a result of migration, Eastern Catholic churches have spread from Eastern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and India to Western Europe, the Americas and Oceania where eparchies have been established alongside Latin Church dioceses.

Juridical status[edit]


The term Eastern Catholic Churches refers to 23 of the 24 autonomous particular churches in communion with the bishop of Rome. Every diocese is a particular Church, but not an autonomous one in the sense in which the word is applied to these 23 churches. They follow different Eastern Christian liturgical traditions: Alexandrian, Antiochian, Armenian, Byzantine, and East Syrian Rite.[3]

Canonically, each Eastern Catholic Church is sui iuris or autonomous with respect to other Catholic churches, whether Eastern or Latin, though all accept the spiritual and juridical authority of the pope. Thus a Maronite Catholic is normally subject only to a Maronite bishop. However, if members of a particular Church are so few that no hierarchy of their own has been established, their spiritual care is entrusted to a bishop of another ritual Church, as Eritrea's Latin Rite Catholics are in the care of the Eastern Rite Eritrean Catholic Church.

Theologically, all the particular churches can be viewed as "sister Churches".[4] According to the Second Vatican Council these Eastern churches, along with the larger Latin Church, share "equal dignity, so that none of them is superior to the others as regards rite, and they enjoy the same rights and are under the same obligations, also in respect of preaching the Gospel to the whole world (cf. Mark 16:15) under the guidance of the Roman Pontiff."[5](n. 3)





Although Eastern Catholics are in full communion with the Pope, and are members of the larger Catholic Church,[b][c] they are not members of the Western or Latin Church, which uses the Latin liturgical rites, among which the Roman Rite is the most widespread.[d]



In the 1990 Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEO),[11][12] the terms autonomous Church and rite are thus defined:


  1. The rites treated in CCEO, unless otherwise stated, are those that arise from the Alexandrian, Antiochene, Armenian, Chaldean and Constantinopolitan traditions" (canon 28)[14] (not just a liturgical heritage, but also a theological, spiritual and disciplinary heritage characteristic of peoples' culture and the circumstances of their history).




The term Uniat or Uniate is applied to those Eastern Catholic churches which were previously Eastern or Oriental Orthodox churches, primarily by Eastern or Oriental Orthodox. The term is considered to have a derogatory connotation,[19] though it was occasionally used by Latin and Eastern Catholics, prior to the Second Vatican Council.[f] Official Catholic documents no longer use the term, due to its perceived negative overtones.[22] According to John Erickson of Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, "The term 'uniate' itself, once used with pride in the Roman communion, had long since come to be considered as pejorative. 'Eastern Rite Catholic' also was no longer in vogue because it might suggest that the Catholics in question differed from Latins only in the externals of worship. The Second Vatican Council affirmed rather that Eastern Catholics constituted churches, whose vocation was to provide a bridge to the separated churches of the East."[23]

Emergence of Eastern Catholicism[edit]




Supreme authority[edit]

Under the CCEO, the pope has supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary authority in the whole Catholic Church, which he can always freely exercise.[24][g]

Eastern patriarchs and major archbishops[edit]



Historical background[edit]


Major breaches of communion:

First Council of Ephesus (431 AD)[edit]

In 431 the Churches that accepted the teaching of the First Council of Ephesus (which condemned the views of Nestorius) classified as heretics those who rejected the Council's statements. The Church of the East which was mainly under the Sassanid Empire never accepted the council's views. It later experienced a period of great expansion in Asia before collapsing after the Mongol invasion of the Middle East in the 14th century.


Council of Chalcedon (451 AD)[edit]



East–West Schism (1054)[edit]


The schism is conventionally dated to 1054, when the Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael I Cerularius, and the Papal Legate, Humbert of Silva Candida, issued mutual excommunications that have since been revoked, by both Rome and Constantinople, in 1965. In spite of that event, for many years both Churches continued to maintain friendly relations and seemed to be unaware of any formal or final rupture.[32]

However, estrangement continued to grow. In 1190 Theodore Balsamon, patriarch of Antioch, wrote that "no Latin should be given Communion unless he first declares that he will abstain from the doctrines and customs that separate him from us".[33] Later, Constantinople was sacked in 1204 by the Catholic armies of the Fourth Crusade, whereas two decades previously the Massacre of the Latins (i.e. Catholics) had occurred in Constantinople in 1182. Thus, by the 12th-13th centuries, the two sides had become openly hostile, each considering that the other no longer belonged to the Church that was orthodox and catholic. Over time, it became customary to refer to the Eastern side as the Orthodox Church and the Western as the Catholic Church, without either side thereby renouncing its claim to be the truly orthodox or the truly catholic Church.

