Define "Eastern Catholic" for me

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vluvski

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Does Eastern Catholic mean, Any Catholic Rite considered to be in communion other than the Roman Rite? (I’m trying to avoid wording that puts the Roman Rite at the epicenter of the Catholic Church since we are all part of the same church.)
If so, is there a particular reason why all of these churches are grouped together while the Roman Catholic Church is not really part of any such grouping, at least not within my vocabulary? (ie convenience, number of members, geography, more similarities among Eastern Catholics than between Eastern Catholics and Roman Catholics, etc…)

Is Latin Rite synonymous with Roman Rite?

Can someone list the 23 churches for me?
Ruthenian, Maronite, Byzantine… my list stops there…:o
 
Eastern Catholic is any Church that is self governing (sui juris) apart from the Church of Rome.
 
And, since I just asked the same question regarding Eastern Orthodoxy, is there an overarching hierarchy or governing body charged with keeping the Catholic faiths in communion with one another, or do we share the Orthodox view that part of the role of the Holy Spirit is to guide the Church in unity?

Vatican II is the most recent church council, right? Were the Eastern Catholic bishops part of that, or was that strictly regarding the Roman Rite?

Wow, I feel so uneducated on my own faith right now!:o
 
vluvski said:
And, since I just asked the same question regarding Eastern Orthodoxy, is there an overarching hierarchy or governing body charged with keeping the Catholic faiths in communion with one another, or do we share the Orthodox view that part of the role of the Holy Spirit is to guide the Church in unity?

Vatican II is the most recent church council, right? Were the Eastern Catholic bishops part of that, or was that strictly regarding the Roman Rite?

Wow, I feel so uneducated on my own faith right now!:o
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The Eastern Catholics Churches were represented at Vatican II. In fact, the driving force for the use of the vernacular was the Melkites.

Is there an overarching authority? Yes, the Pope. Whether we like it or not.
 
vluvski said:
And, since I just asked the same question regarding Eastern Orthodoxy, is there an overarching hierarchy or governing body charged with keeping the Catholic faiths in communion with one another, or do we share the Orthodox view that part of the role of the Holy Spirit is to guide the Church in unity?

Vatican II is the most recent church council, right? Were the Eastern Catholic bishops part of that, or was that strictly regarding the Roman Rite?

Wow, I feel so uneducated on my own faith right now!:o
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There are several elements that keep the Eastern Churches in communion on a practical level. There are a couple Roman commissions that deal with maters for the Eastern Churches. The Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Churches being the most important - it directly serves as the papal approval surrogate for many things. The Commission for the Defense of the Faith serves all rites and churches in Union, as does the Roman Rota.

Note: I might not have the titles exactly correct.
 
Generally speaking, Eastern Catholic/Oriental Catholic refers to those in Communion with the Pope of Rome. Some people will call themselves according to their particular Eastern Rite: Coptic Catholic, Byzantine Catholic, etc. Some will call themselves, “Orthodox in Communion with Rome” and other such things.

**The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church
**
Western Catholic Church
1. Roman Rite:
a. Pre-Tridentine Mass (the various pre-1570 forms)
b. Tridentine Mass (1570-1970 and still authorized in circumstances indicated in the document Summorum Pontificum as an extraordinary form of the Roman Rite)
c. Mass [Novus Ordo] of Paul VI (1970–present)
d. Anglican Use (restricted to formerly Anglican congregations)

2. Ambrosian Rite (Milan, Italy and neighbouring areas)
3. Aquileian Rite (defunct: northeastern Italy)
4. Rite of Braga (Braga, Portugal)
5. Mozarabic Rite (Toledo and Salamanca, Spain)
7. Defunct or rarely celebrated rites (I won’t enumerate them here.)

