Aparticular church (Latin:ecclesia particularis) is an ecclesiastical community of followers headed by abishop (orequivalent), as defined byCatholic canon law andecclesiology. Aliturgical 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:
Liturgical rites also exist in two kinds:
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InCatholic ecclesiology, achurch is an assembly of thefaithful, hierarchically ordered, both in the entire world (theCatholic Church), or in a certain territory (a particular church). To be asacrament (a sign) of theMystical Body of Christ in the world, a church must have both a head and members (Col. 1:18).[7] The sacramental sign ofChrist the head is the sacredhierarchy – thebishops,priests anddeacons.[8][9]
More specifically, it is the local bishop, with his priests and deacons gathered around and assisting him in his office of teaching, sanctifying and governing (Mt. 28:19–20;Titus 1:4–9). Thus, the church is fully present sacramentally (by way of a sign) wherever there is a sign of Christ the head, a bishop and those who assist him, and a sign of Christ's body, Christian faithful.[10] Eachdiocese is therefore considered aparticular church.[11]
On the worldwide level, the sign of Christ the head is thePope, and, to be Catholic, particular churches, whether local churches or autonomous ritual churches, must be in communion with this sign of Christ the head.[12] Through thisfull communion withSaint Peter and his successors the church becomes a universal sacrament ofsalvation to theend of the age (Mt. 28:20).[11]
The word "church" is applied to the Catholic Church as a whole, which is seen as a single church: the multitude of peoples and cultures within the church, and the great diversity of gifts, offices, conditions and ways of life of its members, are not opposed to the church's unity.[13] In this sense of "church", the list of churches in the Catholic Church has only one member, theCatholic Church itself (comprising Roman and Eastern Churches).
Within the Catholic Church there are local particular churches, of which dioceses are the most familiar form. Other forms includeterritorial abbacies,apostolic vicariates andapostolic prefectures. The1983 Code of Canon Law states: "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."[14] A list of Catholic dioceses, of which on 31 December 2011 there were 2,834,[15] is given atList of Catholic dioceses (alphabetical).
Within the Catholic Church there are also aggregations of local particular churches that share a specific liturgical, theological, spiritual, andcanonical heritage, distinguished from other heritages on the basis of cultural and historical circumstances. These are known as autonomous ("sui iuris") churches. The 1990Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches defines such a church as follows: "A group of Christ's faithful hierarchically linked in accordance with law and given express or tacit recognition by the supreme authority of the Church is in this Code called an autonomous Church."[16] There are 24 such autonomous Catholic churches: OneLatin Church (i.e.,Western) and 23Eastern Catholic Churches", a distinction by now more historical than geographical. Although each of them has its own specific heritage, they are all in full communion with the Pope inRome.
Unlike "families" or "federations" of churches formed through the grant of mutual recognition by distinct ecclesial bodies,[17] the Catholic Church considers itself a single church ("full communion, "one Body") composed of a multitude of particular churches, each of which, as stated, is an embodiment of the fullness of the one Catholic Church. For the particular churches within the Catholic Church, whether autonomous ritual churches (e.g.,Coptic Catholic Church,Melkite Catholic Church,Armenian Catholic Church, etc.) or dioceses (e.g.,Archdiocese of Birmingham,Archdiocese of Chicago, etc.), are seen as not simply branches, divisions or sections of a larger body. Theologically, each is considered to be the embodiment in a particular place or for a particular community of the one, whole Catholic Church. "It is in these and formed out of them that the one and unique Catholic Church exists."[18][19]
There are 24 autonomous churches: oneLatin Church and twenty-threeEastern Catholic Churches, a distinction by now more historical than geographical. The termsui iuris means, literally, "of its own law", or self-governing. Although all of the particular churches espouse the same beliefs and faith, their distinction lies in their varied expression of that faith through their traditions, disciplines, andcanon law. All are in communion with theHoly See.
For this kind of particular church, the 1983Code of Canon Law uses the unambiguous phrase "autonomous ritual Church" (Latin:Ecclesia ritualis sui iuris). The 1990Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, which is concerned principally with what theSecond Vatican Council called "particular Churches or rites", shortened this to "autonomous Church" (Latin:Ecclesia sui iuris).[20]
InCatholic teaching, eachdiocese (Latin Church term) oreparchy (Eastern term) is also a local or particular church, though it lacks the autonomy of the autonomous churches described above:
A diocese is a section of the People of God entrusted to a bishop to be guided by him with the assistance of his clergy so that, loyal to its pastor and formed by him into one community in the Holy Spirit through the Gospel and the Eucharist, it constitutes one particular church in which the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christ is truly present and active.[21]
The1983 Code of Canon Law, which is concerned with the Latin Church alone and so with only oneautonomous particular church, uses the term "particular Church" only in the sense of "local Church", as in its Canon 373:
It is within the competence of the supreme authority alone to establish particular Churches; once they are lawfully established, the law itself gives them juridical personality.[22]
The standard form of these local or particular churches, each of which is headed by abishop, is called adiocese in the Latin Church and aneparchy in the Eastern churches. At the end of 2011, the total number of all these jurisdictional areas (or "sees") was 2,834.[23]
TheHoly See, theDiocese of Rome, is seen as the central local church. Thebishop, thePope, is considered to be, in a unique sense, the successor ofSaint Peter, the chief (or "prince") of theapostles. Quoting the Second Vatican Council's documentLumen gentium, theCatechism of the Catholic Church states: "The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter's successor, 'is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful.'"[24]
All the Catholic particular churches, whether Latin or Eastern, local or autonomous—are by definition infull communion with theHoly See of Rome.
TheCode of Canons of the Eastern Churches defines "rite" as follows: "Rite is the liturgical, theological, spiritual and disciplinary heritage, distinguished according to peoples' culture and historical circumstances, that finds expression in each autonomous church's way of living the faith."[25]
As thus defined, "rite" concerns not only a people'sliturgy (manner of worship), but also itstheology (understanding of doctrine),spirituality (prayer and devotion), and discipline (canon law).
In this sense of the word "rite", the list of rites within the Catholic Church is identical with that of the autonomous churches, each of which has its own heritage, which distinguishes that church from others, and membership of a church involves participation in its liturgical, theological, spiritual and disciplinary heritage. However, "church" refers to the people, and "rite" to their heritage.[26]
The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches states that the rites with which it is concerned (but which it does not list) spring from the following five traditions:Alexandrian,Antiochian,Armenian,Chaldean, andConstantinopolitan.[27] Since it covers only Eastern Catholic churches and rites, it does not mention those of Western (Latin) tradition.
The word "rite" is sometimes used with reference only to liturgy, ignoring the theological, spiritual and disciplinary elements in the heritage of the churches. In this sense, "rite" has been defined as "the whole complex of the (liturgical) services of any Church or group of Churches".[28]Between "rites" in this exclusively liturgical sense and the autonomous churches there is no strict correspondence, such as there is when "rite" is understood as in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. The 14 autonomous churches of Byzantine tradition have a single liturgical rite, but vary mainly in liturgical language, while on the contrary the singleLatin Church has several distinctliturgical rites, whose universal main form, theRoman Rite, is practised in Latin or in the local vernacular).
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