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Summary
- Byzantine Catholics belong to Eastern churches in full communion with the pope that worship in the Byzantine rite, the rite of the Church of Constantinople.
- Fourteen of the 23 Eastern Catholic churches are Byzantine; the largest of them, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, had about 4.4 million members in a chart of the Annuario Pontificio for 2018.
- In the Eastern rites infants receive Baptism, Confirmation (chrismation) and the Eucharist together (Catechism 1233).
- Married men may be ordained priests in the Eastern churches; a bar on married Eastern priests abroad, begun for Ruthenians in the United States in 1890 and extended in 1929 and 1930, was relaxed in 2014: Eastern bishops abroad may now allow them, and Rome decides in exceptional cases where there is no Eastern bishop.
- A Roman Catholic may receive Communion and fulfil the Sunday obligation at a Byzantine Catholic liturgy (canons 923 and 1248 of the Code of Canon Law).
- At Balamand in 1993 the joint Catholic–Orthodox commission’s statement rejected “uniatism” as a method of unity and affirmed the Eastern Catholic churches’ right to exist.
- The Church of the Byzantine Empire was in communion with Rome for much of its history; the excommunications of 1054 were committed to oblivion in 1965.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Bible: no passage of Scripture is quoted. The Nicene Creed as said in the Latin Church is quoted from the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2005), vatican.va.
- Second Vatican Council, Orientalium Ecclesiarum 3 (1964), vatican.va.
- Victoria Cardiel, “The 23 Eastern Catholic Churches: Ancient traditions in communion with Rome,” Catholic World Report, 20 September 2026, catholicworldreport.com; Vatican News on the 24 churches, February 2026, vaticannews.va.
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Eastern Catholic Churches Worldwide 2018,” compiled by Ronald G. Roberson from the Annuario Pontificio 2018, usccb.org.
- Vatican News, “New data of Annuario Pontificio 2026 shows Catholics growing in Africa,” March 2026 (figures for the end of 2024), vaticannews.va.
- Adrian Fortescue, “The Rite of Constantinople,” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 4 (1908), newadvent.org; “Melchites,” vol. 10 (1911), newadvent.org.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church: 1113, vatican.va; 1159, vatican.va; 1233, vatican.va; 1579–1580, vatican.va.
- General Instruction of the Roman Missal (2002), 320, vatican.va.
- Council of Florence, Bull of union with the Greeks, Laetentur caeli (1439), in Norman Tanner, ed., Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils (1990), papalencyclicals.net.
- Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, “The Greek and Latin Traditions regarding the Procession of the Holy Spirit” (1995), ewtn.com.
- Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh, “The Creed: the Symbol of Faith according to the Byzantine Rite tradition” (text of 1981), archpitt.org.
- Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, “Calendar: a new page in the history of the UGCC begins today,” 1 September 2023, ugcc.ua.
- Congregation for the Eastern Churches, Pontificia Praecepta de Clero Uxorato Orientali, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 106 (2014), English translation published by the Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh, archpitt.net.
- Code of Canon Law (1983), canon 112, vatican.va; canon 844, vatican.va; canon 923, vatican.va; canon 1248, vatican.va.
- Pope John Paul II, Sacri Canones (1990), promulgating the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, vatican.va.
- Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Letter for the Fourth Centenary of the Union of Brest (1995), vatican.va; Apostolic Letter for the 350th Anniversary of the Union of Uzhhorod (1996), vatican.va.
- Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, “Uniatism, method of union of the past, and the present search for full communion” (Balamand, 1993), christianunity.va.
- Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill, Joint Declaration, Havana, 12 February 2016, vatican.va.
- Orthodox Church in America, “Communion in Roman Catholic Church,” Questions and Answers, oca.org.
- Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I, Joint Catholic–Orthodox Declaration, 7 December 1965, vatican.va.
- Siméon Vailhé, “Greek Church,” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 6 (1909), for the dates of the union of Florence and the fall of Constantinople, newadvent.org.
- Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church, “Glossary of Terms,” orthodoxcouncil.org.
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