Eastern/Oriental Catholic Church
1. Alexandrian Rite:
a. Coptic Rite
b. Ethiopic Rite

2. Antiochene or West-Syrian Rite:
a. Maronite Rite
b. (West) Syrian Rite
c. Syro-Malankara Rite

3. Armenian Rite

4. Chaldean or East Syrian:
a. Chaldean Rite
b. Syro-Malabar Rite

5. Byzantine Rite (there are slight variations between the Greek based and Slavonic based forms of the Byzantine Rite)

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Catholic_rites_and_churches
 
Zekariya said:
Generally speaking, Eastern Catholic/Oriental Catholic refers to those in Communion with the Pope of Rome. Some people will call themselves according to their particular Eastern Rite: Coptic Catholic, Byzantine Catholic, etc. Some will call themselves, “Orthodox in Communion with Rome” and other such things.

**The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church
**
Western Catholic Church
1. Roman Rite:
a. Pre-Tridentine Mass (the various pre-1570 forms)
b. Tridentine Mass (1570-1970 and still authorized in circumstances indicated in the document Summorum Pontificum as an extraordinary form of the Roman Rite)
c. Mass [Novus Ordo] of Paul VI (1970–present)
d. Anglican Use (restricted to formerly Anglican congregations)

2. Ambrosian Rite (Milan, Italy and neighbouring areas)
3. Aquileian Rite (defunct: northeastern Italy)
4. Rite of Braga (Braga, Portugal)
5. Mozarabic Rite (Toledo and Salamanca, Spain)
7. Defunct or rarely celebrated rites (I won’t enumerate them here.)

Eastern/Oriental Catholic Church
1. Alexandrian Rite:
a. Coptic Rite
b. Ethiopic Rite

2. Antiochene or West-Syrian Rite:
a. Maronite Rite
b. (West) Syrian Rite
c. Syro-Malankara Rite

3. Armenian Rite

4. Chaldean or East Syrian:
a. Chaldean Rite
b. Syro-Malabar Rite

5. Byzantine Rite (there are slight variations between the Greek based and Slavonic based forms of the Byzantine Rite)

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Catholic_rites_and_churches
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There are twenty three autonomous (“sui iuris”) churches. Each church worships according to one of the six liturgical rites above.

The Western Church is organized in a significantly different manor than the Eastern Churches. The Western church is monolithic, with over a billion members, and within the Western Church, the Roman rite is predominate, with several variations (called “uses”), and as well as few minority rites. The “Ordinary Form” is the most common “use” of the Roman Rite.

The Eastern Catholic Churches represent significantly smaller communities, most of which broke away from the Eastern Orthodox Churches or the Oriental Orthodox Churches to return to communion with Rome (though some never broke communion). Each uses distinctly one of the five Eastern liturgical rites, with the Byzantine (also called the “Greek”) rite being the most communion. There are just over 23 million Eastern Catholics, which is actually about a tenth of all Eastern or Oriental Christians.
 
First understand the difference between Church and Rites

Church = developed from the Greek usage of eklesia, a gathering. A Church has a Bishop who is the presider of the gathering. As St. Ignatius of Antioch taught, where the bishop is, and where the multitude of people are gathered, where Jesus Christ is present, there is the Church.

Rites = is a ritual tradition. It is the tradition how the Liturgical services are done and how the Sacraments are performed/celebrated.

Multiple Churches can share the same Rite, as with the Byzantine Rite that is followed by 14 Churches.

A Church possibly can also have multiple Rites. Although everything has been grouped as one Latin Rite, there are actually a number of Rites under the Latin Rite such as the Roman Rite (OF/EF/Anglican Use), Mozarabic Rite, etc. Concievably, one Church can have multiple Rites. This is why many Eastern Catholics do not want to be called “Eastern Rite Catholics”. Because it insinuates they are not separate Churches from Rome, but merely Roman Catholics that use a different Rite.
 
Zekariya said:
Generally speaking, Eastern Catholic/Oriental Catholic refers to those in Communion with the Pope of Rome. Some people will call themselves according to their particular Eastern Rite: Coptic Catholic, Byzantine Catholic, etc. Some will call themselves, “Orthodox in Communion with Rome” and other such things.

