Andrij Yurash. Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices. Editor: Thomas Riggs, 2nd Edition, Volume 1, Gale, 2015.
Overview
Eastern Catholicism encompasses Eastern Churches of different rites or traditions that obey the authority of the popes of the Roman Catholic Church. These rites include Chalcedonian, pre-Ephesian (also called Nestorian or Chaldean), and pre-Chalcedonian, which include those of the Coptics, Armenians, Jacobites, and Ethiopians. They are also called the Catholic Churches of Eastern Rites and the Uniate Churches (because of their union with Rome). These churches maintain their own ecclesiastical traditions and rites—with varying degrees of changes influenced by the Latin tradition—and preserve certain levels of autonomy and self-organization but have otherwise accepted the dogmatic teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.
The idea of reunification of all churches under the supervision of Rome’s popes arose almost immediately after the Great Schism of Christianity (between the Eastern Church and Western Church) in 1054. The idea was finally realized in 1439 during the Council of Florence, when Byzantine emperor John VIII Palaiologos (1392-1448; reigned 1425-48) and Joseph II (1369-1439), the patriarch of Constantinople, signed a union with the Western Church to receive help in the war against Muslims to seize new territories east of the existing Byzantine Empire. However, because Pope Eugenius IV (c. 1383-1447; reigned 1431-47) was unable to organize the essential military assistance, the main representatives of the Eastern Church withdrew their signatures.
Later the Council of Trent (1545-63) identified the Uniate Churches as different rites within the structure of the Roman Catholic Church. During the reign of Pope Urban VIII (1568-1644; reigned 1623-44) a special department for Eastern Christians was created that had a similar structure as the pope’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The department continued to treat the Uniate Churches as different rites within the structure of one Catholic Church; only Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903; reigned 1878-1903), in one of his letters in 1894, called the Eastern Christian communities united with Rome. Pope Benedict XV (1854-1922; reigned 1914-22) in 1917 reorganized the department for Eastern Christians in the independent Congregation for the Oriental Churches (now one of the nine congregations of the Vatican’s Curia). Furthermore, the Second Vatican Council adopted two documents that defined the status and mission of the Eastern Catholic Churches: the dogmatic constitution “Lumen Gentium” and the decree “Orientalium Ecclesiarum” (both in 1964). The main document that now regulates relations between the Vatican and the Eastern Catholic Churches is the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, which were proclaimed by Pope John Paul II (1920-2005; reigned 1978-2005) in 1990.
There are two dozen Eastern Catholic Churches with members all over the world. The different churches officially united with Rome at various times between 1182 and 1961. Followers of the Byzantine tradition are concentrated mainly in central-eastern Europe, including Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, and Serbia; in small communities in the Czech Republic, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Albania; and in the Near East (Lebanon and Syria). Adherents of the Chaldean tradition are found mostly in the Near East (Iraq, Iran, and Turkey) and India, while those who follow the Jacobite rites are primarily located in Syria, Lebanon, and India. Members of the Armenian tradition are concentrated in Armenia and Lebanon, of the Coptic rites in Egypt, and of the Ethiopian tradition, in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Numerous communities of believers of Eastern Catholic Churches also exist in North America and western Europe. Most new adherents can be found in eastern Europe, the Middle East, India, Egypt, western Europe, and North America.
History
Eastern Catholicism traces its origin to the 12th century, when the Roman Catholic Church began to absorb Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches of different theological traditions. Rome’s efforts were not successful until it established a strong presence in the Near East and Anatolia (today’s Asian portion of Turkey) during the Crusades. Two influential Christian communities declared their official union with Rome at that time: the Maronite Church in 1182 and the Armenian Church in 1198. According to their ecclesiastical tradition, Maronites were separated from Rome and only formally reinstalled this ecclesiastical unity in the 12th century. The Armenian Church’s union with Rome was destroyed by the Tatar invasion of 1375 and was reestablished in 1742.
The Catholic Church of Byzantine Rite in southern Italy and Sicily absorbed a mass migration of Orthodox Albanians in the 15th and 16th centuries, becoming the Italo-Albanian Church in 1595. The first Eastern Catholic community in India was the Syro-Malabar Church, which officially united with Rome in 1599. Some of the hierarchy and followers of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church established the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church in India in 1930.
