From the Pastor's Desk

In my study class on Sunday morning I began this section of classes on the historical Jesus and have now moved into the historical apostolic era with understanding coming from the Acts of the Apostles and early Church Fathers.  My letter this week is concerning, what constitutes the Catholic Church?  The Catholic Church is actually a family of churches united by our common faith and common understanding and acceptance of the primacy of the bishop of Rome.  All Catholic churches are linked to the bishop of Rome, but every Catholic Church is not Roman Catholic.  This is important for each of us to understand.

The Roman Catholic Church is the largest and most international of the Catholic Churches.  It refers to all those peoples, churches which trace their evangelization directly or indirectly to the Church of Rome.  The Roman Catholic Church is organized into dioceses headed by the bishop, with his immediate superior being the pope, the bishop of Rome.

The patriarchal churches (bishops of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and Constantinople) stemming from ancient times, are known as patriarchs.  They have a special role of authority and preside over other dioceses.  They have their own distinctive rituals, languages in their liturgies and a special emphasis on the role and authority of assembly of bishops.  The six Catholic patriarchal churches are the Armenian, Chaldean, Coptic, Maronite, Melkite and Syriac.

Major Archiepiscopal churches are much like the patriarchal churches.  They are headed by a major archbishop.  The four Catholic major archiepiscopal churches are the Romanian, Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara and Ukrainian.

There are two Metropolitan churches.  They are smaller Eastern Catholic churches not yet canonically organized into major archiepiscopal church.  They are the Ethiopic and Ruthenian churches.

Bishops under the direction of Rome:  Bishops appointed by the Holy See for Catholics who are not members of the above three Catholic Churches.  They exist in Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine.

Eastern Catholic Churches without a bishop.  In Albania, Belarus, Georgia, and Russia there are some Catholics of the Byzantine tradition without bishops of their own.

All of these that I have listed are in union with Rome, but are not termed Roman Catholic, because they are not of the Western or Latin Rite.  They are different than the Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox churches who are not in union with Rome.  So when the Catholic Church under the direction of Rome moves to change liturgy, teachings, or disciplines all of these Catholic Churches must be taken into consideration and into the dialogue.  We in the United States must remember we are only a part of the Roman Catholic Church.