The Eastern Catholic Churches

The Catholic Eastern Churches largely came into being only in the second millennium of the Christian era, when individual Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches or parts of their faithful and hierarchs entered into union with the Roman See. The aim of these unions was to restore church fellowship between East and West, although church-political reasons were often in the background of these union efforts. However, most unions were not able to restore unity between Christians in East and West; on the contrary, they led to further divisions. Only a part of the respective local churches joined the Catholic Church, while another part remained orthodox. An exception is the Maronite Church, which according to its self-understanding has never been separated from Rome. It also formally resumed communion with Rome in the 12th century, making it the oldest of the Eastern Catholic Churches. At the same time, it is the only one where it was possible to bring an existing local church fully into communion with Rome, so that today there is no parallel Eastern Church separated from Rome.

Among the Eastern Catholic Churches there are Churches from all five Eastern Rite Families. Since all of them are in communion with the bishop of Rome, they have full ecclesiastical and sacramental communion with each other and with the Roman Catholic Church. The Eastern Catholic Churches are churches in their own right (“ecclesiae sui iuris”), which have their own code of canon law, the Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium (CCEO). The following list of Eastern Catholic Churches is based on the rank of their primates (first the Patriarchal Churches, then the Churches headed by a Major Archbishop, then the Metropolitans, and finally the other Eastern Catholic Churches):