Several Eastern Catholic Churches were formed after internal conflicts within Orthodox Churches led groups of clergy and their followers to look for support from Rome. The Chaldean Church of the East Syrian Rite, or Nestorian tradition (formed in 1552, with adherents mainly in Iraq and Iran); the Syrian Church of the West Syrian Rite, or Jacobite tradition (formed in 1662); and the Melkite Church of the Byzantine tradition (created in 1724) were proclaimed in this way.
In the 16th and 17th centuries bishops’ synods and uniting councils brought in several churches of the Byzantine rite in eastern Europe. The Ukrainian and Belarusian Uniate ecclesiastical traditions and churches formed after the Brest Union Council in 1596. The Uzhorog Union with Rome in 1646 brought the Ruthenian Church in the United States (a separate metropoly since 1969) and the Greek Catholic diocese of Mukachiv in the Ukraine into the Eastern Catholic movement. The Romanian Church joined in 1700 after the bishops of the Transylvania region agreed to unite with Rome.
The 18th century saw the development of the Coptic Catholic Church of Egypt (1741) and the Byzantine Church in Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro (the former Republic of Yugoslavia) in 1777. Other Eastern Catholic Churches were established in the 20th century: the Greek (1911); the Hungarian (1912); the Russian, with two separate exarchates (1917 and 1928); the Bulgarian (1926); the Slovak (1937); the Albanian (1939); the Belarusian (1940); the Ethiopian (1961); the Czech Republic (1996); and the Macedonian (2008).
Central Doctrines
Though not obligated to do so, all Eastern Catholic Churches accept the central doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, including those that have caused controversy between Western and Eastern churches—for example, papal infallibility, the Immaculate Conception, and the doctrines of Filioque (that the Holy Ghost proceeds from “the Father and the Son” as one entity). The most Latinized churches are those that have the longest history of organizational unity with Rome, such as the Maronite and Italo-Albanian churches; those that have experienced at some point direct supervision by the Latin hierarchy, including the Malabar Church; and those too small to maintain their distinctive traditions in the face of regional Eastern Orthodox influences without direct support of the Latin hierarchy, such as the Chaldean or Byzantine Church in Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro.
A movement to preserve and restore the unique doctrines of Eastern Christianity, as well as important features of the entire ecclesiastical tradition, began in the 19th century. The Melkite Church has been one of the most active proponents of this trend, along with the Syro-Malankaran, Ethiopian, Syrian, and, increasingly, Ukrainian churches. Indeed, in the early 21st century the Ukrainian Church has moved away from the Uniate tradition (a concept dominated in 18th and 19th centuries) and closer to the Orthodox Church in a union with Rome.
Moral Code of Conduct
As a general rule Eastern Catholic Churches observe the same moral principles as the Eastern Churches, especially in regions where Eastern Catholics and Orthodox Christians coexist: the state of Kerala in India, Syria, Lebanon, big cities in Iraq, Cairo and upper Egypt, the western Ukraine, and Romanian Transylvania. These principles include the importance of marriage and family and respect for elders. Eastern Catholics take a more liberal approach to morals than Orthodox Christians, however, and have more conservative patterns of conduct than Latin Catholics. In traditional societies, as well as in diasporic communities, Eastern Catholics mostly develop interpersonal relations—marriage in particular—within the church community.
Sacred Books
Eastern Catholic Churches use the liturgical books and texts of traditional Eastern Christianity, including the Euchologions, Books of Needs, Anphologions, Festal Anthologies, Floral and Lenten Triodions, Oktoechos, Horologions, Typikons, Menologions, Menaions, Books of Akathistos, and Books of Commemoration. Some accept Latin editions of these works. Over the years additions and changes have been made that reflect the Eastern Catholic Churches’ adjustment to the ecclesiastical realities of their union with Rome, such as modernization of liturgical practices (in some cases their shortening), dogmatic unification with the Latin church, and formal corrections (for example, in church hierarchy formulas).
Sacred Symbols
Eastern Catholics consider holy crosses of various forms, including Greek, Saint Andrew the First Called, Coptic, and Slavic, as important sacred symbols in liturgical and private contexts. The Heart of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary—a red heart in conjunction with such symbols as drops of blood, wreaths, crowns, or red rays—has become an important symbol in some churches since the end of the 19th century, notably the Coptic, the Syro-Malabar, and to some extent the Ukrainian and other churches of the Byzantine tradition.
