Eastern Catholic Churches

The Eastern Catholic Churches Churches are churches that follow the ancient liturgical traditions of the East, while being in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church and placing themselves under the ultimate authority of the Bishop of Rome. Some of these churches, like the Orthodox Church, follow the Byzantine tradition, while others follow other liturgical traditions. The history of each Eastern Rite Catholic church is unique, some having sided with Rome at the time of the Great Schism and some being joined to Rome after that time. They are sometimes referred to as Uniates, a term which many Eastern Catholics reject as derrogatory.

Many of these churches have a direct non-Catholic (usually Orthodox or Oriental) counterpart. Others exist only within the Catholic Communion.

List of Eastern Catholic Churches

Byzantine Rite (also Greek Catholic) Churches

• Albanian Catholic Church (Latin rite hierarchy)
• Greek Catholic Church
• Belarusan Catholic Church (Latin rite hierarchy)
• Bulgarian Catholic Church
• Byzantine-Ruthenian Catholic Church
• Byzantine Catholics of Former Yugoslavia
• Georgian Catholic Church (Latin rite hierarchy)
• Hungarian Catholic Church
• Italo-Albanian Catholic Church
• Melkite Greek Catholic Church
• Romanian Catholic Church
• Russian Catholic Church (Latin rite hierarchy)
• Slovak Catholic Church
• Ukrainian Catholic Church

Non-Byzantine Eastern Rite Catholic Churches

• Armenian Catholic Church
• Chaldean Catholic Church
• Coptic Catholic Church
• Ethiopian Catholic Church
• Maronite Catholic Church
• Syrian Catholic Church
• Syro-Malabar Catholic Church
• Syro-Malankara Catholic Church

Eastern Catholic Churches with Counterparts in Non-Catholic Churches

The following Eastern Rite Catholic Churches have "counterparts" in the Orthodox Communion. The counterpart is listed in parenthesis.

• Albanian Catholic Church (Church of Albania)
• Bulgarian Catholic Church (Church of Bulgaria)
• Greek Catholic Church (Church of Constantinople/Church of Greece)
• Georgian Catholic Church (Church of Georgia)
• Melkite Catholic Church (Church of Antioch)
• Romanian Catholic Church (Church of Romania)
• Russian Catholic Church (Church of Russia)
• Ukrainian Catholic Church (Church of Ukraine)

The following Eastern Rite Catholic Church have "counterparts" in the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The counterpart is listed in parenthesis.

• Armenian Catholic Church (Church of Armenia)
• Chaldean Catholic Church
• Coptic Catholic Church (Coptic Church)
• Ethiopian Catholic Church
• Maronite Catholic Church
• Syrian Catholic Church (Church of Syria)
• Syro-Malabar Catholic Church
• Syro-Malankara Catholic Church

The following Eastern Catholic Churches have no counterpart either among the Chalcedonian Orthodox or the Oriental Orthodox.

• Maronite Catholic Church
• Italo-Albanian Catholic Church

For More Information

• Against False Union by Alexandre A. Kalomiros (ISBN 0913026700)
• American Eastern Catholics by Fred J. Saato (ISBN 0-8091-4378-X)
• The Byzantine Rite: A Short History by Robert Taft (ISBN 0814621635)
• Eastern Catholics in the United States of America by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (ISBN 1574552872)
• The Eastern Catholic Churches: An Introduction to Their Worship and Spirituality by Joan L. Roccasalvo (ISBN 0814620477)
• The Other Catholics: Obedient and Faithful by Joseph Bonchonsky (ASIN B0006OZUJQ)

External links

• Introduction to Eastern Christian Churches, Catholic Near East Welfare Agency
• Orientalium Ecclesiarum by Pope Paul VI
• St. Michael's Russian Catholic Church, New York, NY
• An Unofficial Directory of Eastern Catholic Churches in the U.S.
• The Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic Church in America
• The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
• Maronite Catholic Church of Australia
• Melkite Catholic Church of Australia
• Syro-Malankara Catholic Church

This article or section is a stub (i.e., in need of additional material). You can help OrthodoxWiki by expanding it.