| rdfs:comment | - The Eastern Catholic Churches are autonomous (in Latin, sui iuris) particular Churches in full communion with the Bishop of Rome—the pope. They preserve the centuries-old liturgical and devotional traditions of the various Eastern Christian Churches with which they are associated historically. While doctrinal differences divide these other Eastern Christian Churches into groups not in communion with one another, the Eastern Catholic Churches are united with one another and with the Latin or Western Church, although they vary in theological emphasis, forms of liturgical worship and popular piety, canonical discipline and terminology. In particular, they recognize the central role of the Bishop of Rome within the College of Bishops and his infallibility when speaking ex cathedra.
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| abstract | - The Eastern Catholic Churches are autonomous (in Latin, sui iuris) particular Churches in full communion with the Bishop of Rome—the pope. They preserve the centuries-old liturgical and devotional traditions of the various Eastern Christian Churches with which they are associated historically. While doctrinal differences divide these other Eastern Christian Churches into groups not in communion with one another, the Eastern Catholic Churches are united with one another and with the Latin or Western Church, although they vary in theological emphasis, forms of liturgical worship and popular piety, canonical discipline and terminology. In particular, they recognize the central role of the Bishop of Rome within the College of Bishops and his infallibility when speaking ex cathedra. Most Eastern Catholic Churches have counterparts in other Eastern Churches, whether Assyrian or Oriental Orthodox, from whom they are separated by a number of theological concerns, or the Eastern Orthodox Churches, from whom they are separated primarily by differences in understanding the role of the Bishop of Rome in the church. The Eastern Catholic Churches were located historically in Eastern Europe, the Asian Middle East, Northern Africa and India, but are now, because of migration, found also in Western Europe, the Americas and Oceania to the extent of forming full-scale ecclesiastical structures such as eparchies, alongside the Latin dioceses. One country, Eritrea, has only an Eastern Catholic hierarchy, with no Latin structure. The terms Byzantine Catholic and Greek Catholic are used of those who belong to Churches that use the Byzantine liturgical rite. The terms Oriental Catholic and Eastern Catholic include these, but are broader, since they also cover Catholics who follow the Alexandrian, Antiochian, Armenian and Chaldean liturgical traditions.
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