Attempts at restoring communion[edit]

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.


In 1993, the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church submitted the document Uniatism, method of union of the past, and the present search for full communion, also known as the Balamand declaration, "to the authorities of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches for approval and application,"[36] which stated that initiatives that "led to the union of certain communities with the See of Rome and brought with them, as a consequence, the breaking of communion with their Mother Churches of the East ... took place not without the interference of extra-ecclesial interests".[36](n. 8)

Likewise, the Commission acknowledged that "unacceptable means" were used by "certain civil authorities [who] made attempts" to force Eastern Catholics to return to the Orthodox Church.[36](n. 11) The missionary outlook and proselytism that accompanied the Unia,[36](n. 10) was recognized to be incompatible with the rediscovery by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches of each other as Sister Churches.[36](n. 12) Thus, the Commission concluded that the "missionary apostolate ... which has been called 'uniatism', can no longer be accepted either as a method to be followed nor as a model of the unity our Churches are seeking."[36](n. 12)

At the same time, the Commission stated:

  • Eastern Catholic Churches, being part of the Catholic Communion, have the right to exist and to act in response to the spiritual needs of their faithful.[36](n. 3)
  • Oriental Catholic Churches, which desired to re-establish full communion with the See of Rome and have remained faithful to it, have the rights and obligations connected with this communion.[36](n. 16)


Eastern Catholic Churches make up a small percentage of the membership in the Catholic Church when compared to the Latin Church, which has over one billion members. The 2008 statistics collected by the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA) show that Syriac Christians make up 47% of Eastern Catholics and Byzantine Christians make up 46%. More recent statistics show that the three largest Eastern churches are the Byzantine Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church with 5.3 million members[37] (in 2008, 25% of all Eastern Catholics), the Syriac Syro-Malabar Catholic Church at 4.6 million faithful[38] (in 2008, 23%), and the Maronite Catholic Church with 3.29 million faithful (20%).[39]

Eastern Catholic Churches, 2010; data from CNEWA (except for the Belarusian, Eritrean, Ethiopian, and Russian Churches)[40]
Name Juridical status Population Eparchies /
Albanian Byzantine Catholic Church Eparchial church 3,845 1 1
Armenian Catholic Church Patriarchate 1,000,000 17 15
Belarusian Greek Catholic Church - - - -
Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church Eparchial church 10,000 1 1
Chaldean Catholic Church Patriarchate 490,371 22 17
Coptic Catholic Church Patriarchate 163,630 7 10
Eritrean Catholic Church[41] Metropolitanate 155,480[41] 4 5
Ethiopian Catholic Church Metropolitanate 229,547 4 4
Byzantine Church of Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro[42](p1140) Eparchial church 58,915 3 4
Greek Byzantine Catholic Church Eparchial church 2,525 2 1
Hungarian Greek Catholic Church Metropolitanate 290,000 3 2
Italo-Albanian Byzantine Catholic Church Eparchial church 61,487 3 2
Macedonian Greek Catholic Church Apostolic exarchate 15,037 1 2
Maronite Church Patriarchate 3,290,539 25 41
Melkite Greek Catholic Church Patriarchate 1,614,604 25 30
Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic Major Archiepiscopate 160,000 6 8
Russian Greek Catholic Church - - - -
Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church Metropolitanate (in USA) 646,243 6 7
Slovak Byzantine Catholic Church Metropolitanate 239,394 4 5
Syriac Catholic Church Patriarchate 158,818 14 10
Syro-Malabar Catholic Church Major Archiepiscopate 4,628,591 31 51
Syro-Malankara Catholic Church Major Archiepiscopate 420,081 6 8
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Major Archiepiscopate 5,350,735 31 44
Other jurisdictions Ordinariates 147,600 1 -
Total 18,775,421 214 255

Orientalium dignitas[edit]





Modern reforms[edit]


Orientalium Ecclesiarum[edit]




Lumen gentium[edit]



Unitatis Redintegratio[edit]

The 1964 decree Unitatis Redintegratio deals with Eastern Catholic Churches in paragraphs 14-17.[46]

Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches[edit]


Liturgical prescriptions[edit]

The 1996 Instruction for Applying the Liturgical Prescriptions of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches brought together, in one place, the developments that took place in previous texts,[48] and is "an expository expansion based upon the canons, with constant emphasis upon the preservation of Eastern liturgical traditions and a return to those usages whenever possible—certainly in preference to the usages of the Latin Church, however much some principles and norms of the conciliar constitution on the Roman rite, 'in the very nature of things, affect other rites as well'."[47](p998) The Instruction states:




