What is meant by the Latin Church?

The Code of Canon Law at canon 1 addresses this notion of the Latin Church. The Roman Catholic Church is made up of twenty-two sui iuris or autonomous churches. Although having the same beliefs, the same sacraments and being in communion with the Bishop of Rome (the Pope), the churches differ in the way that they celebrate this common faith. What makes them different usually surrounds language, culture and history. One of twenty-two autonomous churches making up the universal (Roman Catholic) Church, is the Latin Church or what was formally called the Latin Rite. We are most familiar with this as it is the predominant church/rite of which we as Catholics here in Canada belong. The Latin Church follows the Code of Canon Law promulgated in 1983 while the other twenty-one sui iuris churches follow the Code of Canon Law of the Eastern Churches, promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1990.


The division of the universal Church into East/West or Oriental/Latin came about in the year 293. Under the Emperor Diocletian those churches in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire came to be known as Oriental while those in the West belonged to the Latin Church. Each autonomous church is presided over by a Patriarch or major archbishop. In addition, within these twenty-two churches are found six different rites: Roman, Byzantine (Constantinopolitan), Alexandrian, Antiochene (or Syrian), Armenian and Chaldean. There are two ancient Eastern rites with further sub-divisions: the Antiochene rite and the Alexandrine rite. All of the parishes in the Diocese of Saint John belong to the Latin Church which follows the Roman rite with the exception of St. Charbel’s Maronite Parish in Fredericton, which belongs to the Antiochene rite. Furthermore, in many parts of Canada and the United States along with the Antiochene rite can be found the Alexandrine rite (Coptics) and the Byzantine rite (Ukranians, Melkites, Ruthenians, etc).