The Eastern Catholic Churches

Twenty-three self-governing churches of Eastern rite, from Ukraine and Lebanon to Kerala, that keep their own liturgy, calendar and law, and in most of them a married priesthood, and are in full communion with the Pope.

Second Vatican Council, Orientalium Ecclesiarum (Decree on the Catholic Eastern Churches), 21 November 1964, Holy See

Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (promulgated by John Paul II, 18 October 1990), English text as posted by the Coptic Catholic Patriarchate of Alexandria, coptcatholic.net (the Holy See posts no English text)

John Paul II, Apostolic Constitution Sacri Canones (18 October 1990), Holy See

Synod of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church: Christ – Our Pascha (Kyiv–Edmonton, 2016; 2nd ed. 2018; ISBN 978-0-9809309-2-4), cited by paragraph. The free English edition is announced by the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada

The Sacraments of the Syro-Malabar Church (Syro-Malabar Bishops' Synod, promulgated 6 January 2005; reprint 2019)

Syro-Malabar Qurbana (Syro-Malabar Bishops' Synod, imprimatur 1 May 2022), general notes

St. Michael's Byzantine Catholic Church, Pittston, Pennsylvania (Ruthenian), Byzantine Basics

St. Michael Byzantine Catholic Church, Visiting a Byzantine Catholic Church

Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, History: Union of Brest 1596 (ugcc.ua)

Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, History: Pseudo-council and liquidation 1946 (ugcc.ua)

Pro Oriente (Vienna), The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

Pro Oriente (Vienna), The Maronite Church

Pro Oriente (Vienna), The Chaldean Catholic Church

Pro Oriente (Vienna), The Syro-Malabar Church

Pro Oriente (Vienna), The Melkite Greek Catholic Church

North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation, statement on the eighty-fifth anniversary of Cum data fuerit (USCCB, 2014)

National Catholic Register, Eastern-Catholic Married Priesthood Authorized in North America (7 January 2015)

Maronite Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, The Maronite Faith

Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle (USA), About the Chaldean Church

GCatholic.org, Patriarchs and Major Archbishops of the Catholic Church (lists updated 22 and 26 October 2026)

Vatican News, Archbishop Nona elected new Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church (12 April 2026)

Holy See Press Office, Letter of Pope Leo XIV confirming the election of the Major Archbishop of Făgăraș și Alba Iulia (6 November 2025)

Pro Oriente (Vienna), The Ruthenian Catholic Church

Eastern Catholic Churches (Wikipedia), for the table of the Annuario Pontificio 2023 only

This is a family of unions, not one event. Each church has its own story, and most came over a long time and under pressure. The Maronites say they never left Rome. The Chaldeans entered in the sixteenth century, the Ukrainians and Ruthenians at Brest and Uzhhorod, the Melkites in 1724, and the Armenian, Syriac and Malankara churches after that. In the Soviet Union the largest of them was outlawed for forty-three years. After the Second Vatican Council the churches were told to return to their own traditions, and in 1990 they received their own code of canon law.

The Maronite union is confirmed

The Maronite Church traces its name to St. Maron, who died in 410, and came to be centered in the mountains of Lebanon. Pro Oriente says that "in terms of their self-understanding, they were never separated from the Roman Church," and that the union "was formally confirmed in 1182." Pro Oriente calls the Maronite Church the oldest of the Eastern churches united with Rome, and the only one in which an existing local church came fully into communion, so that no parallel Eastern church of its tradition stands outside it.

The Chaldean union

Three bishops of the Church of the East, dissatisfied with the custom of handing the patriarchate from uncle to nephew, elected the monk Yohannan Sulaqa in 1552. He went to Rome, and Pope Julius III consecrated him "Patriarch of the Chaldeans" in 1553. He was assassinated in 1555, but a Chaldean line continued. Pius VIII confirmed the patriarchate in 1830, and its seat is now in Baghdad.

The Union of Brest

The bishops of the Kyivan Metropolia, then in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, decided to restore communion with Rome. On 23 December 1595 they sent Bishops Ipatiy Potiy and Cyril Terlecki to Pope Clement VIII, and the union was concluded at the Council of Brest in 1596. The bishops hoped to keep their rite and resist being made Polish Roman Catholics. The union was not accepted by all: in 1620 an Orthodox hierarchy was ordained alongside it. Pro Oriente says it "did not correspond to the original intention of resuming church fellowship between two churches with equal rights."

The Synod of Diamper

The St. Thomas Christians of India, who had been under the Church of the East, welcomed communion with the Latin Church that arrived with the Portuguese. Pro Oriente says the Latin hierarchs "proved to be indifferent to the specific character of the East Syrian rite," and that a process of Latinization culminated in the 1599 Synod of Diamper, at which the Indian church had to revise its liturgical books according to the Latin rite. The part that remained in communion with Rome is the Syro-Malabar Church. Pius XI gave it an independent province in 1923. In December 1985 the Holy See approved its reconstructed East Syriac liturgy, and in January 1993 it was raised to a major archbishopric.

Union of Uzhhorod

In April 1646 the Latin Bishop of Eger received sixty-three Ruthenian priests into communion with the Church of Rome. Pro Oriente says the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church "traces its origins to the Union of Užhorod in 1646." Local unions in the rest of Carpatho-Ukraine followed in 1664 and 1713, and in 1771 Pope Clement XIV set up the Ruthenian eparchy of Mukachevo. Its large American diaspora, which generally celebrates the liturgy in English, is the Byzantine Catholic Church of the United States. In 1949 the Soviet Union banned the church and joined its faithful to the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Melkite union

In 1724 bishops of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch who favored union elected Cyril VI Tanas as patriarch. The same year the opposing bishops in Aleppo elected the Cypriot monk Sylvester, who was consecrated by the Patriarch of Constantinople and recognized by the Ottoman rulers. Cyril fled to Lebanon. Pope Benedict XIII recognized him in 1729, and Benedict XIV gave him the pallium in 1744. Antioch has had two patriarchs ever since, one Orthodox and one Melkite Catholic.

