Introducing the Other Catholics

So, you’ve been digging into the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the encyclicals of Pope St. John Paul II, and maybe even the documents of Vatican II, and you keep coming across references to the “Eastern tradition,” the “Eastern Catholic Churches,” and the “Eastern lung of the Catholic Church.”

Or maybe you’ve been reading articles about events in Ukraine, the Middle East, or the current Synod of Bishops and you keep seeing these guys with big beards, big cassocks, and strange (but freakin’ awesome) hats.

These are all Orthodox bishops, right?

Actually, no.

Those bishops, archbishops, and patriarchs are Eastern Catholics!

They’re just as Catholic as you, your parish priest, your bishop, and the Pope himself. They’re in communion with the Bishop of Rome and the Roman Church. They just do Catholicism differently.

I would know, because I’m one of them… Well, not a bishop or priest. Just an Eastern Catholic guy.

Who are the Eastern Catholics?

Many Roman Catholics don’t realize that the Catholic Church is actually a communion of 24 particular churches. The Roman Church is just one of those 24 churches – albeit the largest, most well-known, and most prominent (at least here in western countries).

So who are the other 23 churches?

They are churches that originated in eastern Europe, the Middle East, and even Asia.

Think about it for a moment. The Apostles didn’t start evangelizing in Rome the moment after Jesus ascended into heaven. They began with the Jews in Jerusalem. From there they went off in all directions, evangelizing throughout the Middle East, Syria, the Mediterranean, and even making their way down into modern-day Pakistan and India.

For Peter and Paul, Rome was the last place they evangelized (although the evidence shows that there was already a Christian community established in Rome prior to their personal presence). Peter himself was the first bishop of Antioch long before he was bishop of Rome.

Complete List of Eastern Catholic Churches

So who are these mysterious Eastern Catholic Churches?

I’m so happy you asked! But before I answer, I need to explain something.

The Eastern Catholic Churches broadly fit into five ritual families (hence, many often wrongly refer to Eastern Catholics as Eastern “rite” Catholics and the Eastern Churches as the Eastern “rite”). Those ritual families are: The Alexandrian Rite, the West Syrian Rite, the East Syrian Rite, the Armenian Rite, and the Byzantine Rite.

Now, here’s how the particular Eastern Catholic Churches fit into these five ritual traditions:

Byzantine Rite

• Albanian Catholic Church
• Belarusian Catholic Church
• Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church
• Croatian Greek Catholic Church
• Greek Catholic Church
• Hungarian Catholic Church
• Italo-Albanian Catholic Church
• Macedonian Catholic Church
• Melkite Greek Catholic Church
• Romanian Catholic Church
• Russian Catholc Church
• Ruthenian Catholic Church (widely known in the U.S. simply as the Byzantine Catholic Church)
• Slovak Catholic Church
• Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

East Syrian Rite

• Chaldean Catholic Church
• Syro-Malabar Catholic Church

West Syrian (Antiochian) Rite

• Maronite Church
• Syrian Catholic Church
• Syro-Malankara Catholic Church

Alexandrian Rite

• Coptic Catholic Church
• Eritrean Catholic Church
• Ethiopian Catholic Church

Armenian Rite

• Armenian Catholic Church

As you can see, the Eastern Catholic Churches come from a wide diversity of places and cultures. As Latin is the mother tongue of the Roman Church, our mother languages include Greek, Syriac, Coptic, and Armenian. 

Coming as we do from so many diverse regions and cultures, each of our Eastern ritual traditions and particular churches have its own history and unique perspectives on the one Faith we all share in common.

If you’re curious to learn more and to dive into some of the rich traditions and theological perspectives of the East, then stay tuned because I’ve got a lot more I’m excited to share with you.