**The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church
**
Western Catholic Church
1. Roman Rite:
a. Pre-Tridentine Mass (the various pre-1570 forms)
b. Tridentine Mass (1570-1970 and still authorized in circumstances indicated in the document Summorum Pontificum as an extraordinary form of the Roman Rite)
c. Mass [Novus Ordo] of Paul VI (1970–present)
d. Anglican Use (restricted to formerly Anglican congregations)

2. Ambrosian Rite (Milan, Italy and neighbouring areas)
3. Aquileian Rite (defunct: northeastern Italy)
4. Rite of Braga (Braga, Portugal)
5. Mozarabic Rite (Toledo and Salamanca, Spain)
7. Defunct or rarely celebrated rites (I won’t enumerate them here.)

Eastern/Oriental Catholic Church
1. Alexandrian Rite:
a. Coptic Rite
b. Ethiopic Rite

2. Antiochene or West-Syrian Rite:
a. Maronite Rite
b. (West) Syrian Rite
c. Syro-Malankara Rite

3. Armenian Rite

4. Chaldean or East Syrian:
a. Chaldean Rite
b. Syro-Malabar Rite

5. Byzantine Rite (there are slight variations between the Greek based and Slavonic based forms of the Byzantine Rite)

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Catholic_rites_and_churches
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Your source ignores several monastic Western Rites - most notably the still-used Dominican Rite, and ignores the Dominican Use OF Roman Mass (The OF mass with Dominican Propers - permitted since about 1978).
 
Aramis said:
Your source ignores several monastic Western Rites - most notably the still-used Dominican Rite, and ignores the Dominican Use OF Roman Mass (The OF mass with Dominican Propers - permitted since about 1978).
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My list wasn’t meant to be an exhaustive list of rites, but to help the OP better understand about the differences between the Western Rites and the Eastern Rites as well as the different names that Eastern Catholics refer to themselves. My source does list under “Defunct or rarely celebrated”, the Dominican Rite (and the other monastic rites). I suggest you re-read it. I stated that I wasn’t going to enumerate the defunct or rarely celebrated rites. Ergo, I didn’t list the Dominican Rite.

In Christ,
Zekariya
 
Zekariya said:
My list wasn’t meant to be an exhaustive list of rites, but to help the OP better understand about the differences between the Western Rites and the Eastern Rites as well as the different names that Eastern Catholics refer to themselves. My source does state under “Defunct or rarely celebrated”, the Dominican Rite (and the other monastic rites). I stated that I wasn’t going to enumerate the defunct or rarely celebrated rites. Ergo, I didn’t list the Dominican Rite.
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Which is neither defunct nor rarely used.
 
Rite: The liturgical, theological, spiritual and disciplinary heritage, distinguished according to peoples’ culture and historical circumstances, that finds expression in each autonomous church’s way of living the faith.

Church: A group of Christ’s faithful hierarchically linked in accordance with law and given express or tacit recognition by the supreme authority of the Church

Catholic Church:

Latin Church
Roman Rite
  • Ordinary Form
  • Extraordinary Form
Anglican Use (Generally considered a variation of the Roman rite)
Ambrosian Rite
Rite of Braga
Mozarabic Rite

The various Religious Orders also developed their own rites, most notably:
Benedictine Rite
Carthusian Rite
Dominican Rite

Although many on a general basis, correct me if i’m wrong, practice the OF of the Roman rite.

You might also encounter revivals of long defunct rites like:
Sarum Rite

You’ll note that the Latin Church being quite large in comparison to the other Churches, developed various rites within its structure, but at the Council of Trent, with the codification of the Roman Rite, many of these rites stopped being practice or were abrogated and the Roman rite became almost universally practice in the Latin Church.