Abolished in Russia, then in Ukraine

After the partitions of Poland large parts of the Uniate settlement fell to Russia, which abolished their church there in 1839. Only Galicia, under Austria, kept it. In March 1946 a "synod" in Lviv, one "not convened by the bishops of the Uniate Church," decided at the Soviet rulers' instigation to dissolve the union and integrate the faithful into the Russian Orthodox Church. The church lived underground until December 1989, when it was allowed to register parishes again. Its Major Archbishop has lived in Kyiv since 2005.

A Melkite patriarch at the First Vatican Council

The Melkite Patriarch Gregorios II "was one of the sharpest opponents" of the constitution Pastor aeternus, which defined the primacy and infallibility of the Pope. He left Rome before it passed and later accepted it "only with the addition that all the rights and privileges of the Patriarchs of the Eastern Churches were preserved."

Cum data fuerit

The Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Churches decreed in 1929 that "priests of the Greek-Ruthenian Rite who wish to go to the United States of North America [sic] and stay there must be celibates." It led to a general ban on ordaining married Eastern Catholic men in North America. A 2014 statement of Orthodox and Catholic theologians says the ban "resulted in divisions in Eastern Catholic communities and even in families."

Vatican II and Orientalium Ecclesiarum

The Council's decree of 21 November 1964 called the Eastern churches "of equal dignity" with the Latin Church and said they have "a full right and are in duty bound to rule themselves, each in accordance with its own established disciplines." It told Eastern Christians who had fallen short of their own tradition to "take steps to return to their ancestral traditions." The Melkite Patriarch Maximos IV was the spokesman for those who opposed any further Latinization.

Their own Code of Canons

On 18 October 1990 Pope John Paul II promulgated the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches by the apostolic constitution Sacri Canones. It is the common law of all twenty-three churches, and each church adds its own particular law. Its first canon says it concerns "all and only the Eastern Catholic Churches."

Married priests permitted outside the East

In 2014 the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, under Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, restored to Eastern Catholic bishops outside the traditional Eastern territories the faculty to ordain married men. The decree itself, as the National Catholic Register reports it, said that "an estimated 200,000 Ruthenian" faithful had become Orthodox after the 1929 ban. The Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara churches, the Register adds, "have had priestly celibacy as their norm."

Yohannan Sulaqa

A monk elected patriarch in 1552 by dissatisfied bishops of the Church of the East. He was consecrated in Rome in 1553 as "Patriarch of the Chaldeans," returned to Diyarbakir, and was assassinated in 1555 at the instigation of the opponents of the union.

Ipatiy Potiy and Cyril Terlecki

Bishops of the Kyivan Metropolia whom their fellow bishops sent to Rome on 23 December 1595 to present the proposal of union to Pope Clement VIII.

Josaphat Kuntsevych

The Eastern Catholic Bishop of Polotsk, murdered at Vitebsk in 1623 in the tension between the union and its opponents. He was beatified in 1641 and canonized by Pius IX in 1867.

Cyril VI Tanas

The pro-Roman patriarch elected at Damascus in 1724. He was deposed and fled to Lebanon, was recognized by Benedict XIII in 1729 and received the pallium in 1744. He is the first Melkite Catholic patriarch of Antioch.

Maximos IV

The Melkite Patriarch who spoke for the Eastern Catholics "against further Latinization" at the Second Vatican Council and for "a stronger orientation towards the Eastern Church traditions, not only in regard to the liturgy but also in terms of ecclesiology."

Yosyf Slipyj

Ordained secretly as bishop with the right of succession in 1939 by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, he led the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church as the Soviet authorities moved against it in 1945. The church's own history records that he was arrested on 11 April 1945.

What "union" meant. In every case a church that already had its bishops, rite and law agreed to recognize the Pope while keeping them. The churches themselves describe this as a restoration of communion that had been broken, not a conversion. The Orthodox churches call the arrangement uniatism. The word "Uniate" is used in some of the sources for this chart, and Wikipedia says it "is sometimes considered derogatory." This chart uses the churches' own name for themselves.

Two dates for one event. The Annuario Pontificio dates the Ukrainian union to 1595, when Rome approved the bishops' request. The synod at Brest that ratified it was in 1596.

Other unions. Pro Oriente dates the Romanian union in Transylvania to a synod of September 1700, the confirmation of the first Armenian Catholic patriarch by Benedict XIV to 1742, and the Syriac Catholic patriarchate to Michael Garweh, elected in 1781 and recognized by the Pope in 1783. The Annuario Pontificio's table, as Wikipedia reproduces it, dates the Maronite return to communion to 1154 and the Romanian union to 1698.

Counts of churches. Twenty-three Eastern Catholic churches are counted when the Latin Church is counted separately as the twenty-fourth. Smaller bodies, such as the Belarusian, Russian and Albanian churches, are listed by the Annuario with few or no members and no unified structure.

The faith is Holy Tradition, lived in the liturgy and taught by the bishops; Scripture is read inside it, and the Pope is its standard and teacher.

The Ukrainian Catholic Catechism calls the action of the Holy Spirit in the church "Holy Tradition," and says it is "unchangeable." Scripture and Tradition together carry the apostles' teaching. The bishops, as successors of the apostles, hand it on through what the catechism calls the "Teaching Office" of the church, and the faith is shown above all in the liturgy and the Fathers. Eastern Catholics also hold what Orthodox do not: that the Church of Rome is "the first among self-governing Churches," that its bishop is "the teacher and the standard of the apostolic faith," and that he has the gift of infallibility in faith and morals. The Eastern Code says the Pope "enjoys supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power in the Church." The same Code and the Vatican II decree guard the churches' right to govern themselves under their own heads and disciplines.

