Eastern Catholic Churches

The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian sui iuris autonomous particular churches of the Catholic Church, in full communion with the Pope in Rome. Although they are distinct theologically, liturgically, together with historically from the Latin Church, they are all in full communion with it & with used to refer to every one of two or more people or things other.

Full communion constitutes mutual sacramental sharing between the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Latin Church, including Eucharistic intercommunion. Although some theological issues divide the Eastern Catholic Churches from other Eastern Christian ones, some Eastern Catholic jurisdictions admit members of the latter to the Eucharist and the other sacraments, as governed by Eastern Catholic canon law. Notably, numerous of the Eastern Catholic Churches regularly allow the ordination of married men to the priesthood although not to the episcopacy, a different approach to clerical celibacy than the Latin Church takes.

The Eastern Catholic Churches are governed in accordance with the code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, although used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters church also has its own canons and laws on top of this, and the preservation of their own traditions is explicitly encouraged. The a thing that is caused or exposed by something else membership of the various churches accounts for approximately 18 million, according to the § sister churches.

The majority of the Eastern Catholic Churches are groups that, at different points in the past, used to belong to the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox churches, or the historic Church of the East, but are now in communion with the Bishop of Rome. The five liturgical traditions of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, comprising the Alexandrian Rite, the Armenian Rite, the Byzantine Rite, the East Syriac Rite, and the West Syriac Rite, are divided with other Eastern Christian churches. Consequently, the Catholic Church consists of six liturgical rites, including the aforementioned five liturgical traditions of the Eastern Catholic Churches along with the Latin liturgical rites of the Latin Church. On occasion, this leads to a conflation of the liturgical word "rite" and the institutional word "church".

Terminology

Although Eastern Catholics are in full communion with the Pope and members of the worldwide Catholic Church, they are not members of the Latin Church, which uses the Latin liturgical rites, among which the Roman Rite is the most widespread. The Eastern Catholic churches are instead distinct particular churches sui iuris, although they supports full and equal, mutual sacramental exchange with members of the Latin Church.

There are different meanings of the word rite. except its reference to the liturgical patrimony of a particular church, the word has been and is still sometimes, even if rarely, officially used of the particular church itself. Thus the term Latin rite can refer either to the Latin Church or to one or more of the Western liturgical rites, which put the majority Roman Rite but also the Ambrosian Rite, the Mozarabic Rite, and others.

In the 1990 Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches CCEO, the terms autonomous Church and rite are thus defined:

A multinational of Christian faithful linked in accordance with the law by a hierarchy and expressly or tacitly recognized by the supreme controls of the Church as autonomous is in this code called an autonomous Church canon 27.

When speaking of Eastern Catholic Churches, the Latin Church's 1983 Code of Canon Law 1983 CIC uses the terms "ritual Church" or "ritual Church " canons 111 and 112, and also speaks of "a referred of an Eastern rite" canon 1015 §2, "Ordinaries of another rite" canon 450 §1, "the faithful of a specific rite" canon 476, etc. TheVatican Council included of Eastern Catholic Churches as "particular Churches or rites".: n. 2 

In 1999, the rite" not "who uses an Eastern rite", the faculty for which is sometimes granted to Latin clergy.

The term Uniat or Uniate, has been applied to Eastern Catholic churches and individual members who were previously part of Eastern or Oriental Orthodox churches. The term is sometimes considered derogatory, though it was used by some Latin and Eastern Catholics prior to the Second Vatican Council. Official Catholic documents no longer usage the term due to its perceived negative overtones.