Different rites of the Catholic Church

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komeeks18 said:
(I had no idea where to put this thread. So I just put it here. It may need to be moved, though!) Of course there is the Roman Catholic Church. But what are the different Churches that are still considered Catholic? There is Orthodox, I know. Is the “Eastern Church” and the “Orthodox Church” the same Church? And what about the Church of England? I’m confused about whether these Churches are still considered Catholic or not. And they major differences between them. I am definitely a Christian, but I’m learning more about Christianity and I want to learn more about Catholicism. I’ve been raised, saved, and baptized Protestant, but I believe the Roman Catholic Church is the one true church started by Jesus Christ, but I still need to learn more. I really appreciate your replies and explanations! Thank you and God bless!
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As far as I know there is only One Catholic Church: “et unam, sanctam, catholicam ecclesia”, that is what the Creed says.

Now there are several rites OK.

But there cannot be more than One Church.
Why?
Because the Church is Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is not divided, He is One.
Jesus Christ is the Tree and we, christians, are the leaves. Now, there are leaves bigger, smaller, greener, lighter, there are branches stronger and weaker but the Church is one only. There are no 2 trees.
 
komeeks18 said:
So the Catholic Church is made up of many self-governing Churches that have differences and beliefs, but are still considered Catholic? And the Eastern Orthodox Church, are they also led by the Pope? Sorry, this is very difficult for me to understand the differences and division but the unity.
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No. The various Catholic Churches share the same belief, but the way they practice the Catholic faith is different. The way they worship or have Mass or Divine Liturgy is different. It is similar in ways, but different. Most of the prayers that are said are different, but some are the same.

Some priests are bi-ritual, meaning they have faculties or are allowed to preside at worship in more than one rite. You can see the word rite in the word ritual.

Maybe the best way to understand this is for you to go to a Mass in a local Roman or Latin rite parish and then go to Divine Liturgy (Mass) at an Eastern Catholic parish.

In Eastern churches the liturgy is mainly sung, back and forth between the priest and people.

The same Catholic faith is expressed in different ways. Maybe another way to understand it is by thinking about the concept of style. The same song could be sung accompanied by a guitar, or a piano, or an orchestra, or sung a capella. It could be sung by a single person, in a duet, or full choir. The song is the same melody and words and recognizable in all forms, but how it is performed differs.

The pope is the visible head of all Catholic Churches. The Eastern Orthodox do not recognize the pope, but all Catholics see him as the successor of Peter appointed by Jesus to lead His Church as declared by scripture.
 
grandfather said:
No. The various Churches share the same belief, but the way they practice the Catholic faith is different. The way they worship or have Mass or Divine Liturgy is different. It is similar in ways, but different. Most of the prayers that are said are different, but some are the same.

Some priests are bi-ritual, meaning they have faculties or are allowed to preside at worship in more than one rite. You can see the word rite in the word ritual.

Maybe the best way to understand this is for you to go to a Mass in a local Roman or Latin rite parish and then go to Divine Liturgy (Mass) at an Eastern Catholic parish.

In Eastern churches the liturgy is mainly sung, back and forth between the priest and people.

The same Catholic faith is expressed in different ways. Maybe another way to understand it is by thinking about the concept of style. The same song could be sung accompanied by a guitar, or a piano, or an orchestra, or sung a capella. It could be sung by a single person, in a duet, or full choir. The song is the same melody and words and recognizable in all forms, but how it is performed differs.
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Oh okay. Thank you for your explanation! It really helped!
 
Pfaffenhoffen said:
As far as I know there is only One Catholic Church: “et unam, sanctam, catholicam ecclesia”, that is what the Creed says.

Now there are several rites OK.

But there cannot be more than One Church.
Why?
Because the Church is Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is not divided, He is One.
Jesus Christ is the Tree and we, christians, are the leaves. Now, there are leaves bigger, smaller, greener, lighter, there are branches stronger and weaker but the Church is one only. There are no 2 trees.
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The Eastern Catholic churches are exactly that-churches. This is what they are called in Canon Law. There is one universal Church, but there are multiple particular churches.
 
komeeks18 said:
(I had no idea where to put this thread. So I just put it here. It may need to be moved, though!) Of course there is the Roman Catholic Church. But what are the different Churches that are still considered Catholic? There is Orthodox, I know. Is the “Eastern Church” and the “Orthodox Church” the same Church? And what about the Church of England? I’m confused about whether these Churches are still considered Catholic or not. And they major differences between them. I am definitely a Christian, but I’m learning more about Christianity and I want to learn more about Catholicism. I’ve been raised, saved, and baptized Protestant, but I believe the Roman Catholic Church is the one true church started by Jesus Christ, but I still need to learn more. I really appreciate your replies and explanations! Thank you and God bless!
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When I’m confused ( which is most of the time:D) I look it up in the CCC. I found #s 813, 814, 815, 816, to be interesting, might help a little. 🙂
 
This is all quite interesting, but I saw a diagram once that I believe was from a textbook or a parish pamphlet? Anyone have this so we can show the OP?
 
