The Catholic Church:
It is not what you think it is:
There are 24 of them

When most people hear of the Catholic Church, they think of the church headquartered in Rome and led by the pope. For most conversations you will have, that assumption is correct. But there are 24 different Catholic Churches: The one you think of and 23 other Catholic Churches.

Part of the misunderstanding comes from an assumption of almost all Protestants (and probably most Roman Catholics) that the Catholic Church is one institution. Almost all Protestants and Catholics think that same thing about Orthodox churches. But the opposite is true: Catholics (and Orthodox, but that is for a later article) are similar to Protestants in that they encompass different groups with similar theological understandings.

The Catholic Church that most people think of when they hear the phrase “Catholic Church” is technically the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). The 23 other Catholic Churches are listed at the bottom.

But what are the differences and similarities between these 23 Churches and the RCC? To boil down a complex issue into a short column, we will focus on this: much of the differences come from national and/or cultural differences and loyalties.

To make a rough comparison, think about the USA. There is one federal government and 50 smaller state governments. So, all 50 states have their own rules, often reflecting their unique cultural and social understandings. But, over all of that, the federal government keeps them connected through a focus on larger issues, like national security. Therefore, you have states’ rights and federal regulations.

Something roughly similar happens with the 24 Catholic Churches. Each of the churches exercises its own particular worship style reflecting the culture of its region. For example, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church will have different liturgies (forms of carrying out worship) that are different than the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church that is located in India. Each religious region will have a separate history that is reflected in their churches along with different styles of singing and even how to interact between people and clergy.

But this is the interesting part: they all look to the Roman pope as a source of authority over doctrine (but not practice). Each has its own form of leadership, which can range from having leaders known as a patriarch, an archbishop, a metropolitan, etc. They are attached to the RCC and fall (we would say loosely) under his authority, but they have their own leadership structures that are not part of the Roman Catholic Church. This is known as being “sui iuris,” which is Latin for “of one’s own right.”

And how many people are in the 23 smaller Catholic Churches? A combined membership of around 18 million.

1. Coptic Catholic Church
2. Eritrean Catholic Church
3. Ethiopian Catholic Church
4. Maronite Church
5. Syrian Catholic Church
6. Syro-Malankara Catholic Church
7. Armenian Catholic Church
8. Chaldean Catholic Church
9. Syro-Malabar Church
10. Albanian Catholic Church
11. Belarusian Catholic Church
12. Bulgarian Catholic Church
13. Croatian Byzantine Catholic Church or Croatian Greek Catholic Church
14. Greek Catholic Church
15. Hungarian Catholic Church
16. Italo-Albanian Catholic Church
17. Macedonian Catholic Church
18. Melkite Greek Catholic Church
19. Romanian Church United with Rome
20. Russian Catholic Church
21. Ruthenian Catholic Church
22. Slovak Catholic Church
23. Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

© 2023 Mark Nickens, Trinitas Institute LLC.