Holy Tradition is unchangeable because its content is Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday and today and forever

The first among self-governing Churches is the Church of Rome, because its presider is the Pope of Rome, the successor of the apostle Peter.

the Churches of the East, as much as those of the West, have a full right and are in duty bound to rule themselves, each in accordance with its own established disciplines.

The catechism on the Teaching Office: "We refer to this ministry as the 'Teaching Office' (in Latin, Magisterium) of the Church, when bishops transmit with one mind, always and everywhere, that which they have received from the apostles" (§58). On the Pope: "to him the Lord has granted the gift of infallibility in matters of faith and morals" (§291). The Eastern Code, on what must be believed: "Those things are to be believed by divine and catholic faith which are contained in the word of God as it has been written or handed down by tradition" (c. 598). The Maronite Eparchy of Brooklyn says the Maronite Church "is known for Her love and devotion to the See of Peter in Rome." The Orthodox churches do not accept the Roman doctrine of the Pope, and the Melkite Patriarch Gregorios II opposed it at Vatican I (see History).

Baptism, by immersion or pouring, is new birth and the remission of all sins; it is given to infants on the faith of the church, and is joined at once to chrismation and Communion.

Eastern Catholics baptize in water in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Ukrainian catechism says that in baptism "a person receives remission of all sins" and that baptism is "the first Mystery that a person needs to receive in order to enter the Church, the ark of salvation." It also says that "faith is essential," and that the church baptizes "both adults and children," the godparents speaking for a child. The mode is by "immersion (or the pouring)," three times; in the Syro-Malabar rite pouring is an equal option. Baptism is never repeated. Chrismation with holy myron follows at once, and then the child is given Communion, so that three mysteries are one service. Salvation is understood as becoming a partaker of the divine life in Christ through the mysteries of the church.

Baptism is the first Mystery that a person needs to receive in order to enter the Church, the ark of salvation.

In Baptism a person receives remission of all sins

The Church baptizes both adults and children in order to lead them into the new life of Christ.

The Syro-Malabar church's own rite of baptism: "Baptism is given by immersing the child in water thrice, or by making the child sit in water and pouring water over the head thrice in the form of the cross, or by pouring water over the head thrice in the form of the cross." The Ukrainian catechism describes the rite as "immersion (or the pouring)" (§420). The Eastern Code: "In baptism a person through washing with natural water with the invocation of the name of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is freed from sin, reborn to new life, puts on Christ and is incorporated in the Church which is His Body" (c. 675). For an adult it asks that he or she "manifest a desire to receive baptism and be sufficiently instructed in the truths of the faith and be tested in the Christian life" (c. 682). On faith: "In order to receive the salvific gift of Baptism, faith is essential" (§416).

The Divine Liturgy is the memorial and continuation of the Last Supper: the bread and wine become the true Body and Blood of Christ, offered as a bloodless sacrifice, given in both kinds to everyone including infants, and attended on every Sunday.

The Eastern Catholic Churches call the Supper the Divine Liturgy or Holy Eucharist. The Ukrainian catechism says the church receives "a communion not of simple bread and wine but of his true Body and Blood," and that the Liturgy is the memorial of the cross, "the bloodless sacrifice." The Eastern Code teaches that the sacrifice of the cross "is commemorated with thanksgiving, is actuated and shared by the Church." Only a bishop or priest may celebrate it. The faithful are bound to take part "on Sundays and feast days," and are "earnestly exhorted" to receive Communion, "even daily." Communion is given in both kinds to all. The Syro-Malabar rite directs that it be given "under both species," and the Code and the catechism say it is given to the newly baptized, infants included.

At the Liturgy, Christ offers us, as he did the apostles, a communion not of simple bread and wine but of his true Body and Blood.

What the Lord Jesus himself did at the Last Supper is perpetuated in the Divine Liturgy by the power of the Holy Spirit through the ministry of the priest who acts in the person of Christ over the offering of the Church.

Communion is to be distributed under both species, except when it is not possible or is extremely inconvenient in a given situation.

On Sundays: "The faithful are bound to take part on Sundays and feast days in the Divine Liturgy or, according to the regulations or custom of their own rite, in the celebration of the Divine Office" (Orientalium Ecclesiarum, §15). On infants: "after baptism and chrismation with holy myron the Divine Eucharist is to be administered as soon as possible according to the norms of the particular law of each Church sui iuris" (CCEO c. 697), and in the Syro-Malabar rite "Holy Communion is to be given as early as possible after Baptism and Chrismation." The catechism: "For this reason our Church offers Communion to the newly baptized" (§431). In the Maronite Church the faithful "receive the Body and Blood of Christ on the tongue by intinction" (Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn). On the memorial: "The Divine Liturgy is the memorial, the continuance, of the Mystical Supper" (§435). The Code forbids the Eucharist to anyone who knows of grave sin: "With a grave sin on one's conscience, no one is to celebrate the Divine Liturgy or receive the Divine Eucharist, unless there is a serious reason" (c. 711).

A hierarchy of bishops, priests and deacons around the bishop, with patriarchs and major archbishops over the churches and the Pope over all; priests may be married, bishops may not.

Each church is led by bishops, who are "heirs to the fullness of the apostolic ministry," with priests (presbyters) and deacons. The catechism says the bishop "presides" in the Eucharistic assembly, the presbyters concelebrate, and the deacons assist, and, citing Ignatius of Antioch, that there is no Church apart from bishops, presbyters and deacons. Over the bishops of a church stand a patriarch, a major archbishop or a metropolitan. Over all stands the Bishop of Rome. Priests are ordained to offer the Eucharist and to forgive sins. The Eastern Code honors both celibate and married clergy, and in most of these churches a married man may be ordained a priest, though a priest cannot marry after ordination. A man chosen as bishop must not be bound by marriage. The Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara churches ordain only celibate men.