List of Churches[edit]



  1. Alexandrian liturgical tradition:
    2. Eritrean Catholic Church (metropolia): Asmara, [155,000] Eritrea (2015)
    3. Ethiopian Catholic Church (metropolia): Addis Ababa, [208,093], Ethiopia (1846)
  2. West Syrian, including Malankara, liturgical tradition (which is part of Antiochene Rite):
    3. Syro-Malankara Catholic Church[51] (major archepiscopate): Trivandrum, [412,640], India, United States (1930)
  3. Armenian liturgical tradition:
  4. Chaldean or East Syrian liturgical tradition:
    1. Chaldean Catholic Church[53] (patriarchate): Baghdad, [418,194], Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, United States (1692)
    2. Syro-Malabar Catholic Church[54] (Major Archepiscopate): Ernakulam - Anagamaly, [4,602,089], India, Middle East, United Kingdom, Europe, United States, Canada, Australia (1599)
  5. Constantinopolitan (Byzantine) liturgical tradition:
    3. Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church[55] (apostolic exarchate): Sofia, [10,107], Bulgaria (1861)
    4. Byzantine Church of Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro[56] (an eparchy and an apostolic exarchate): Križevci, Ruski Krstur [21,480] + [22,653], Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro (1611)
    5. Greek Byzantine Catholic Church[57] (two apostolic exarchates): Athens, [2,325], Greece, Turkey (1829)
    6. Hungarian Greek Catholic Church[58] (an eparchy and an apostolic exarchate): Nyíregyháza, [290,000], Hungary (1646)
    9. Melkite Greek Catholic Church[59] (patriarchate): Damascus, [1,346,635], Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Brazil, United States, Canada, Mexico, Iraq, Egypt and Sudan, Kuwait, Australia, Venezuela, Argentina (1726)
    10. Romanian Church United with Rome[60] (major archiepiscopate): Blaj, [776,529] Romania, United States (1697)
    12. Ruthenian Catholic Church[62] (a sui juris metropolia,[63] an eparchy,[64] and an apostolic exarchate): Uzhhorod, Pittsburgh, [594,465], United States, Ukraine, Czech Republic (1646)
    13. Slovak Catholic Church[65] (metropolia and an eparchy): Prešov, [243,335], Slovakia, Canada (1646)
    14. Ukrainian Catholic Church[66] (major archiepiscopate): Kiev, [4,223,425], Ukraine, Poland, United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, Germany and Scandinavia, France, Brazil, Argentina (1595)

Georgian Byzantine-Rite Catholics are not recognized as a particular Church.[k] The majority of Eastern Catholic Christians in the Georgian Republic worship under the form of the Armenian liturgical rite.



On the EWTN website the Apostolic Exarchate for Byzantine-rite Catholics in the Czech Republic is mentioned in a list of Eastern Churches, of which all the rest are autonomous particular Churches.[49] This is a mistake, since recognition within the Catholic Church of the autonomous status of a particular Church can only be granted by the Holy See,[k] which instead classifies this Church as one of the constituent local particular Churches of the autonomous (sui iuris) Ruthenian Catholic Church.

Byzantine-rite Catholics of Georgian nationality or descent[edit]

Some have treated Byzantine Rite Catholics within the Georgian Catholic Church as a separate particular Church with a reunion date of either 1861 or 1917. A study by Methodios Stadnik states: "The Georgian Byzantine Catholic Exarch, Fr. Shio Batmanishviii [sic], and two Georgian Catholic priests of the Latin Church were executed by the Soviet authorities in 1937 after having been held in captivity in Solovki prison and the northern gulags from 1923."[67] Christopher Zugger writes, in The Forgotten: "By 1936, the Byzantine Catholic Church of Georgia had two communities, served by a bishop and four priests, with 8,000 believers", and he identifies the bishop as Shio Batmalashvili.[68] Vasyl Ovsiyenko (uk) mentions, on the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union website, that "the Catholic administrator for Georgia Shio Batmalashvili" was one of those executed as "anti-Soviet elements" in 1937.[69]





Until 1994, the United States annual publication Catholic Almanac listed "Georgian" among the Byzantine Churches.[73] Until corrected in 1995, it appears to have been making a mistake similar to that made on the equally unofficial EWTN site about the Czech Byzantine Catholics.

Byzantine-rite Catholics in Estonia[edit]


Bi-ritual faculties[edit]



For a just cause, and with the permission of the local bishop, priests of different autonomous ritual Churches may concelebrate; however, the rite of the principal celebrant is used whilst each priest wears the vestments of his own rite.[75] No indult of bi-ritualism is required for this.



