Is it really the ONE Eastern rite with all those churches in it or are each of those a different rite (melkite, maronite, ukrainian, etc). I’ve been calling them individual rites all along.
It is best to speak of the Catholic Church as a whole under the title of the Catholic Communion; it introduces a level of clarity by not using “church” which is also used for Church Sui Iuris…
6 different rites exist:
Roman, Antiochene/W.Syrian, Byzantine, Chaldean/E.Syrian, Alexandrian, Armenian.
The Roman is the Western Rite; the others are called collectively the Eastern Rites (note the plural).
1 rite has mostly ceased to exist, except in hybrids: Gallican.
1 rite has ceased and been resurrected outside the Catholic Communion: Celtic
Several subrites exist; the Roman Rite’s “western rites” are really subrites of the Roman and/or Gallican rites, and the Roman and Gallican were pretty close. It’s often argued that the Gallican is just a subrite of Roman itself, and the same for the Celtic. If the Gallican and Celtic are in fact subrites of the Roman, then the various “Western Rites” are more properly recensions, rather than subrites… it’s a big grey area mired with changing historical uses of the term Rite.
The Roman Church encompasses the Roman, Ambrosian, Mozarabic, Bragan, Dominican, Carmelite, Carthusian, Anglican, Gallican and Celtic Rites.
The other 21 churches in the Catholic Communion are grouped together into the other 5 rites.
The Armenian Church is Armenian Rite; the Armenian Catholic Church is in the Catholic Communion, the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox are not, but the two are visually near identical.
The Copts and Ethiopians are the major subrites of the Alexandrian; the Eritrean Catholics are part of the Ethiopian Catholic Church, and a recension within the Ethiopian subrite… but the Eritrean Orthodox are no longer under the Ethiopian Orthodox…
The Antiochene Rite is the Maronites and Syrians (both Syrian Catholic and Syrian Orthodox), and one of the indian churches
The Chaldean Rite is the Chaldeans and the other indian church, as well as the non-catholic Assyrian Church of the East and Ancient Church of the East.
The Byzantines come in 3 subrites, and cover 14 of the Churches Sui Iuris in the Catholic Communion: Syro-Byzantine (Antiochian Orthodox and Melkite Catholic), Greco-Byzantine (Greeks, Turks, and several other more southern churches), and Slavo-byzantine (Including Russians, Ukrainians, Ruthenians, Hungarians…)
The Greco-Byzantines and Slavo-byzantines each have several recensions; some have little to no Catholic presence, and one (the Italo-Albanian) has no Orthodox presence.
The Ruthenian Recension includes the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Ruthenian Catholic Church, and a couple smaller Catholic Churches, as well as the Ukrainian Orthodox Kyiv Patriarchate. The Nikonian Recension includes the Russians (except Old Ritualists and Old Believers), and the Ukrainian Orthodox under the Muscovite Patriarchate. The pre-nikonian Russian Old Ritualists are their own recension, present in both Catholic and Russian Orthodox; the Old Believers have some who use it, and others who use another recension. Some argument is surfacing now that the Ruthenians in the US may have developed into a recension all their own with the recent changes…
)
