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| Particular churches sui iuris of the Catholic Church |
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| Particular churches are grouped by liturgical rite |
| Alexandrian Rite |
| Armenian Rite |
| Byzantine Rite |
| East Syriac Rite |
| Latin liturgical rites |
| West Syriac Rite |
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A particular church (Latin: ecclesia particularis) is an ecclesiastical community of followers headed by a bishop (or equivalent), as defined by Catholic canon law and ecclesiology. A liturgical rite, a collection of liturgies descending from shared historic or regional context, depends on the particular church the bishop (or equivalent) belongs to. Thus the term "particular church" refers to an institution, and "liturgical rite" to its ritual practices.
Particular churches exist in two kinds:
- An autonomous particular church sui iuris: an aggregation of particular churches with distinct liturgical, spiritual, theological and canonical traditions.[1] The largest such autonomous particular church is the Latin Church. The other 23 Eastern Catholic Churches are headed by bishops, some of which are titled Patriarch or Major Archbishop. In this context the descriptors autonomous (Greek: αὐτόνομος, romanized: autónomos) and sui iuris (Latin) are synonymous, meaning "of its own law".
- A local particular church: a diocese (or eparchy) headed by a bishop (or equivalent), typically collected in a national polity under an episcopal conference. However, there are also other forms, including apostolic vicariates, apostolic prefectures, military ordinariates, personal ordinariates, personal prelatures, and territorial abbacies.[2]
Liturgical rites also exist in two kinds:
- Liturgical rite: a liturgical rite depending on the tradition of an autonomous particular church sui iuris. Catholic liturgies are broadly divided into the Latin liturgical rites of the Latin Church and the various Eastern Catholic liturgies of the other 23 sui iuris churches
- Catholic order liturgical rite: a variant of a liturgical rite exceptionately depending on a specific religious order
- ^ "Orientalium Ecclesiarum". Vatican.va. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
- ^ Particular Churches, in which and from which the one and only Catholic Church exists, are principally dioceses. Unless the contrary is clear, the following are equivalent to a diocese: a territorial prelature, a territorial abbacy, a vicariate apostolic, a prefecture apostolic and a permanently established apostolic administration. (Code of Canon Law, canon 368)