Early and Modern Leaders
The founders of specific Eastern Catholic Churches are especially important: Jeremias II al-Amshitti (1199-1230), the first patriarch of the Maronite Church; Simon III, the first patriarch (1552-55) of the Chaldean Church; Bishop Jacob, head of the Christians of Saint Thomas, who established informal unity with Rome at the beginning of the 16th century; Abraham Pierre I, the first patriarch of the Armenian Church in the 18th century; and Michel Jarweh, the first patriarch of the Syrian Church, who helped restore church traditions in 1782. Saint Josaphat Kuntsevych (c. 1580-1623), murdered by his opponents in Polotsk (now Belarus), is especially well known among Eastern European Catholics as a symbol of faithfulness to Rome.
Among the most revered church leaders with emeritus status are Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir (1920- ), patriarch of the Maronite Church (1986-2011); Cardinal Lubomyr Huzar (1933- ), the major archbishop of the Ukrainian Church (2000-11); and Cardinal Ignatius Mous Daud I, the patriarch of the Syrian Church (1998-2001) and a prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation of the Oriental Churches from 2000 to 2007.
Especially distinguished members of the Eastern Catholic Churches’ contemporary hierarchy include Patriarch Gregory III Laham (1933- ), head of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church since 2000; Bechara Peter Rai (1940- ), the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch since 2011 and a cardinal beginning in 2012; George Alencherry (1945- ), a major archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, elected in 2011, and a cardinal since 2012; and Sviatoslav Shevchuk (1970- ), a major archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church beginning in 2011.
Major Theologians and Authors
The modern-day theology of Eastern Catholicism is based on the works and activities of several theologians from the late 19th century, including Joseph VI Audo, patriarch of the Chaldean Church (1847-78), and Gregory II Youseff-Sayur, patriarch of the Melkite Church (1864-97). Both initiated and theologically substantiated the need of the Eastern Catholic Churches to rediscover their own ecclesiastical heritage and to use this basis for future development in liturgical practice, theological concepts, and social and public work. In the early 20th century Andrej Sheptytskyj (1865-1944), metropolitan of the Ukrainian Church from 1901 to 1944, had a significant impact on the development of the Eastern European Churches. He helped change the Greek-Catholic community’s secondary status in the region to one that was equal to other Roman Catholic communities at that time.
Although initially Eastern Catholic theology mainly focused on the Byzantine tradition, several late-20th-century authors from the Arabic and Indian Eastern Catholic traditions—including Reverend Mathew Vellanikal from India, Reverend Samir Khallil from Lebanon, and Chaldean Reverend Peter Jusif—introduced other types of Eastern spirituality into the religion.
Organizational Structure
The Eastern Catholic Churches fall into four groups: patriarchates, major archiepiscopacies (archbishoprics), metropolies, and others. The six patriarchal Eastern Catholic Churches—the Maronite, Armenian, Chaldean, Syrian, Melkite, and Coptic—have the highest level of autonomy and consist of numerous (sometimes two or three dozen) dioceses, which in some cases are joined in regional metropolies, or exarchates (one step above a metropoly). The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (since 1963), the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church (since 1993), the Syro-Malankara Church (since 2005), and the Romanian Greek Catholic Church (since 2005) are major archiepiscopacies, which also consist of numerous dioceses and metropolies.
Each of the three metropolitinate Eastern Catholic Churches—the Ethiopian, Ruthenian, and Slovak (since 2008)—consist of dioceses and, in some cases, apostolic exarchates. The 11 other Eastern Catholic Churches have internal autonomy but receive direct guidance from the Vatican. The Italo-Albanian Church has two dioceses; the Hungarian Church and the Byzantine Church in Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro have one diocese and one apostolic exarchate each; the Russian and Greek Churches consist of two exarchates; and the Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Czech Republic churches exist as a form of an apostolic exarchate. In 1992 the Albanian Church adopted a structure with an apostolic administrator, and the Belarusian Church, which has a relatively limited number of parishes and adherents, only has organizations at the parochial level due to state restrictions. The Greek Catholic Diocese of Mukachiv in the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine depends organizationally on Rome. It is unable to become part of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church because of its double identification with both the Ruthenian Metropoly in the United States and the Ukrainian Church.
Houses of Worship and Holy Places
Eastern Catholic church buildings come in a variety of styles based on corresponding rite and local cultural-architectural traditions. Each church has its own priests and other clergy. In large cities the Eastern Catholic traditions led by bishops, archbishops, or metropolitans offer services in cathedrals. Chapels intended for private prayer (particularly for travelers) in various places (sometimes far from cities or villages, occasionally at memorial sites or crossroads) do not have permanent clergy. Other popular holy places for prayer and veneration are missionary crosses and statues of Christ, the Virgin Mary, or popular saints found near churches, in the center of villages or cities, in hospitals, in the countryside, and in private houses.