In the Eucharistic assembly the bishop, as successor of the apostles, presides; the presbyters concelebrate with the bishop, while the deacons assist the bishop and the presbyters.

the state of the married clergy as sanctioned by the practice of the early Church and of the Eastern Churches for centuries, is to be held in honour.

he enjoys supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he can always freely exercise.

Qualifications for a bishop: "For a person to be considered suitable for the episcopate, he must: ... not be bound by marriage bond" (CCEO c. 180). The Code leaves admission of married men to "the particular law of each Church sui iuris or special norms established by the Apostolic See" (c. 758 §3). Orthodox clergy joining the Catholic communion keep their orders: "Eastern clerics, seeing that a valid priesthood is preserved among them, are permitted to exercise the Orders they possess" (Orientalium Ecclesiarum, §25). The Vatican II decree on the Eastern churches also says that "all are equal in respect of patriarchal dignity, without however prejudice to the legitimately established precedence of honor" (§8). A bishop must "commemorate in the first place the Roman Pontiff in the Divine Liturgy," as "a sign of full communion with him" (CCEO c. 209). On priesthood: "In the Mystery of Holy Orders, the sacred ministers receive the grace of the Holy Spirit to exercise Christ's priesthood" (§488).

Worship is the sung, incense-filled Divine Liturgy before the icons, with the Mother of God and the saints honored and asked to intercede.

Worship in the Eastern churches is sung from beginning to end. The Ukrainian catechism calls church singing "an expression of worship" in which the church joins "the angelic choirs," and it says the singing is not a "concert of sacred music" but the common prayer of all. The church building has an iconostasis, and icons are kissed, censed and given candles. The catechism says the Seventh Ecumenical Council of 787 confirmed the veneration of icons of Christ, the Mother of God, the angels and the saints, and distinguished it from the worship due to God alone. The Mother of God is honored as Theotokos, and the saints are asked to intercede. The Code calls the Church to promote "the true and authentic cult of the other saints." Each church has its own rite, language and music, with its own hymns, feasts and fasts.

We venerate icons by kissing and censing them, and lighting candles and lamps before them.

Liturgical or church singing is an expression of worship.

The Church also promotes the true and authentic cult of the other saints, by whose example the Christian faithful are edified and through whose intercession they are sustained.

The Byzantine parishes say: "We use no musical instruments other than our voice" (St. Michael Byzantine Catholic Church). The Syro-Malabar Qurbana says: "The choir facilitates the congregation for an active participation in the Liturgy. When the ministers in the sanctuary and the choir sing by turns, the congregation joins with the choir." Whether the Syro-Malabar church uses instruments is not stated in the books read for this chart. The Code on icons: "The practice of exposing sacred icons or images in churches for the veneration of the Christian faithful is to continue" (c. 886). The Council's decree directs that Eastern clerics "should celebrate in accordance with the prescriptions and traditions of their own established custom the Divine Office" (§22). The catechism: "Liturgical singing is not a 'concert of sacred music' during which people are divided between 'performers' and an 'audience'" (§624).

The Holy Spirit is given in chrismation with holy myron, administered by the priest; the gifts are seven, and holiness is the sign of his work.

The Eastern churches give the Holy Spirit in chrismation, the anointing with holy myron that follows baptism at once. The Ukrainian catechism calls it "the seal of the gift that we received in Baptism," and says the baptized "receives the coming of the Holy Spirit, as did the apostles at Pentecost." The Eastern Code says it is given by a priest, "either in conjunction with baptism or separately." The catechism names seven gifts of the Spirit (wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord), which it calls "the capacity granted to a person to accept God," and it names holiness as a sign of his action. In the church the bishop "discerns the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the faithful." The catechism's account of the gifts does not list tongues, healings or prophecy.

Chrismation is the seal of the gift that we received in Baptism.

According to the tradition of the Eastern Churches, chrismation with holy myron is administered by a presbyter either in conjunction with baptism or separately.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are the capacity granted to a person to accept God and to be open to communion with him.

The catechism: "In his ministry, the bishop discerns the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the faithful, and calls them to various ministries within the Church" (§286). On the oil: "this holy oil, in conjunction with the invocation, is no longer simple or common oil but becomes the gracious gift of Christ and the Holy Spirit" (§428). The Vatican II decree restored the Eastern practice that "priests validly confer this sacrament, using chrism blessed by a patriarch or a bishop" (§13). The Eastern Code: "Those who have been baptized ought to be chrismated with holy myron" (c. 692). The sources read for this chart do not state a teaching on present-day miraculous gifts, and this chart draws no conclusion from the silence.

Christ will return in glory to judge the living and the dead and renew creation; the dead who have repented but are not yet mature are cleansed in a state called purgatory, and the Church prays for them.

The Ukrainian catechism teaches that at "the glorious second coming of Christ," the judgment of the living and the dead will come, and that Christ "will transfigure the whole world." It describes heaven as sharing in the life of the Trinity "together with the most holy Mother of God, the angels, and all the saints." It also teaches that a person who has fallen asleep in God, repentant but not yet mature, is "still in need of spiritual healing and cleansing," and that this state is "referred to as 'purgatory.'" For this reason the church prays for the departed. The funeral, the Code says, is where "the Church prays for spiritual assistance for the dead." The catechism uses the word purgatory and cites 1 Corinthians 3:15 for it.

In his glorious second coming, Christ will transfigure the whole world, which will become free of all corruption and all things that pass.

In the Church, this healing condition of the dead is referred to as “purgatory.”

In the funeral the Church prays for spiritual assistance for the dead, honours their bodies, and at the same time brings the solace of hope to the living.