Clerical celibacy[edit]

Romanian Eastern Catholic priest from Romania with his family.




Bishops are normally selected from the monastic clergy, and in most Eastern Catholic Churches a large percentage of priests and deacons also are celibate, while a large portion of the clergy (typically, parish priests) are married, having taken a wife when they were still laymen.[79] If someone preparing for the diaconate or priesthood wishes to marry, this must happen before ordination.

In territories where Eastern traditions prevail, married clergy caused little controversy, but aroused opposition inside traditionally Latin Church territories to which Eastern Catholics migrated; this was particularly so in the United States. In response to requests from the Latin bishops of those countries, the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith set out rules in an 1890 letter to François-Marie-Benjamin Richard, archbishop of Paris,[80] which the Congregation applied on 1 May 1897 to the United States,[81] stating that only celibates or widowed priests coming without their children should be permitted in the United States.


While most Eastern Catholic Churches admit married men to ordination as priests, though not allowing priests, after ordination, to marry, some have adopted mandatory clerical celibacy, as in the Latin Church. These include the India-based Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and Syro-Malabar Catholic Church,[84][85] and the Coptic Catholic Church.[86]

In 2014, Pope Francis approved new norms for married clergy within Eastern Catholic Churches through CCEO canon 758 § 3. The new norms abrogated previous norms and now allow ordination of married clergy by all Eastern Catholic Churches, except the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankar Catholic Churches, inside traditionally Latin Church territories, and allow Eastern Catholic Churches to grant faculties inside traditionally Latin Church territories to married clergy previously ordained by Eastern Catholic Churches elsewhere.[87] "This means they will be able to follow their faithful to whichever country they immigrate to."[88]

See also[edit]


  6. ^ The term was used by the Holy See, for example, Pope Benedict XIV in Ex quo primum.[20] The Catholic Encyclopedia consistently used the term Uniat to refer to Eastern Catholics, stating: "The Uniat Church is therefore really synonymous with Eastern Churches united to Rome, and Uniats is synonymous with Eastern Christians united with Rome.[21]
  7. ^ The full description is in CCEO canons 42 to 54.[25]
  8. ^ An example of the petition and the granting of ecclesiastical communion.[29]
  10. ^ Ritus praestantior means "preeminent rite" or "more excelling rite".
  11. ^ a b cf. CCEO canon 27