What is Sacred
In the Eastern Catholic Churches the bread and wine used in the sacrament of Communion are the most sacred things. Icons painted on wood or canvas are objects of special veneration, as are crosses, church buildings, the liturgical clothing of the clergy, and ecclesiastical texts. Devout members of Eastern Catholic Churches worship saints’ relics as well as their counterparts from Orthodox traditions. Among the most revered relics are of Saint Chalbel of the Maronite Church, who lived in the 19th century, and Saint Josaphat Kuntsevych, who was murdered at the beginning of the 17th century. More recent martyrs who suffered during Joseph Stalin’s regime of the 20th century include Saint Sister Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception of the Syro-Malabar Church.
Holidays and Festivals
Easter is the most significant holiday for Eastern Catholics because of its symbolism of victory over the death. The other main Eastern Catholic holidays are a combination of the 12 traditional holidays in Eastern Christianity—Christmas (December 25), Theophany (January 6), Meeting of Jesus Christ in the Temple (February 2), Entrance of Christ into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday; one week before Easter), Ascension (40th day after Easter), Holy Trinity (50th day after Easter), Transfiguration (August 6), Dormition of the Most Pure Mother of God (August 15), Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14), Christmas of the God’s Mother (September 8), and Entering of the God’s Mother into the Temple (November 21)—and several holidays from Western Christianity. These include the Holy Eucharist, which is celebrated 10 days after the Holy Trinity, and the Feast of Christ’s Heart, celebrated 19 days after Pentecost.
Certain holidays celebrating specific events and saints from regional Eastern Catholic traditions—for example, the Feast of Saint Josaphat Kuntsevych (November 12), observed by Eastern European Catholics to honor the archbishop and martyr, and the Feast of Mykola Charnetsky (June 27), a recently proclaimed saint in the Ukrainian Church. An interesting example of a local holiday among the Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara churches is a harvest festival, which is celebrated by all Christians in southern India at the end of October or at the beginning of November.
Mode of Dress
Clergy of the Eastern Catholic Churches usually follow the type and style of dress that are used by the corresponding Orthodox rite, especially in the Coptic, Ethiopian, and Armenian traditions. The clergy of the most Latinized Eastern Catholic Churches—the Syro-Malabar, Maronite, Armenian, and Romanian churches and the church in Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro, as well as the Basilian monastic order in eastern European churches—dress according to Western Christian tradition in black robes with white collars. Some ideological movements that originated in the early 1900s, such as the Studite order in the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, have called for a mode of dress based exclusively on the Eastern tradition: long black (sometimes grey, rarely green or dark red) robes with wide sleeves.
Dietary Practices
According to the common Orthodox tradition, Eastern Catholic Churches observe no specific dietary limitations or prohibitions. Fasts, as a rule, have a more significant role in the church than they do in Western Christianity, however. When adherents fast, they may not eat any product of animal origin or drink alcohol; they must limit public appearances and sexual activity; they may not organize or conduct celebrations or intensive spiritual exercises; and they more frequently attend worship services and pray. Eastern Catholics in eastern Europe fast on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year and participate in four longer fasts: Lent, the Fast of the Holy Apostles, the Fast of the Dormition of the Most Pure Mother of God, and Advent. Several contemporary churches have eliminated fasting obligations on certain dates (New Year’s Day and Independence Day in the Ukrainian Church, for example); relaxed general fasting requirements (permitting the use of eggs and milk and shortening the length of fasting periods); and exempted several groups of people from fasting, including children, the elderly, pregnant women, travelers, and those who are ill. These churches still support strict rules during Lent (the Great Fast).
Rituals
The liturgy (the main service, which includes confession and Communion) is the focal point of ritual practice in Eastern Catholicism. Each of the five main ecclesiastical and liturgical traditions (Byzantine, Coptic, Armenian, Chaldean or East Syrian, and Jacobite or West Syrian) uses its own unique texts of liturgies, but all have three main parts (the Latin liturgy has only two): Proskomide (introduction and preparation of the saint’s gifts for Communion); the Liturgy of Oglashenny, or Catechumens (those preparing to be baptized); and the Liturgy of Adherents. Influenced by the Latin tradition and a general tendency to simplify and shorten rituals, some Eastern Catholic Churches make a point of rejecting certain forms of worship—for example, all-night vigils, little vespers (special evening worship), and matins (special morning worship)—that are traditional components of Eastern Christianity.
