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 name Catholic Church can mean a visible organization that refers to itself as Catholic, or the invisible Christian Church, viz. ... This article refers to Churches in full communion with the See of Rome. ... 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 (IPA: or ), from the Greek σχισμα, schisma (from σχιζω, schizo, to split), means a division or a split, usually in an organization. ... Pentecost is considered in Eastern Orthodoxy to be the birth of the Church. ... 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. ... The Church of Greece is one of the fourteen or fifteen autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches which make up the Eastern Orthodox Communion. ... The Byzantine Rite, sometimes called Constantinopolitan, is the liturgical rite used (in various languages) by all the Eastern Orthodox Churches and by several Eastern Rite particular Churches within the Catholic Church. ... Athens (Greek: Αθήνα, AthÃna IPA: ) is the capital of Greece and one of the most famous cities in the world, named after goddess Athena. ...
The current head of the Greek Catholic Church is Most Rev. Anarghyros Printesis, Archbishop of Athens.
Currently, the Ukrainian GreekCatholic Church is the dominant faith in several western oblasts of Ukraine, and although spread throughout the country, is a small minority elsewhere.
The foundation of the Ukrainian Catholic Church was laid by the communion of the Patriarch of Constantinople with the Popes in Rome throughout most of the first millennium (until 1054) and intermittent communion thereafter.
The Catholicity of the Ukrainian Church was confirmed by the resistance of the hierarchs of Rus' minora, or Rus' proper (today's Ukraine) to the requests of the Greek Church at Constantinople to break communion with Rome after the Great Schism of 1054.
Catholics of the Byzantine rite, known as GreekCatholics, are heirs of the Union of Brest of 1596, which the hierarchy of the Kyivan Metropolia established with the Church of Rome.
Regardless of the fact that it was officially forbidden and harshly persecuted, this Church preserved its hierarchical structures in the underground and diaspora, and in December 1989 it requested official legalization.
Catholics of the Latin rite are members of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) in Ukraine, whose hierarchical structures in the past were spread over those Ukrainian lands which became incorporated into neighboring Catholic nations.
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