As we have discussed, Catholicism consists of different churches in various regions, keeping all of them a “sacred link” based on the communion of faith, the Sacraments as well as the Leadership of the Church of Rome.
Therefore, it is said that the Bishops of these churches “maintains the hierarchical communion” with the Bishop of Rome;
That is, these churches retain their hierarchy, Organization, and rituals but also recognized as the highest spiritual authority of the Pope of Rome;
Canonically, each Eastern Catholic Church is “sui iuris” or autonomous to the other Catholic Churches;
Theologically, all these churches are considered “Sister Churches,” according to the Vatican Decree on the Eastern Catholic Churches.
The Eastern Catholic Churches represent a small percentage of the overall Catholic Church compared to the Latin rite, which has more than 1 billion members.
The CNEWA estimated that Syriac Christians make up 47% of the Eastern Catholics, and Byzantine Christians make up 46%.
The three most important churches are the Eastern Byzantine Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church with 4.3 million (25%), the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church with 3.9 million (23%), and the Maronite Catholic Church with 3.3 million (20%).
The Greek Catholic Church of Ukraine belongs to the Eastern Catholic churches and thus is in full communion with the Holy See. The primate is the Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halych and all Russia. In her liturgy used the Ukrainian language. Currently, the Greek Catholic Church of Ukraine has between three and five million followers in Ukraine. Globally, there are between 6 and 10 million followers;
The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church (India)
is one of the twenty-two Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with Rome.
It is the second-largest Eastern Catholic Church after the Ukrainian church with about 4.6 million believers. It is a church's right (“sui juris”) governed by a synod of bishops, headed by Archbishop
Major;
The Melkite Greek Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See.
There are about 1.6
million followers. The traditional language of worship is Arabic and Greek.