Thank You (name removed by moderator)! That’s not the one, but it’s better than what I saw!
 
Pfaffenhoffen said:
As far as I know there is only One Catholic Church: “et unam, sanctam, catholicam ecclesia”, that is what the Creed says.

Now there are several rites OK.

But there cannot be more than One Church.
Why?
Because the Church is Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is not divided, He is One.
Jesus Christ is the Tree and we, christians, are the leaves. Now, there are leaves bigger, smaller, greener, lighter, there are branches stronger and weaker but the Church is one only. There are no 2 trees.
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Rites and Churches are two different things. Rites are Liturgical traditions. Church as a word is scalable in its use. In the high level, there is one Church, the mystical body of Christ. In the atomic level, every diocese and eparchy is one Church, so there are literally thousands of Catholic Churches around the world. But when talking about the different Churches East and West that comprise the Catholic Church, those are called “sui juris” or self-governing Churches. They are distinct form one another. There are 23 Churches.
 
Okay, so the 23 different churches are all still Catholic, but are different from each other because of how they perform things because of their traditions?
 
At first, the Italo Albanians joined, then later took over the remnants of the Italo Greeks. The exception being the Italo Greek monastary outside Rome and the Italo Greek Church in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Italo Greek Church in Las Vegas was authorized by John Paul II by Papal Bull and is a parish of the Ruthenian Eparchy of Phoenix
 
komeeks18 said:
Okay, so the 23 different churches are all still Catholic, but are different from each other because of how they perform things because of their traditions?
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Yes.

We’re all in the mystical body of Christ. All 23 sui iuris churches are 100% fully just as Catholic as each other, however like ConstantineTG said, we’re separate: planted in God’s garden, rather than branches from the one tree.

All the churches are loyal and obedient to the Holy Father, the Pope, the Successor of St Peter. All are loyal to the Magisterium of the Church, but, have a different theology and liturgical practise.
 
rdorseyhsd said:
At first, the Italo Albanians joined, then later took over the remnants of the Italo Greeks. The exception being the Italo Greek monastary outside Rome and the Italo Greek Church in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Italo Greek Church in Las Vegas was authorized by John Paul II by Papal Bull and is a parish of the Ruthenian Eparchy of Phoenix
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I’m kind of puzzled here. :confused:

Please would you give me a link to this Bull of Pope John Paul II which set up this Parish in Las Vegas ?

I had always understood that Our Lady of Wisdom in Las Vegas was erected by Bishop George Kuzma on his own initiative and authority.
 
There is a portrait in our Church of John Paul II handing the Bull to our Archimandrite. As far as I know, a petition for the formation of the Italo Greek Church in Las Vegas was transmitted to Rome. The Roman Bishop of Las Vegas, then relinquished jurisdiction and gave consent to the establishment of the Italo Greek Church. This new mission was required to elect to be under the jurisdiction of the Roman Bishop of Las Vegas, or the Ruthenian Bishop of Van Nuys. The jurisdiction of the Ruthenian Bishop was selected. The ceremony establishing the Church and raising the pastor to Archimandrite was presided over by Metropolitan Raya. The jurisdiction of our Archimandrite was limited to the state of Nevada. Our Archimandrite is an heirarch in the sense that he is the highest ranking Italo Greek in the United States. Bishop George did raise the Church to a parish, and through his support the Church was established and grew. It is probable that without the support of Bishop George the Parish would not exist today. But the process was started with a Bull from John Paul II.
 
LoyalViews said:
Yes.

We’re all in the mystical body of Christ. All 23 sui iuris churches are 100% fully just as Catholic as each other, however like ConstantineTG said, we’re separate: planted in God’s garden, rather than branches from the one tree.

All the churches are loyal and obedient to the Holy Father, the Pope, the Successor of St Peter. All are loyal to the Magisterium of the Church, but, have a different theology and liturgical practise.
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Saying they have different theology could be misleading. It sounds like different belief on various matters.

Maybe a good analogy is mathematics. If you have a math problem there might be various ways or approaches to find the correct answer, but if they all come up with the same correct answer the way the approach to finding the solution is valid.

I just read the ancient Pascal liturgical prayers by Saint John of Damascus. They are so beautiful in the way they express truths of the faith that it makes your soul exult in God to read or listen to them. The extraordinary beauty of the Eastern traditions uplift the soul in God or to God.

The west has its own. They are different. It is impossible for me to not appreciate the treasures of both and I encourage the young man discovering Catholicsim to learn of both.
 
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