Question about Eastern Rite Catholics and the Pope

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The_Reginator

The_Reginator

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Pardon my ignorance but …:o

I have come to understand (correctly?) that Eastern Rite Catholics, unlike the Eastern Orthodox, acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope.

Now that the Church is looking for a new successor of St. Peter I keep hearing in the secular media that he will be the head of the Roman Catholic Church. I’ve been under the impression that he will be head of the Catholic Church, be it Latin Rite or one of the Eastern Rites. (Is it correct to use a capital “R” for the work “Rite”. Is Rite right or is rite right?)
So, is the Pope only head of the “Roman” Catholic Church?

Thanks for enlightening me.
  • Reg.
 
St. Peter was first the Patriarch of Antioch before he become the Pope of Rome, so I guess Eastern Catholics can become Pope 🙂
 
The pope is the head of the Catholic Church. Nowhere in any official Church documents is the universal Church called the “Roman Catholic Church.” The media is probably trying to use politically correct terminology. That said, I don’t mind being called “Roman Catholic” since I belong to the Roman rite; but I would not expect Byzantines, Chaldeans, etc. to embrace that nomenclature.
 
The_Reginator said:
Now that the Church is looking for a new successor of St. Peter I keep hearing in the secular media that he will be the head of the Roman Catholic Church. I’ve been under the impression that he will be head of the Catholic Church, be it Latin Rite or one of the Eastern Rites. (Is it correct to use a capital “R” for the work “Rite”. Is Rite right or is rite right?)
So, is the Pope only head of the “Roman” Catholic Church?

Thanks for enlightening me.
  • Reg.
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Within the Catholic Church (i.e. the Roman Communion) there are 23 churches. Namely, there’s the Latin Church (not “Rite”), and there are 22 Eastern Catholic Churches (not “Rites”).

So then you may ask, Well what about rites?
In brief, the Latin Church has several rites (the Roman Rite which is the most common one, the Ambrosian Rite which you can only find in Milan, the Mozarabic Rite which you can only find in Spain and Portugal, and others).
Among Eastern Catholic Churches, a number of them (namely the “Greek Catholic Churches” a.k.a. “Byzantine Catholic Churches”) use the Byzantine Rite. You can find a list of them here, along with the rites used by other EC Churches:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Catholic_Churches#List_of_Churches
 
While the whole Catholic Church is not the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope becomes head of the Catholic Church by virtue of his being bishop/patriarch of the Roman Church, that is, by becoming the Bishop of Rome.
 
In a sense, the Roman Catholic Church includes not only the Latin Rite but also every other Church that is in Communion with the Holy See in Rome, regardless of Rite.
 
Thanks folks.
I kept thinking that it was not REALLY correct to say that “the pope is the head of billions of Roman Catholics throughout the world” – I’ve heard phrases like that over and over in the secular media but didn’t feel confident in thinking “boy are they ignorant. Glad I’m not”.😉

And thanks for the extra info Peter J on rites vs. Churches.

**
 
The_Reginator said:
Pardon my ignorance but …:o

I have come to understand (correctly?) that Eastern Rite Catholics, unlike the Eastern Orthodox, acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope.

Now that the Church is looking for a new successor of St. Peter I keep hearing in the secular media that he will be the head of the Roman Catholic Church. I’ve been under the impression that he will be head of the Catholic Church, be it Latin Rite or one of the Eastern Rites. (Is it correct to use a capital “R” for the work “Rite”. Is Rite right or is rite right?)
So, is the Pope only head of the “Roman” Catholic Church?

Thanks for enlightening me.
  • Reg.
Click to expand...
When the media refer to “the Roman Catholic Church,” they mean the whole Catholic Church.

They use the terms interchangeably.

I too prefer the terminology as used on this forum, but let’s not kid ourselves: the rest of the world doesn’t make that distinction. To most out there, “Catholic Church” and “Roman Catholic Church” both refer to the same thing.
The_Reginator said:
Thanks folks.
I kept thinking that it was not REALLY correct to say that “the pope is the head of billions of Roman Catholics throughout the world” – I’ve heard phrases like that over and over in the secular media but didn’t feel confident in thinking “boy are they ignorant. Glad I’m not”.😉

And thanks for the extra info Peter J on rites vs. Churches.

**

It’s not necessarily wrong. It does contradict the ecclesiastical taxonomy expected and employed in this online forum community, but that’s the worst that can be said of it, because the term “Roman Catholic” isn’t an official one at all.

Since it’s not anyone’s official term, “Roman Catholic” and “Roman Catholic Church” basically mean whatever whoever is using it intends it to mean. Usually context makes its definition clear, fortunately.

On this forum, people never say “Roman Catholic Church” unless they mean the Latin Church.

Throughout most of the English-speaking world, especially in the secular press, the “Roman Catholic Church” is simply a synonym for the whole Catholic Church.
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