TheGreek-Catholic Churches, which fall within the "Eastern Catholic Churches" or "Catholic Churches of Eastern rite", constitute the corpus of churches in communion with theBishop of Rome and observing, by long tradition, theByzantine Rite. They are still called "Greek-Catholic" to highlight the "Greek" rite (as the Byzantine rite was called in the past, having theGreek koinè as the common ecclesiasticallingua franca of the various Christian peoples of the East) and the union with the papacy.
The Greek Catholic Church may refer to theEastern Catholic Churches that use the Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite:
