The Catholic Church is a federation of 24 self-governing (sui juris) churches in full communion with one another and in union with the Pope in his capacity as the head of the Universal Church (referred to as the "Roman Pontiff" in canon law); the Pope in his capacity as Patriarch of Rome (or Patriarch of the West) is also head of the largest of the sui juris Churches, the Latin Church (popularly called the "Roman Catholic Church"). The remaining 23 sui juris Churches, collectively called the "Eastern Catholic Churches", are governed by a hierarch who is either a Patriarch, a Major Archbishop, or a Metropolitan. The Roman Curia administers the Eastern Churches as well as the Western Church. Because of this system, it is possible for a Catholic to be in full communion with the Roman Pontiff without being a Roman Catholic.
Each of the sui juris Churches uses one of the six major liturgical traditions (emanating from traditional Sees of historical importance), called a Rite; the major Rites are the Roman, Byzantine, Antiochene, Alexandrian, Chaldean, and Armenian Rites (there are also two minor Western Rites, the Ambrosian and Mozarabic Rites). The Roman Rite, being used by the Latin Church, is dominant throughout most of the world, being used by the vast majority of Catholics (approx. 98 per cent.); there were formerly many lesser Western Rites, but these were replaced by the Roman Rite by the Council of Trent's liturgical reforms.
Historically, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the Latin Rite (also called the Roman Rite or the "Tridentine Mass") was conducted entirely in ecclesiastical Latin; since the Second Vatican Council ("Vatican II") in the early 1960s, a new version of the Mass has been promulgated (Novus Ordo Missae), which is celebrated in the vernacular, or local languages. The corresponding service in the Eastern Catholic Churches, the Divine Liturgy, is conducted in various liturgical languages depending on the Rite and on the Church: the Byzantine Rite Churches use Greek, Slavonic, Arabic, Romanian and Georgian, the Antiochene and Chaldean Rite Churches use Syriac, the Armenian Rite Church uses Armenian, and the Alexandrian Rite Churches use Coptic and Ge'ez.
1 -[Catholicism]
2 -[Catholicism : Origin and History]
3 -[Catholicism : Sacraments]
4 -[Catholicism : Rites and churches]
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