The catechism on the judgment: "The Judgment of God began with the Incarnation of Christ (see Jn 1:913) and shall be fulfilled at his glorious second coming (see Mt 25:31)" (§249). On the dead: "If a person has fallen asleep in God, having repented of all sins, but has not yet achieved spiritual maturity—the fullness of life in Christ—then that person enters the kingdom of God "as through fire" (1 Cor 3:15)" (§250). On the funeral, the Code orders that "All Christ's faithful and catechumens who have died are to be given a Church funeral" (c. 875).

Their own rites under the Pope

Twenty-three churches keep their own liturgy, law and heads, and are of equal dignity with the Latin Church, but all are under the Bishop of Rome.

This is what the Eastern Catholic Churches are. The Vatican II decree says the churches of East and West "differ somewhat among themselves in rite," yet each is "entrusted to the pastoral government of the Roman Pontiff." The Eastern Code defines a rite as "a heritage made up of liturgy, theology, spirituality and discipline," and a church sui iuris as a community "joined together by a hierarchy" and recognized as self-governing by the supreme authority. Members of these churches are told to keep their rite and to return to their ancestral traditions if they have fallen short. The Ukrainian church's own history says its bishops decided to "reestablish communion" with the Apostolic See, and Pro Oriente adds that the union as concluded did not match the original intention of two churches with equal rights.

They are consequently of equal dignity, so that none of them is superior to the others as regards rite

To be an Eastern Rite means that the Church retains her identity and tradition, liturgical, spiritual, etc., but has full communion with the Pope of Rome.

Is guided by a Patriarch, Major Archbishop, Metropolitan or other Hierarch, who along with their Synod of Bishops are in full communion with the Pope, the Successor of Saint Peter in Rome.

And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

and he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I resisted him to the face, because he stood condemned.

And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles have lordship over them; and they that have authority over them are called Benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is the greater among you, let him become as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.

The apostles left the churches free in custom, "that we trouble not them that from among the Gentiles turn to God" (Acts 15:19), and these churches are right to refuse one Latin rite for all. The question is the head. Their best text is the promise to Peter, "upon this rock I will build my church," with "the keys of the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 16:18-19); but no verse names a successor to Peter, still less a bishop of Rome, and Paul "resisted him to the face" (Galatians 2:11). Christ alone is "head over all things to the church" (Ephesians 1:22), and of rulers who "have lordship over them" Jesus said, "ye shall not be so" (Luke 22:25-26). Submission to a universal head has no warrant in the text, and these churches show its cost: the head each one elects must be confirmed by the Pope or receive communion from him.

The power to bind and loose given to Peter is given to all the disciples two chapters later: "What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven" (Matthew 18:18). Peter called himself "a fellow-elder" (1 Peter 5:1), and at Jerusalem it was James who said, "my judgment is" (Acts 15:19). In November 2025 Pope Leo XIV confirmed the Romanian Greek Catholic synod's election of its Major Archbishop, as the Eastern Code requires (canon 153 §2), and in April 2026 the new Chaldean Patriarch Paul III asked the Pope for ecclesiastical communion. The freedoms these churches keep were given back by the same see that took them away, in Latinization and in the ban of 1929. The Eastern Code defines a rite as "a heritage made up of liturgy, theology, spirituality and discipline" (c. 28 §1), and the Vatican II decree told the churches "to return to their ancestral traditions" (§6). Pro Oriente says the Union of Brest "did not correspond to the original intention of resuming church fellowship between two churches with equal rights," and at Diamper in 1599 the Syro-Malabar church had to revise its books "according to the Latin rite."

Married priests, celibate bishops

Most Eastern Catholic churches ordain married men as priests; bishops are chosen from the unmarried, and the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara churches ordain only celibates.

The Eastern Code says that "clerical celibacy chosen for the sake of the kingdom of heaven" is to be esteemed, and that "the state of the married clergy" is to be held in honor. A man who wishes to marry must do so before he is ordained, and a priest whose wife dies does not marry again. A bishop must not be bound by marriage. The Vatican II decree on priests says it does not wish to "alter that different discipline which legitimately flourishes in the Eastern Churches." In 1929 Rome required celibacy of Ruthenian priests in the United States, and in 2014 it restored to Eastern Catholic bishops outside the traditional Eastern territories the faculty to ordain married men. The Register notes that the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara churches "have had priestly celibacy as their norm."

Clerical celibacy chosen for the sake of the kingdom of heaven and highly suited to the priesthood, is to be greatly esteemed everywhere in accordance with the tradition of the whole Church

This holy synod, while it commends ecclesiastical celibacy, in no way intends to alter that different discipline which legitimately flourishes in the Eastern Churches.

priests of the Greek-Ruthenian Rite who wish to go to the United States of North America [sic] and stay there must be celibates

The bishop therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I gave thee charge; if any man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children that believe, who are not accused of riot or unruly. For the bishop must be blameless, as God’s steward; not self-willed, not soon angry, no brawler, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre;

Yet I would that all men were even as I myself. Howbeit each man hath his own gift from God, one after this manner, and another after that.

But the Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by them that believe and know the truth.

This is where these churches stand nearest the New Testament. "The bishop therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife" (1 Timothy 3:2), Titus was to appoint elders who were "the husband of one wife, having children that believe" (Titus 1:6), and Peter and "the rest of the apostles" had wives (1 Corinthians 9:5). In ordaining married men these churches keep the apostles' rule, and the 2014 decree undid a wrong of 1929. But the verse that opens the office to a married man is a verse about the bishop, and in Titus the elder and "the bishop" are the same man (Titus 1:5-7); a rule that admits the husband of one wife to every rank except the one Paul was describing reverses the text at that point. Paul praised the single life as "his own gift from God" to some (1 Corinthians 7:7), not as a qualification for an office, and a law that keeps married men from an office the apostle opened to them stands too near the "forbidding to marry" he warned of (1 Timothy 4:1-3).

