Posted on 11/09/2014 3:09:29 PM PST by NYer
If someone were to ask you how many Catholic Churches there are in the world, what would be your response? Not small ‘c’ churches referring to church buildings, but rather, Church with a capital ‘C’, indicating the grouping of believers who call themselves Catholic. You may very well respond to the question that there is one Catholic Church and to a large extent you would be correct. One can look to the Scriptures to see that the Lord deliberately founded a living Church built on his Apostles in order that his teachings and sacraments would continue down through time. Indeed the word Church comes out of the Greek verb ‘to gather together’, so the Church at its heart is a gathering of people.
While there is one Catholic Church though, that Church is made present in 23 Churches. Yes, that is correct, there are 23 Catholic Churches, and only one of those Churches is the Western, or Latin Church. The other 22 Churches are collectively termed the Eastern Catholic Churches but they are by no means all the same. Some of the Eastern Churches include the Melkite, Maronite, Ukrainian and Coptic Churches. Nor are these Eastern Churches mere annexes of the Latin Church. Each of the 22 Eastern Churches are autonomous and self-governing with their own Patriarch, Major Archbishop or Bishop. While these Churches were born in places such as the Middle East, India and Eastern Europe, they are not primarily cultural groups in the same way as one might be a French Catholic or an Indonesian Catholic (both of whom are still members of the Latin Church). Each of the 22 Eastern Churches preserve unique liturgical, devotional and theological traditions that demonstrate the authentic universality of the Catholic Church. For the most part, the Eastern Catholic Churches choose their own Bishops yet they remain Catholic because they are in full communion with the successor of Peter.
But how did the Eastern Catholic Churches come about? First the obvious. Jesus was not a citizen of Rome and he did not speak Latin (or English). He lived and ministered in the Middle East which was in his time under the Rule of the Roman Empire. For close to 300 years after Jesus, the new Christian religion suffered heavy persecution at the hands of that Empire. It was the baptism of the Emperor Constantine in 313AD and the eventual declaration of Christianity as the official religion of the Empire which saw the Christian faith injected into the Western world in a way that shaped deeply the Europe we know today. However, while the structure of the Roman Empire shaped the way that Western Christianity would pray and think, Eastern Christianity continued to grow and take shape in its own place, understanding itself differently yet preaching the same Christ. Unfortunately these differences in tradition and mindset were not always understood by the other, and in 1054 the Christian Church was split by the tragic misunderstanding of the great schism where the West excommunicated the East, and the East excommunicated the West, giving rise to the division known today of Catholic and Orthodox. While the Orthodox Churches have a valid priesthood and sacramental system, the fundamental difference is that the Orthodox do not recognise the Bishop of Rome as having the kind of teaching and governing authority which the Catholic Church claims.
For almost four hundred years after the schism the divisions continued without any real healing or attempt at understanding, but slowly some groups within the various Orthodox Churches felt it important to restore communion with the Catholic Church. The reunification of individual Eastern Churches began in the 16th century with the latest reunification as recently as 1930. The restorations of unity have not always been understood by the hierarchy of the Western Church with numerous examples of Eastern Catholic Churches forced to take on Western Church liturgical and devotional practices. The Second Vatican Council though spoke strongly about the need for the Catholic Churches of the East to maintain their identity. Some decades later, Pope John Paul II famously wrote about the Catholic Church needing to breathe again with both lungs, East and West.
The Eastern Catholic Churches continue to struggle. In their homelands many are persecuted severely and in their new lands of migration these Churches are often still misunderstood and cast to one side, being thought of as multicultural Latin Catholics. All people would do well to better understand the breadth of the 23 Catholic Churches and see in them a living demonstration to the full richness of the Church of Jesus Christ.
With one exception: the Maronite Church. The Maronites remained faithful to the pope, declaring: "Where Peter is, there is the Church".
Ping!
This is wrong.
It is wrong because Jesus did not found his church on flesh and blood (the Apostles or Peter) but on Truth, namely a Spiritual truth, and in fact the biggest Truth there is:
(Matthew 16:15-18)
"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."
Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
The rock that Jesus is referring to there isn't Peter, a flawed man who still would deny Jesus three times, but that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.
Peter's denial is actually quite relevant because Paul in 2 Tim 2:13 says If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. and if the Church were founded on Peter who denied Jesus then that would literally be part of the church's constitution — but it is not, it is that Jesus really is who he said he was and that, because of that, can do what he says he can.
In Defense of the Papacy: 9 Reasons True Christians Follow the Pope
The Four Pillars of the Christian Life
Fragments of Catholic Truth: Yes to Christ, No to the Church?
The Uniqueness of Christianity: 12 Objections Answered
The Church – The Bride of Christ
Catholic Identity Once Again
Essays for Lent: The Church
Woe to the Solitary Man – A Brief Meditation on our Need for the Church
Jesus and His Church Are One
How Old Is Your Church?
“How Many Catholic Churches Are There?”
23 official denominations of Catholic
millions of individual denominations of Catholic
Seems like I've heard that somewhere before...
Not denominations — they are different rites said in different languages.
Rite - Catholic word to avoid saying denominations... not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Catholic means UNIVERSAL.....ONE TRUE CHURCH.....some “sects”.
Wrong. There is one authority given exclusively to Peter and his successors. This is how the early Church fathers understood this. This was the same authority they used to put together the books in the Bible. They did not fall from the skies. They were sorted out after years of study, discussion, debate, and then by final authority of the successor to Peter as the “Word of God.”
