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23 Catholic denominations

Illuminator

New Member
A rite is not a separate church. A rite represents an ecclesiastical tradition about how the sacraments are to be celebrated. As the early Church grew and spread, it celebrated the sacraments as would be best understood and received in the context of individual cultures, without ever changing their essential form and matter. The early Church sought to evangelize in the major cultural centers of the first centuries A.D. These centers were Rome, Antioch (Syria), and Alexandria (Egypt). All the rites in use today evolved from the liturgical practices and ecclesiastical organization used by the churches in these cities.

The Catholic Encyclopedia describes the situation this way: "Within the Catholic Church ... Canonical rites, which are of equal dignity, enjoy the same rights, and are under the same obligations. Although the particular churches possess their own hierarchy, differ in liturgical and ecclesiastical discipline, and possess their own spiritual heritage, they are all entrusted to the pastoral government of the Roman pontiff, the divinely appointed successor of St. Peter in the Primacy.

The error in your chart is the title and so is your thread title. A rite is not a denomination.
 

CoreIssue

Administrator
Staff member
That is a false and you know it. Only the Roman catholic nomination recognizes the authority of the Pope, an example.
 

Matthias

Advanced Poster
“First, we have the Catholic Church. No prefixes. No other labels. We just have the Catholic Church. Or, if one really wants to, we can refer to the Universal (Catholic) Church. Second, the Catholic Church is comprised of six different liturgical rites, and within those rites, there are twenty-four particular Churches. These twenty-four sui iuris (autonomous or self-governing) Churches are all in communion with one another are all within the Catholic Church and all recognize the primacy of the pope.

The Latin (or Roman, but we’ll continue to refer to it as ‘Latin’ from now on) Catholic Church is the largest of these twenty-four Churches, and is the only Western Church. The other twenty-three Catholic Churches are all referred to as Eastern Churches and have their own traditions and forms of liturgy, yet retain the same basic liturgical structures and theology as seen in the West. …”

(Nicholas Labanca, “The Other 23 Catholic Churches and Why They Exist”)

 
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