The Syro-Malabar church goes further and requires celibacy of every priest. The Register: "Most Eastern-Catholic Churches have a tradition of both a married and celibate priesthood, except the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara Churches, which have had priestly celibacy as their norm for quite some time. ... Only celibate priests may be consecrated bishops." And: "But in all the Churches of the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, once ordained, a priest cannot get married." The Register also reports the 2014 decree's estimate that "an estimated 200,000 Ruthenian" faithful became Orthodox after the 1929 ban. The Code requires a married candidate to produce "a certificate of marriage and the written consent of his wife" (c. 769). These churches still make the clergy a priesthood, where the New Testament sets plural elders over each church: see Leadership.

Baptism, chrismation and Communion at one service, even for infants

A baby is baptized, anointed with myron and given Communion in one rite, and keeps receiving Communion from then on.

In the Byzantine and Syro-Malabar rites, and in the Eastern Code, the three mysteries of initiation are one. The Code says that "sacramental initiation in the mystery of salvation is completed with the reception of the Divine Eucharist." The priest chrismates a baptized infant, then gives a small amount of Communion. A Byzantine parish says this is how "the early church" did it, and that the Latin Church separated the three "much later." The infant continues to receive Communion, and a ceremony of First Penance and Holy Communion is held at "the determined traditional age of reason." Where the faith is joined to baptism, the church says it is the faith of the community and the godparents, speaking for the child.

The sacramental initiation in the mystery of salvation is completed with the reception of the Divine Eucharist

Holy Communion is to be given as early as possible after Baptism and Chrismation.

For this reason our Church offers Communion to the newly baptized.

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned.

But when they believed Philip preaching good tidings concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. For he that eateth and drinketh, eateth and drinketh judgment unto himself, if he discern not the body.

And they spake the word of the Lord unto him, with all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, immediately. And he brought them up into his house, and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, with all his house, having believed in God.

The Eastern churches are right to give the cup to everyone who communes, and right that baptism is the door to the table. But the New Testament joins baptism to belief: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16), and in Samaria "when they believed Philip … they were baptized, both men and women" (Acts 8:12). Their best texts do not change this. The promise is "to your children" (Acts 2:39), but in a sermon that first said "Repent ye" (Acts 2:38); the jailer's house was baptized, but Paul first "spake the word of the Lord unto him, with all that were in his house," and the house "rejoiced greatly, with all his house, having believed in God" (Acts 16:32-34). The Supper too asks what no infant can do: "let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup" (1 Corinthians 11:28). That the community and the godparents believe for the child is a tradition, not a text, and the three mysteries given at one service to a baby depart from the apostles' order at its center.

The catechism: "When children are baptized, the Church community, represented by the Godparents, expresses faith in Christ on their behalf" (§418). Jesus' words "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves" (John 6:53) are often cited for infant Communion, but they were spoken to hearers who could believe, and Paul's rule for the table is self-examination. The Byzantine parish: "It was only much later in the history of the Catholic Church of the Western or Latin rite that these Sacraments were 'separated'." The Eastern Code adds a caution: "Regarding the participation of infants in the Divine Eucharist after baptism and chrismation with holy myron, suitable precautions are to be taken" (c. 710). Its rule for one who is no longer an infant, that he "manifest a desire to receive baptism and be sufficiently instructed" (c. 682 §1), is the New Testament order. Colossians says the buried are raised "through faith in the working of God" (Colossians 2:12). Immersion, which the Byzantine rite uses, is nearer the burial of Romans 6:4 than pouring, which the Syro-Malabar rite allows as an equal option.

The veneration of icons

Icons of Christ, the Mother of God and the saints are kissed, censed and lit with candles, on the authority of the Seventh Council of 787.

The iconostasis, the screen of icons before the altar, is the most visible feature of a Byzantine church. The Ukrainian catechism says that because God became man in the Incarnation, "it became possible to depict him." It says the oldest icons are the "Saviour Not-Made-by-Hands" and an icon of the Mother of God said to have been painted by Luke, and that such traditions show that "icons and icon veneration accord with the apostolic faith." The faithful kiss and cense icons and light candles before them. They distinguish adoration, due to God alone, from veneration, which they give to icons, the Gospel book, the cross and relics. The Eastern Code calls for "the veneration of the Christian faithful" of sacred icons and images.

In the icon, we venerate not the image but the imaged person, whom we prayerfully contemplate.

Such a tradition witnesses to the conviction that icons and icon veneration accord with the apostolic faith.

The practice of exposing sacred icons or images in churches for the veneration of the Christian faithful is to continue

Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me,

Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and device of man.

My little children, guard yourselves from idols.

And when it came to pass that Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him. But Peter raised him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.

The second commandment forbids making a likeness to bow to: "Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above … thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them" (Exodus 20:4-5). The catechism answers that the Incarnation lifts the ban, but nothing in the New Testament says so. Paul told the Athenians that God is not "like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and device of man" (Acts 17:29), and John ended his letter with "My little children, guard yourselves from idols" (1 John 5:21). Peter would not accept the bow even of a man (Acts 10:25-26). That the church distinguishes veneration from worship does not make the act a different act, and none of the apostles taught it. The catechism rests it on a council of 787 and on a tradition that Luke painted the Mother of God.

The catechism: "The Seventh Ecumenical Council of 787 condemned Iconoclasm and confirmed the veneration of icons of the Lord Jesus Christ, the most holy Mother of God, and the angels and saints." The Council "distinguished between adoration, which is due exclusively to God (in Greek, latreia), and veneration (in Greek, proskynesis), which we render unto icons, the Gospel Book, the cross, and the relics of saints" (§591). The same paragraph says that "the icon is also the Church's teaching expressed in images." Icons are part of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches' practice as well, and are weighed there.

