Eastern Catholic churches

Grew from: Roman Catholic
From: 1596 AD
Origin: Brest, and the eastern Mediterranean

Twenty-three churches of eastern rite in full communion with Rome, most formed when part of an eastern church entered that communion while keeping its own liturgy — the Union of Brest in 1596 is the largest example. Their existence is a live grievance in Orthodox and Assyrian dialogue with Rome, which regards the method as superseded; the churches themselves reject the label "uniate" as an insult.

What marks it out

Eastern liturgy, calendar and canon law, with married priests, under the bishop of Rome — so the visible difference from an Orthodox parish is often only the name in the intercessions. The Second Vatican Council directed them to recover eastern practice they had latinised, reversing centuries of pressure the other way.

Alongside it

Also from Roman Catholic.

This body appears in the history but does not carry recorded doctrinal positions here, so it is absent from the comparison panels.

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