Alexandrian Rite
Coptic Catholic Church - Coptic Orthodox Church, OO
Ethiopian Catholic Church - Ethiopean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, OO

Anthiocian(West Syrian) Rite
Maronite Church
Syriac Catholic Church - Syriac Orthodox Church
Syro-Malankara Catholic Church - Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, OO

Armenian Rite
Armenian Catholic Church - Armenian Apostolic Church, OO

Byzantine Rite
*Melkite Church *- Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria, EO
Ukrainian Catholic Church - Ukranian Orthodox Church, EO
Ruthenian Catholic Church - Not sure which EO church this seperated from.
Romanian Catholic Church - Orthodox Church of Romania, EO
Italo-Albanian Catholic Church
Albanian Byzantine Catholic Church - Orthodox Church of Albania, EO
Belarusian Greek Catholic Church - Belarusian Orthodox Church, EO
Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church - Orthodox Church of Bulgaria, EO
Croatian Greek Catholic Church - Orthodox Church of Serbia, EO
Greek Byzantine Catholic Church - Orthodox Church of Greece, EO
Hungarian Greek Catholic Church - Not sure which EO church this seperated from.
Macedonian Greek Catholic Church - Macedonian Orthodox Church, EO
Russian Catholic Church - Orthodox Church of Russia, EO
Slovak Greek Catholic Church - Orthodox Church of Czech lands and Slovakia, EO

Chaldean(East Syriac) Rite
Chaldean Church - Church of the East
Syro-Malabar Catholic Church - Church of the East, in India

*EO= Eastern Orthodox, OO= Oriental Orthodox.

*I took the chance to write next to each Catholic Church their Church of origin, minus the Maronite and Italo-Albanian, which according to tradition never left communion with Rome.
 
JuantheTuba said:
Rite: The liturgical, theological, spiritual and disciplinary heritage, distinguished according to peoples’ culture and historical circumstances, that finds expression in each autonomous church’s way of living the faith.

Church: A group of Christ’s faithful hierarchically linked in accordance with law and given express or tacit recognition by the supreme authority of the Church

Catholic Church:

Latin Church
Roman Rite
  • Ordinary Form
  • Extraordinary Form
Anglican Use (Generally considered a variation of the Roman rite)
Ambrosian Rite
Rite of Braga
Mozarabic Rite

The various Religious Orders also developed their own rites, most notably:
Benedictine Rite
Carthusian Rite
Dominican Rite

Although many on a general basis, correct me if i’m wrong, practice the OF of the Roman rite.

You might also encounter revivals of long defunct rites like:
Sarum Rite

You’ll note that the Latin Church being quite large in comparison to the other Churches, developed various rites within its structure, but at the Council of Trent, with the codification of the Roman Rite, many of these rites stopped being practice or were abrogated and the Roman rite became almost universally practice in the Latin Church.

Alexandrian Rite
Coptic Catholic Church - Coptic Orthodox Church, OO
Ethiopian Catholic Church - Ethiopean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, OO

Anthiocian(West Syrian) Rite
Maronite Church
Syriac Catholic Church - Syriac Orthodox Church
Syro-Malankara Catholic Church - Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, OO

Armenian Rite
Armenian Catholic Church - Armenian Apostolic Church, OO

Byzantine Rite
*Melkite Church *- Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria, EO
Ukrainian Catholic Church - Ukranian Orthodox Church, EO
Ruthenian Catholic Church - Not sure which EO church this seperated from.
Romanian Catholic Church - Orthodox Church of Romania, EO
Italo-Albanian Catholic Church
Albanian Byzantine Catholic Church - Orthodox Church of Albania, EO
Belarusian Greek Catholic Church - Belarusian Orthodox Church, EO
Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church - Orthodox Church of Bulgaria, EO
Croatian Greek Catholic Church - Orthodox Church of Serbia, EO
Greek Byzantine Catholic Church - Orthodox Church of Greece, EO
Hungarian Greek Catholic Church - Not sure which EO church this seperated from.
Macedonian Greek Catholic Church - Macedonian Orthodox Church, EO
Russian Catholic Church - Orthodox Church of Russia, EO
Slovak Greek Catholic Church - Orthodox Church of Czech lands and Slovakia, EO

Chaldean(East Syriac) Rite
Chaldean Church - Church of the East
Syro-Malabar Catholic Church - Church of the East, in India

*EO= Eastern Orthodox, OO= Oriental Orthodox.

*I took the chance to write next to each Catholic Church their Church of origin, minus the Maronite and Italo-Albanian, which according to tradition never left communion with Rome.
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Well put, clarify that there are several Eastern Catholic **Churches **that share the various Eastern Christian Rites.