The Mother of God

Mary is the Theotokos, ever-virgin, immaculate and beyond every creature in honor; she is asked to intercede, and her Dormition is kept.

The Ukrainian catechism, like the Eastern liturgies, honors the "most holy, most pure, most blessed and glorious Lady and God-bearing One." It teaches that she is the Theotokos, a title confirmed at Ephesus in 431, that she remained a virgin before, during and after the birth of Christ, and that she was immaculate in her conception and "retained virginity and incorruption even in death," which the church calls her Dormition. The Eastern Code recommends "the special and filial veneration of the Christian faithful" for "Holy Mary ever Virgin, the Mother of God, whom Christ made Mother of all." Her feasts, hymns and icons run through the Eastern liturgical year.

at the Council of Ephesus in the year 431, Mary was solemnly proclaimed to be the God-Bearing One

She retained virginity and incorruption even in death, which the Church refers to as her Dormition (Falling-Asleep).

the Church recommends to the special and filial veneration of the Christian faithful Holy Mary ever Virgin, the Mother of God, whom Christ made Mother of all.

And it came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the breasts which thou didst suck. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

and knew her not till she had brought forth a son: and he called his name JESUS.

And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus,

The New Testament honors Mary as the mother of the Lord, and her song says "my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour" (Luke 1:47), so she too needed a Savior. That is why the doctrine of her immaculate conception, which the catechism says the church "extols," is not in the text. When a woman cried out in praise of the mother, Jesus answered, "Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it" (Luke 11:28). Matthew says Joseph "knew her not till she had brought forth a son" (Matthew 1:25), which implies that he knew her afterward. The Dormition and the title "Lady" are traditions of later centuries, and prayers to Mary and the saints go to someone other than the "one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). The title Theotokos, as a statement about who Christ is, is faithful to the text; the rest is not.

The catechism says the church "extols her 'holy birth ... and her immaculate conception'" (§188), and it celebrates "her constant intercession before the Creator" in the feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox charts weigh the same teaching.

The plumb line is the New Testament: what the apostles commanded, and what the churches practiced with their approval. Each position above is set against it, and the wall below shows how far each one stands from it. Choose a course to read the Scripture and the reason. These churches share much with the Orthodox and Roman charts and are weighed there on those points. What is weighed here is what is distinct: the rite kept under the Pope, the married priesthood, the infant's Communion and the sung liturgy.

Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

Now these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes; that in us ye might learn not to go beyond the things which are written; that no one of you be puffed up for the one against the other.

But in vain do they worship me, Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men.

So then, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye were taught, whether by word, or by epistle of ours.

Scripture makes "the man of God" "complete, furnished completely unto every good work" (2 Timothy 3:17), and the church is to learn "not to go beyond the things which are written" (1 Corinthians 4:6). These churches add to it. They set Holy Tradition and the councils beside the written word, and they bind the whole communion to a Pope who has "supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power" and the gift of infallibility. No apostle taught that a bishop of Rome is the standard of the faith. The churches deserve credit that they call Tradition "unchangeable" and tie it to Christ, not to new decrees, and that they resist Latin control of their own rites. But the dogmas of Rome are bound on them as the price of communion, and teaching that rests on such an authority is, in Jesus' words, "in vain" worship, "Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men" (Matthew 15:9).

Paul told the Thessalonians to "hold the traditions which ye were taught, whether by word, or by epistle of ours" (2 Thessalonians 2:15), and the Eastern churches rely on this verse. But what the apostles taught by word, they also wrote, so that the church may be "complete" by the text.

And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And as they went on the way, they came unto a certain water; and the eunuch saith, Behold, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

These churches say much that is true about baptism. It is a burial and a rising, "We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death" (Romans 6:4), and the Byzantine rite immerses three times. They teach that in baptism a person receives "remission of all sins," as Peter said, "unto the remission of your sins" (Acts 2:38), and that "faith is essential." That is nearer the New Testament than a baptism that only pours. But they baptize infants on the faith of the godparents, and the Syro-Malabar rite offers pouring as an equal option. In Acts the eunuch said "what doth hinder me to be baptized?" (Acts 8:36), and the command was "Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you" (Acts 2:38), which a baby can neither hear nor obey. The course stands in the middle: the pattern of the act is kept in the Byzantine rite, but it is given to those who cannot yet believe.

The Lord said, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16), and the order is belief first. The catechism agrees that faith is "essential" for an adult. A child baptized in the faith of others receives the rite without the faith. The Eastern Code's own rule for an adult, that he "manifest a desire to receive baptism and be sufficiently instructed," is the New Testament pattern, and it is the exception in these churches, not the rule.

And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and prolonged his speech until midnight.

For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.

but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;

Here the Eastern churches stand nearer the pattern in two ways: they gather for the Supper on Sunday, "upon the first day of the week" (Acts 20:7), and the bread and the cup are given to everyone who communes. But they teach that the bread and the wine become "his true Body and Blood" and that the Liturgy "perpetuates" the Supper as a sacrifice. Paul still calls what is eaten "this bread" (1 Corinthians 11:26) after the blessing, and the Supper is "in remembrance" (1 Corinthians 11:24) of a sacrifice finished, for Christ "offered one sacrifice for sins for ever" (Hebrews 10:12). Paul also says, "let a man prove himself, and so let him eat" (1 Corinthians 11:28), and the infant cannot. And a priest alone presides at the table, under a bishop's rule, where the apostles named no such office.

The Code says the Liturgy is the sacrifice "actuated and shared by the Church." The one sacrifice for sins cannot be repeated or shared out: "by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14). The Syro-Malabar directive that Communion go "under both species" is the Lord's own: "Drink ye all of it" (Matthew 26:27).

And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called to him the elders of the church.

Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops, to feed the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood.

