The Greek Catholic Church is a Catholic Church of the Eastern Rite. Historically this sui jurisparticular Church represents a schism and was part of the Eastern Orthodox Church but it came into submission to the Vatican. A minority group in terms of population in Greece, its territory encompasses most of Greece, but is not to be confused with the other Eastern Rite churches in the Roman Catholic communion (which are sometimes also termed Greek Catholic) nor is it to be confused with the Greek Orthodox Church. It follows the Byzantine Rite and has its headquarters in Athens. The Roman Catholic Church believes its founding was based on Jesus appointment of Saint Peter as the primary church leader, later Bishop of Rome. ... The term Eastern Rites may refer to the liturgical rites used by many ancient Christian Churches of Eastern Europe and the Middle East that, while being part of the Roman Catholic Church, are distinct from the Latin Rite or Western Church. ... The Latin term sui juris means of ones own right. ... A Particular Church , in Roman Catholic theology and canon law, is any of the individual constituent ecclesial communities in full communion with the Church of Rome and thus make up the Catholic Communion. ... The word schism, from the Greek σχισμα, schisma (from σχιζω, schizo, to split), means a division or a split, usually in an organization. ... The Vladimir Icon, one of the most venerated of Orthodox Christian icons of Mary. ... The term Eastern Rites may refer to the liturgical rites used by many ancient Christian Churches of Eastern Europe and the Middle East that, while being part of the Roman Catholic Church, are distinct from the Latin Rite or Western Church. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... Greek Orthodox Church can refer to: the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, headed by the Patriarch of Constantinople, who is also the first among equals of the Eastern Orthodox Communion. ... The term Eastern Rites may refer to the liturgical rites used by many ancient Christian Churches of Eastern Europe and the Middle East that, while being part of the Roman Catholic Church, are distinct from the Latin Rite or Western Church. ... The Acropolis in central Athens, one of the most important landmarks in world history. ...
The current head of the Greek Catholic Church is Most Rev. Anarghyros Printesis, Archbishop of Athens.
Thus the Ruthenian Church of Galicia, the Rumanian Church of Austria-Hungary, the Bulgarian Church of Turkish Bulgaria, the Melchite Church of Syria, the Georgian Church, the Italo-Greek Church, and the Church of the Greeks in Turkey or in the Hellenic Kingdom -- all of them Catholic -- are often called the United GreekChurches.
The superior hierarchy of a GreekChurch at the period we are treating of, viz., from the fourth to the tenth century, was composed of a patriarch, a catholicos, the greater metropolitans, the autocephalous metropolitans, the archbishops and the bishops.
A sub-type of the Syriac rite is represented by the liturgies used in the Syriac Churches of Mesopotamia and Persia; the liturgy of Sts.
In 1947 the Polish Communist govern- ment abolished the GreekCatholicChurch in that country and deported the GreekCatholics either to the Soviet Union or to the western lands recently seized from defeated Germany.
In 1948 the GreekCatholicChurch in Romania was similarly suppressed and its properties given to the Orthodox.
It became the silent church of the cellar, the field and the forest awaiting the eventual liberation of Europe from the German heresy.
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