As a note to all interested, the Orthodox Churches celebrate according to the sames rites that the Eastern Catholic Churches use, at least from the Catholic Church’s perspective. However, the various Orthodox Churches don’t universally recognize the Eastern Catholic Churches as using the same rites.
 
runningdude said:
As a note to all interested, the Orthodox Churches celebrate according to the sames rites that the Eastern Catholic Churches use, at least from the Catholic Church’s perspective. However, the various Orthodox Churches don’t universally recognize the Eastern Catholic Churches as using the same rites.
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I was beginning to suspect as much, just based on what little reading I’ve had time to do outside the forums.

It seems to me that the barriers to unifying the Catholic and Orthodox Churches are largely one-sided, with the biggest indicator being that the Catholic Church permits Othodox faithful to fully participate in the Mass and the Eucharist while the Orthodox Church does not reciprocate that invitation.
 
vluvski said:
It seems to me that the barriers to unifying the Catholic and Orthodox Churches are largely one-sided, with the biggest indicator being that the Catholic Church permits Othodox faithful to fully participate in the Mass and the Eucharist while the Orthodox Church does not reciprocate that invitation.
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I disagree.

I would also clarify that when you say “the Catholic Church permits Orthodox faithful to fully participate in the Mass and the Eucharist”, a Catholic priest communing someone Orthodox does so believing that the Orthodox person is fully aware of the teaching of their Orthodox priest or bishop on the issue of them presenting themselves for Eucharist in a Catholic Church. The decision is made by the Orthodox person assumed to be aware of the implications.

I have limited experience with Orthodox visitors in my parish but of those who have come I have found that some know and do not go up for Eucharist and others do no know and when they ask us what that “policy” is, and are told the Catholic and the Orthodox perspectives then have not presented themselves for Eucharist. The only Orthodox visitor to my parish who regularly presents for Eucharist when visiting my parish is Coptic and his/her Coptic priest accepts this s/he has said.

I’ve never been discouraged from fully participating in Divine Liturgy, other than Eucharist which I have not presented myself for, in Greek, Russian and Antiochian Orthodox Churches, the only ones I’ve regularly gone to. I would not present myself for Eucharist there because we are not in communion and because I have ready access to a Catholic Church, and I’m not in a mixed Orthodox+Catholic marriage. If I lived where I did not have access to Eucharist in a Catholic setting then I would consider speaking with the Orthodox priest about Eucharist. There are certainly places where Orthodox priests commune Catholics. I have an EC friend who regularly receives in an Orthodox parish. Other people here have also addressed that. That is a topic for another thread however.
 
I haven’t read the other messages that answer this question. But I have an answer of my own that I think is a good one.

When the Eastern and Western Churches split in 1059 AD, the Western Church (Roman Catholic) still wished to keep the Eastern Church in the fold. After some time some churches in the East decided to unite with Rome but still wanted to keep their liturgical traditions. The traditions and customs the Eastern Churches have for worship do not disqualify them from being Catholic or having loyalty to Rome. So Rome allowed them to unite with Roman church, but still keep their traditions and customs. The Eastern Churches still have married clergy, as long as the clergymen get married before ordination. This is true around the world, except in the USA. And the Bishops are chosen from the clergymen who are not married.

The liturgical customs and traditions these churches have are almost identical to their counterparts in the Orthodox Church. The Ukrainian Catholic Church holds divine liturgy services in a manner almost identical to that of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The only Church in the Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church that has no counterpart in the Orthodox Church is the Maronite Church of Lebanon, in the Middle East.

The Eastern Catholics are also known as Eastern Rite Catholics and Byzantine Rite Catholics, While in the West those who l follow the traditions of Rome are known as the Latin Rite.

I hope this helps
 
Zekariya said:
Then tell me that my source has an error about “several monastic Western Rites”. Don’t tell my that my “source ignores several monastic Western Rites” which it did not. 😉
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The Carthusian rite, also, is neither defunct nor rarely used. But it’s also not publicly used - Carthusians are cloistered.
 
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