If I were to trying out a few, would that be a Shop-Rite?
LOL! ONLY if you tried out MaronITE and MelkITE — LOL!
We have a Maronite Church in our diocese, St. Sharbel and NYer attends one in another state.
Truly!
“....a flawed man who still would deny Jesus three times....”
.
Sheesh, I wish I were as flawed as Peter who, in the end, was willing to be crucified upside down for the Lord.
And talking about denying Christ three times, I know I have done it many more times than that.
Him being given authority is not the same thing as founding the church upon him.
Or would you say that the kingdom if Israel was founded upon Saul? After all he was given the authority of king by God.
This is how the early Church fathers understood this. This was the same authority they used to put together the books in the Bible.
Again, authority is not equivalent to the founding.
They did not fall from the skies. They were sorted out after years of study, discussion, debate, and then by final authority of the successor to Peter as the “Word of God.”
Again, I'm not saying that Peter had no authority, or that things happened by magic [i.e. without study or work].
Although it is not widely known in our Western world, the Catholic Church is actually a communion of Churches. According to the Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, the Catholic Church is understood to be "a corporate body of Churches," united with the Pope of Rome, who serves as the guardian of unity (LG, no. 23). At present there are 22 Churches that comprise the Catholic Church. The new Code of Canon Law, promulgated by Pope John Paul II, uses the phrase "autonomous ritual Churches" to describe these various Churches (canon 112). Each Church has its own hierarchy, spirituality, and theological perspective. Because of the particularities of history, there is only one Western Catholic Church, while there are 21 Eastern Catholic Churches. The Western Church, known officially as the Latin Church, is the largest of the Catholic Churches. It is immediately subject to the Roman Pontiff as Patriarch of the West. The Eastern Catholic Churches are each led by a Patriarch, Major Archbishop, or Metropolitan, who governs their Church together with a synod of bishops. Through the Congregation for Oriental Churches, the Roman Pontiff works to assure the health and well-being of the Eastern Catholic Churches.
While this diversity within the one Catholic Church can appear confusing at first, it in no way compromises the Church's unity. In a certain sense, it is a reflection of the mystery of the Trinity. Just as God is three Persons, yet one God, so the Church is 22 Churches, yet one Church.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes this nicely:
"From the beginning, this one Church has been marked by a great diversity which comes from both the variety of God's gifts and the diversity of those who receive them... Holding a rightful place in the communion of the Church there are also particular Churches that retain their own traditions. The great richness of such diversity is not opposed to the Church's unity" (CCC no. 814).
Although there are 22 Churches, there are only eight "Rites" that are used among them. A Rite is a "liturgical, theological, spiritual and disciplinary patrimony," (Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, canon 28). "Rite" best refers to the liturgical and disciplinary traditions used in celebrating the sacraments. Many Eastern Catholic Churches use the same Rite, although they are distinct autonomous Churches. For example, the Ukrainian Catholic Church and the Melkite Catholic Church are distinct Churches with their own hierarchies. Yet they both use the Byzantine Rite.
To learn more about the "two lungs" of the Catholic Church, visit this link:
The Vatican II Council declared that "all should realize it is of supreme importance to understand, venerate, preserve, and foster the exceedingly rich liturgical and spiritual heritage of the Eastern churches, in order faithfully to preserve the fullness of Christian tradition" (Unitatis Redintegrato, 15).
A Roman rite Catholic may attend any Eastern Catholic Liturgy and fulfill his or her obligations at any Eastern Catholic Parish. A Roman rite Catholic may join any Eastern Catholic Parish and receive any sacrament from an Eastern Catholic priest, since all belong to the Catholic Church as a whole. I am a Roman Catholic practicing my faith at a Maronite Catholic Church. Like the Chaldeans, the Maronites retain Aramaic for the Consecration. It is as close as one comes to being at the Last Supper.
Please freepmail me if you would like more information on the Eastern Catholic Churches.
>> “....a flawed man who still would deny Jesus three times....”
>
> Sheesh, I wish I were as flawed as Peter who, in the end, was willing to be crucified upside down for the Lord.
> And talking about denying Christ three times, I know I have done it many more times than that.
That’s ultimately my point — Jesus didn’t found the church on a man, who cannot save, but upon [the Truth of] Himself who CAN.
You must agree the profoundest of all authority is to authoritatively establish the Word of God in writing. In short, to assemble the books in the Bible. This is what the early Church fathers did using the sacred oral tradition, contemporary sources, and ritual. This deposit of authority was not to be spread around to every Tom, Dick and Harry who picks up the Bible and goes on a gallop of his own on how to interpret Scripture. This was to be done by virtue of Petrine authority. “Whatsoever, thou shall bind on earth….” You get the picture.
>> “There is one authority given exclusively to Peter and his successors.” <<
.
Nonsense!
Peter had no more ‘authority’ than anyone else. (Try reading Yeshua’s words; he made it clear that all of his assembly were equal.
All of the apostles voluntarily deferred to James, out of respect for the fact that he he was the eldest of Yeshua’s brothers, but that was not official.
The pecking orders were dreamed up long after the apostles were all dead. Those that practiced such will not likely find Yehova’s rest.
.
“autonomous ritual Churches” - I understand. Denominations that are autonomous, but share core beliefs. It is similar to Protestant polity, but adds tradition, costumes and more levels of overhead.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.