  1. ^ a b Zagano, Phyllis (Jan 2006). "What all Catholics should know about Eastern Catholic Churches". americancatholic.org. Retrieved 2011-04-27. 
  2. ^ CCEO canon 671 §3; cf. 1983 CIC canon 844 §3
  3. ^ The New York Times guide to essential knowledge: a desk reference for the curious mind. New York Times. p. 499. 
  6. ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church n. 1233
  7. ^ Congregation for the Oriental Churches (2003-03-20). "Profile". Vatican.va. Retrieved 2011-04-27. 
  10. ^ "Ukrainian church pastor honored". [dead link]
  13. ^ CCEO canon 27
  14. ^ CCEO canon 28
  16. ^ 1983 CIC canon 1015 §2; see 1983 CIC canons 450 §1, and 476.
  20. ^ Pope Benedict XIV (1756-03-01). Ex quo primum. Rome.  Translated in "On the Euchologion". ewtn.com. Irondale, AL: Eternal Word Television Network. 
  21. ^  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainVailhé, Siméon (1909). "Greek Church". In Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia 6. Robert Appleton Company. 
  23. ^ Erickson, John H. (May 2001). (Speech). National Workshop on Christian Unity. San Diego, CA.  Missing or empty |title= (help) Quoted in Neuhaus, Richard J. (Mar 2002). "Orthodoxy and 'Parallel Monologues'". First Things (New York: Institute on religion and public life): 68–91. ISSN 1047-5141. 
  24. ^ CCEO canon 43
  25. ^ CCEO canons 42–54
  26. ^ CCEO canon 1
  27. ^ CCEO canon 153
  28. ^ CCEO canon 76
  33. ^ Barnes, Patrick (ed.). "The Great Schism: the estrangement of Eastern and Western Christendom". orthodoxinfo.com. Patrick Barnes. Retrieved 2011-04-27. This page was retrieved from www.archive.org after decani.yunet.com went defunct following the Kosovo conflict. This page was originally created by monks at Decani Monastery in Kosovo. It has been slightly edited for inclusion on this site.  Abridged from Ware, Timothy R. The Orthodox Church.  Balsamon translation quoted from Runciman, Steven (1955). The eastern schism : a study of the papacy and the Eastern Churches during the XIth and XIIth centuries. Oxford: Clarendon. p. 139. OCLC 49983763. 
  35. ^ CCEO canon 28 §1
  37. ^ Luxmoore, Jonathan (19 December 2014). "‘Ukraine Catholics being driven underground,’ say Church leaders". Catholic Herald. Retrieved 29 January 2015. 
  39. ^ "The Eastern Catholic Churches, 2008" (PDF). cnewacanada.ca. Catholic Near East Welfare Association. Retrieved 2011-04-27. 
  40. ^ Roberson, Ronald. "The Eastern Catholic Churches 2010" (PDF). cnewa.org. Catholic Near East Welfare Association. Retrieved August 22, 2010. 
  41. ^ a b "Erezione della Chiesa Metropolitana sui iuris eritrea e nomina del primo Metropolita". Holy See Press Office. January 19, 2015. Retrieved January 19, 2015. 
  50. ^ "The Maronite Patriarchate". bkerkelb.org. Retrieved 2011-04-27. 
  51. ^ "Syro-Malankara Catholic Church". catholicate.net. Retrieved 2011-04-27. 
  52. ^ "Armenian Catholic Church". armeniancatholic.org. Retrieved 2011-04-27. 
  53. ^ "Chaldean Catholic Church". st-adday.com. Retrieved 2011-04-27. 
  54. ^ "Syro-Malabar Church". smcim.org. Retrieved 2011-04-27. 
  55. ^ "The Catholic Church in Bulgaria" (in Bulgarian). 
  56. ^ "Novi slavonsko-srijemski vikarijat". 
  57. ^ "Ελληνική Καθολική Εξαρχία". elcathex.com. Retrieved 2011-04-27. [dead link]
  58. ^ "www.atanaz.hu". atanaz.hu. Retrieved 2011-04-27. 
  59. ^ "Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate of Lebanon". pgc-lb.org. 2004-01-01. Retrieved 2011-04-27. 
  60. ^ "Prima pagină". bru.ro (in Romanian). Biserica Română Unită cu Roma, Greco-Catolică. 1999-02-22. Retrieved 2011-04-27. 
  61. ^ "Католики византийского обряда в России". rkcvo.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2011-04-27. 
  62. ^ "Welcome to". byzcath.org. Retrieved 2011-04-27. 
  63. ^ "Byzantine Catholic Metropolia of Pittsburgh". archeparchy.org. Retrieved 2011-04-27. 
  64. ^ "Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo". mgce.uz.ua. Uzhgorod: Administration of Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo. Retrieved 2011-04-27. 
  66. ^ "Українська Греко-Католицька Церква: Головна". ugcc.org.ua. Українська Греко-Католицька Церква. Retrieved 2011-04-27. 
  67. ^ Stadnik, Methodios (1999-01-21). "A concise history of the Georgian Byzantine Catholic Church". stmichaelruscath.org. Retrieved 2011-04-27. 
  70. ^ Catholic Church. Congregatio pro Ecclesiis Orientalibus (1974). Oriente cattolico : cenni storici e statistiche (in Italian) (4th ed.) (Vatican City): 194. OCLC 2905279.  Missing or empty |title= (help)
  71. ^ Roman Catholic Regional Hierarchy at the Wayback Machine (archived June 1, 2004) This is a tertiary source that clearly includes information from other sources but does not name them.
  73. ^ Catholic Almanac.  Missing or empty |title= (help)
  74. ^ CCEO canon 40
  76. ^ CCEO canons 451 and 517 §2
  78. ^ 1983 CIC canon 1248 §1; CCEO canons 881 and 883
  80. ^ Catholic Church. Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (1890-05-12). "Fragmentum epistolae S. C. de Propaganda Fide diei 12 Maii 1890 ad Archiep. Parisien, de auctoritate Patriarcharum orientalium extra proprias Dioeceses..." (PDF). Acta Sanctae Sedis (in Latin) 24 (1890–1891): 390–391. OCLC 565282294. 
  81. ^ Collectanea.  Missing or empty |title= (help) No. 1966
  87. ^ Catholic Church. Congregatio pro Ecclesiis Orientalibus (2014-06-14). "Pontificia praecepta de clero uxorato orientali" (PDF). Acta Apostolicae Sedes (in Latin) (2014-06-06) 106 (6): 496–499. ISSN 0001-5199.  Translated in "[Pontifical precepts about married eastern clergy]" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-12-19. Retrieved 2014-12-19. 

External links[edit]