Eastern Catholic Churches recognize the seven sacraments (the most holy mysteries) and emphasize baptism, marriage, confession, and Communion. Other rituals important to Eastern Catholics include chrismation, which involves the application of myrrh after baptism; the consecration of priests; and consecration by oil for bodily and spiritual recovery.
Rites of Passage
The level of religious activity and involvement among Eastern Catholics in religious life cannot be compared with Western (Latin) Catholics, considering that the majority of Eastern Church followers regularly attend weekly and special services. Eastern Catholics generally adhere to those rituals connected with birth, adulthood, marriage, and death. Children are baptized within several days after their birth, when the parents choose godparents to support the spiritual growth of the child. Unlike in the Orthodox tradition, some Eastern Catholic Churches accept the Latin practice of confirmation for older children (between the ages of six and eight). In marriages between Eastern and Western Catholics, the children accept the rite of the parent of their gender: boys inherit their father’s rite and girls take their mother’s. Funeral services are attended by special commemorations, which are repeated on the ninth and 40th days after the death and again one year after the death.
Membership
Eastern Catholic Churches that exist in predominantly non-Christian environments, particularly the Coptic, Chaldean, and West-Syrian (Jacobite) traditions, are limited in their ability to evangelize openly, so their communities have remained relatively closed and without much growth since the mid-20th century. Other contributing factors are lower birth rates than those of the surrounding non-Christian communities and significant immigration to Western countries.
After World War II eastern European Catholic Churches were prohibited and persecuted by the resulting Communist regimes. For example, in the Ukrainian, Romanian, and Czechoslovakian churches, former clergy who declared their desire to join the Orthodox Church gathered at special councils—in Lviv (Ukraine) in 1946, in Cluj-Napoca (Romania) in 1948, in Uzhorod (Ukraine) in 1949, and in Presov (Czechoslovakia) in 1950—that agreed to terminate ecclesiastical relations with Rome. Bishops and priests who refused to recognize the decisions of these councils were arrested or banned from ecclesiastical activity. After the late 1940s, adherents of Eastern Catholic Churches in these Communist countries met illegally. Poland and Yugoslavia were allowed to retain their Eastern Catholic dioceses (along with their relations to Rome).
In 1968, during a period of democratization called Prague Spring, the Slovakian Church gained the freedom to expand, but strong opposition from local Orthodox churches prevented it from regaining its prewar status and church property. Other eastern European churches have evangelized openly only since the fall of Communism in the late 1980s; the Romanian Church has witnessed some growth, while the Ukrainian Church has actually exceeded its previous influence. The Albanian, Belarusian, and Russian churches, however, have grown very slowly.
Religious Tolerance
Eastern Catholic Churches are fairly open to external ecumenical contacts, although they observe the Vatican’s lead and do not generally participate independently in interdenominational communications. Eastern Catholic ecumenical activities usually encounter strong opposition from the Orthodox Church, however, which does not recognize the union of the Eastern Catholic Churches with Rome as an appropriate way to restore general Christian unity. The Orthodox Church regards Eastern Catholicism as a form of contemporary Catholic proselytism and an attempt to obtain new adherents in the traditional Orthodox territories, curtailing Orthodox influence on the Christian world. It sees the Eastern Catholic Churches as a major obstacle in its efforts to establish its own lasting relations with the Vatican on the basis of principles of church organization from the first Christian millennium, which designated five main centers—Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antiochia, and Jerusalem. In this schema only Rome would have spiritual leadership.
The bishops of the Melkite Church have been leading advocates of making the reintegration of Eastern Catholic Churches into their corresponding Eastern Orthodox Churches a precondition to reconciliation between Western and Eastern Christianity. Melkite Patriarch Gregory II Youssef (1823-1897) expressed this position at the First Vatican Council in 1870, followed by Patriarch Maximos IV Sayegh (1878-1967) at the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). In the early 21st century the hierarchy of the Melkite Church considers the church an authentic Orthodox Church that stands in communion with Rome.
Followers of the Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate and the Assyrian Church of the East have experienced increasing levels of cooperation since the mid-to late-20th century. A common declaration between the two churches as an attempt to find a common understanding of divinity and humanity of Christ was signed in 1994 by Pope John Paul II and Assyrian Patriarch Dinkha IV (1935- ). In 2001 these leaders created another key document, titled “Guidelines for Admission to the Eucharist between the Chaldean Church and the Assyrian Church of the East,” which allows the faithful of both churches to attend the Liturgy of the Eucharist in either church.
