Church sui iuris

Countries covered by Eastern Catholic churches sui iuris, grouped by rite

Countries covered by Eastern Catholic churches sui iuris, grouped by rite

Church sui iuris is a Catholic community of the Christian faithful joined by a hierarchy according to law and expressly or tacitly recognized as self-governing by the Church's supreme authority.

Canonical definition

Church sui iuris is the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches' exact term for a body of faithful united by a hierarchy according to law and recognized by supreme ecclesiastical authority as self-governing. In ordinary Catholic enumeration, the Catholic communion comprises the Latin Church and twenty-three Eastern Catholic Churches sui iuris.

Self-governing does not mean sovereign, autocephalous in every respect, or independent of the Roman Pontiff. The scope of patriarchal, major archiepiscopal, metropolitan, and other forms of government differs under common and proper law. Full Communion with the successor of Peter unites these Churches without absorbing their legitimate patrimony into the Latin Church.

Aggregate joined by hierarchy

CCEO canon 27 requires an aggregate of Christian Faithful joined by a hierarchy according to law. Ethnicity, ritual preference, or an association's declaration cannot replace the stable ecclesial and canonical bond expressed by that phrase.

Express or tacit recognition

Recognition belongs to the Church's supreme authority and can be express or tacit. Tacit recognition is established from authoritative ecclesiastical acts and practice, not presumed merely because a community is old, uses an Eastern liturgy, or describes itself as autonomous.

Church, rite, and jurisdiction

A Church sui iuris is not a rite. A rite is its liturgical, theological, spiritual, and disciplinary patrimony, shaped by culture and history as a manner of living the one Catholic faith. Several Churches sui iuris may use the Byzantine tradition, while one Church can preserve variants within its patrimony.

A Church sui iuris is also not simply a Particular Church. It can contain patriarchates, provinces, archeparchies, eparchies, exarchates, and other jurisdictions. Each diocese or eparchy is a Particular Church; together they may belong to one Church sui iuris. Where a small Church consists of one eparchy, the same concrete faithful can be described under both aspects without making the two definitions synonymous.

Canonical ascription

Catholics are canonically ascribed to a Church sui iuris, ordinarily through baptism according to the rules governing parents or, for an older catechumen, lawful choice. Ascription determines proper hierarchy and discipline in matters such as initiation, marriage, holy days, clerical formation, and transfer.

Attendance at another Catholic liturgy, even habitually, does not by itself transfer ascription. A Catholic may receive the sacraments in another Catholic rite according to law while remaining a member of the original Church sui iuris. Formal transfer follows the competent authority and documentation required by the Latin and Eastern codes.

Equal dignity and proper patrimony

The Eastern Catholic Churches are not ethnic chaplaincies, transitional concessions, or incomplete forms of Latin Catholicism. Orientalium Ecclesiarum teaches their equal dignity and directs them to preserve and renew their own discipline and patrimony.

Older English sources sometimes say particular Church or ritual Church when they mean Church sui iuris. Those historical usages must be read in their period sense and distinguished from the modern canonical vocabulary so that a self-governing Catholic Church, a diocese, and a rite are not confused.