History & overview · every faith gets one
Eastern rites, Roman communion — a bridge, not a schism.
Twenty-three churches — Byzantine, Maronite, Chaldean, Syro-Malabar, and more — that worship with the East's liturgies and married priesthood while holding communion with Rome. Not an offshoot that left, but branches grafted back; the label records a union, not a split.
The founding
No single founder — The Eastern Catholic Churches accreted rather than began.
What it holds
The divine. One God in three persons.
Death and after. Resurrection and judgment.
The line
descent is public here — where it came from, what left itBranches:
The Maronite Church — A church built around a hermit, and a country built around the church. The Chaldean Catholic Church — East Syriac liturgy, Roman communion, Baghdad address. The Syro-Malabar Church — Thomas Christians in Roman communion — arguing about which way the priest faces. The Armenian Catholic Church — Armenian rite, Roman communion, and the same 1915. The Syriac Catholic Church — The West Syriac rite, in communion with Rome, out of Mosul and Aleppo. The Syro-Malankara Catholic Church — A 1930 crossing, with the Qurbana carried over intact.