The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock.

In the New Testament the elders and the bishops are one office, plural in each church: Paul sent for "the elders of the church" at Ephesus (Acts 20:17) and told them the Spirit "hath made you bishops" (Acts 20:28), and Titus was to "appoint elders in every city" (Titus 1:5) and then call the elder "the bishop" (Titus 1:7). Peter, "a fellow-elder" (1 Peter 5:1), charged elders to tend "the flock of God which is among you" (1 Peter 5:2), "neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you" (1 Peter 5:3). The Eastern Catholic churches have one bishop over many congregations, a patriarch or major archbishop over the bishops, and the Pope over all with "supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power." A priesthood alone celebrates the sacrifice and forgives sins. They are right that a married man can serve, and that no clergy are cut off from a family. But the structure above the congregation is not in the text.

The catechism quotes Ignatius of Antioch: "Apart from these [i.e., the bishops, presbyters, and deacons] there is no Church." The New Testament says that every Christian is "a royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:9). The Syro-Malabar church's history shows how that authority can be used: at Diamper the Indian church "had to undertake the revision of its liturgical books according to the Latin rite."

speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.

And I fell down before his feet to worship him. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not: I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

The Eastern liturgy stands nearer the New Testament than Rome in one plain respect: it is sung by the people with the voice. The Byzantine churches use "no musical instruments other than our voice," which is "speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19), and the catechism says the song is for everyone, not a concert for an audience. But there is "one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5), and when John fell before an angel he was told, "See thou do it not … worship God" (Revelation 19:10). These churches ask the Mother of God and the saints to intercede, kiss and cense icons, and honor relics. No apostle taught these, and the Seventh Council that fixed icon veneration came in 787. The course stands in the middle: the song is right, the objects of the prayer are not.

Whether the Syro-Malabar and other churches use instruments is not stated in the sources read for this chart. The Qurbana says only that "the choir facilitates the congregation." The Ukrainian catechism says the dying need "the intercession of the most holy Mother of God, their guardian angel, and of all the saints" (§519), a practice for which Scripture gives no example.

Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money,

Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? have all gifts of healings? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?

And as for you, the anointing which ye received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any one teach you; but as his anointing teacheth you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, ye abide in him.

The promise is joined to baptism: those who repent and are baptized "shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). The Eastern churches keep that bond, giving the Spirit with baptism at once, and the catechism rightly turns to John, "the anointing which ye received of him abideth in you" (1 John 2:27). But Scripture gives the Spirit in baptism with no oil, and the gifts that came "through the laying on of the apostles’ hands" (Acts 8:18) came through apostles. A priest's myron, which the catechism says becomes "the gracious gift of Christ and the Holy Spirit," is a later rite that stands in for that laying on of hands. The catechism's account of the gifts, wisdom, counsel and the rest, is drawn from Isaiah 11, and speaks of capacity and holiness, not of the miracles that "all" did not have (1 Corinthians 12:29-30). The miraculous gifts came through the apostles and ceased with them.

The seven gifts of the catechism, "wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord," come from Isaiah's description of the Messiah, and the catechism applies them to every Christian. Isaiah named them of Christ. The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is the sign Paul gives of his presence, and the churches are right to put holiness first.

And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment;

But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things: but now here he is comforted, and thou art in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that they that would pass from hence to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from thence to us.

For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

The Eastern Catholic churches keep what Scripture plainly teaches of the end: Christ will return, the living and the dead will be judged, and creation will be renewed. But they also teach that the dead who have repented but are not yet mature are cleansed in purgatory and helped by the prayers of the living. Men die once, "and after this cometh judgment" (Hebrews 9:27), and each receives "the things done in the body" (2 Corinthians 5:10), not what others do for him afterward. Between the rich man and Lazarus "there is a great gulf fixed" (Luke 16:26), and no one crosses it by the prayer of another. The blood of Jesus "cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7), with no further cleansing after death. The catechism cites 1 Corinthians 3:15 for the doctrine, but Paul is speaking of the works of teachers tested at the judgment, not of souls purged after death.

The catechism says "the Church prays for the departed," in the Code's words "the Church prays for spiritual assistance for the dead." Scripture records no prayer for the dead offered by the apostles or their churches.

Much that the Eastern Catholic churches confess, Scripture also teaches, and it should be said plainly. They confess one God in three persons, and Christ truly God and truly man, born of a virgin, crucified, risen and coming again to judge the living and the dead. They hold the Nicene Creed. The Ukrainian catechism counts "the triple immersion at Baptism" among the practices of Holy Tradition, and they teach that baptism is "unto the remission of your sins" (Acts 2:38). They give the cup to everyone who communes. Most of them ordain married men as priests, as the apostles' churches did, and the Council told them to return to their ancestral traditions. Their worship is sung by all, without instruments in the Byzantine parishes, and they have suffered much for the faith, most of all in Ukraine, where their church was outlawed for forty-three years.

Measured by the New Testament alone, the Eastern Catholic churches stand far from the pattern, as far as Rome on the Pope and on authority, and nearer on baptism, the cup, the married priesthood and the sung liturgy. Their rule of faith sets Tradition and a Pope with universal power beside the written word. Their baptism, though in the Byzantine rite a true burial in water, is given to infants who cannot believe, and the same infants are given the bread and the cup. Their government is bishops under patriarchs under the Pope, where the apostles left elders in every church. Their prayers go to Mary and the saints, and are offered for the dead.

History shows how this came about: the unions of Brest and Diamper, the pressure to Latinize, the ban of 1929, and the council that restored what had been taken. These churches have kept more of the first-century pattern than Rome has, but they keep it by permission of a head the apostles never named. The way back is the one the New Testament gives: the word of the apostles, the baptism of the one who believes, the supper on the first day of the week, and elders in every church, under Christ alone.

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