Social Justice
The position of specific Eastern Catholic Churches on poverty and other social problems is generally determined by that church’s position in society. For example, adherents of the Maronite and Armenian Churches in Lebanon represent the wealthier sector of society and have founded prestigious educational institutions (including universities) and many supportive organizations for the poor. Followers of the Chaldean (in Iraq and Iran), Coptic (in Egypt), and Syrian (in Syria and Turkey) Churches belong to the poorer classes, so they generally accept support from the West. Eastern European Catholics, who are composed mostly of middle-class and rural populations, have received help from Western Catholic institutions to organize support for the poor within their societies. All Eastern Catholic Churches try to provide theological and general education for their followers, with support from Rome and other Catholic organizations throughout the world.
Social Life
Traditional family values form the basis of the social doctrine of Eastern Catholicism. Preparation and special education before marriage have become obligatory practices for the majority of the churches. Marriage between Eastern Catholics and non-Catholics is not widespread or supported in church communities.
Unlike their counterparts in the Western Catholic Church, the majority of Eastern Catholic clergy (except bishops, monks, and hieromonks, who can serve as parochial priests) are married. The Latin observance of celibacy is accepted by the Syro-Malabar, Italo-Albanian, and Armenian Churches and by several small churches of the Byzantine tradition in Europe. The private family life of married Eastern Catholic priests must serve as a model for the interpersonal relations of society in general. The presence of these priests in dioceses in the West has at times put the Eastern Catholic Churches at odds with local Roman Catholic groups.
Controversial Issues
The Eastern Catholic custom of maintaining distinctive local traditions within its connection to the Vatican has frequently led to disagreements about proper practice. In the mid-1990s the Syro-Malabar Church normalized relations with the Catholic Church of the Latin Rite in India after a dispute over jurisdiction of the Syro-Malabar communities in territories where dioceses of the church did not exist; the Vatican had not allowed the Malabar Church to establish new dioceses even in the state of Kerala, which is the historical motherland of that church.
As the most numerous in members and dynamic in its contemporary development, the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church was to have moved from the status of major archbishop to patriarchate, but the Vatican backed down in the face of opposition from Orthodox churches, particularly the Moscow Patriarchate. The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church continues to insist on the importance of obtaining this higher status and uses the title of patriarch for internal occasions and liturgical needs instead of the title recognized by the Apostolic See.
Since the early 1990s the post-Soviet-era legalization and restoration of the Ukrainian and Romanian Greek Catholic Churches’ organizational structures have caused many ideological and other conflicts—especially concerning the possession of church buildings—with Orthodox Churches that strongly opposed the process. The desire in the second half of the 1990s of the majority of the region’s Greek Catholics to find or rediscover the Eastern roots of their ecclesiastical identity has lessened the opposition between the two communities, which in the early 21st century have been working to reach mutual understanding.
Imbalance and often painful intervention into the life of all Christians, especially Eastern Catholics in the Near East, were introduced during the Arab Spring—the wave of Arabic revolutions and violent attempts to change the ruling regimes in several countries of the region between 2010 and 2013. For example, during the second phase of political instability in Egypt, around 60 Coptic churches were destroyed and hundreds of believers were killed and wounded. These tragic events have caused some Christians to leave their traditional areas of settlement and move en masse to western Europe and North America.
Relations between Eastern Catholic Churches and the Roman Catholic dioceses still remain a subject of discussion and sometimes tension in India, Ukraine, and Syria.
Cultural Impact
The Eastern Catholic Churches have had a powerful impact on the cultural development of nations and societies, especially those where Eastern Catholics have been or are the majority or an essential part of the local society, such as in northern Iraq, southern India (Kerala state), western Ukraine, and Romanian Transylvania. In the visual and decorative arts, Eastern Catholicism has contributed iconography and other elements of temple decoration, including many famous local images of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and different saints, as well as clerical clothing and liturgical objects. Eastern Catholic architecture in churches, bell towers, and chapels sometimes includes Latin or Western additions that distinguish them from Orthodox buildings. Eastern Catholicism has included polyphonic singing (an obligatory part of the Eastern Orthodox liturgy) in its liturgy, and it has produced a great variety of liturgical, ecclesiastical, historical, and educational works.