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Concept
Latin Church
Summary
The Latin Church (Ecclesia Latina) is the largest autonomous (sui iuris) particular church within the Catholic Church, whose members constitute the vast majority of the 1.3 billion Christians in communion with the Pope in Rome. The Latin Church is one of 24 churches sui iuris in communion with the pope; the other 23 are referred to as the Eastern Catholic Churches, and have approximately 18 million members combined.
The Latin Church is directly headed by the Pope in his role as the Bishop of Rome, whose cathedra as a bishop is located in the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome, Italy. The Latin Church historically developed within, and has strongly influenced Western culture; as such, it is also known as the Western Church (Ecclesia Occidentalis). It is also known as the Roman Church (Ecclesia Romana), the Latin Catholic Church, and in some contexts as the Roman Catholic Church (though this name can also refer to the Catholic Church as a whole). One of the pope's traditional titles in some eras and contexts has been the Patriarch of the West.
The Latin Church was in full communion with what is referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church until the East-West schism of Rome and Constantinople in 1054. From that time, but also before it, it became common to refer to Western Christians as Latins in contrast to Byzantines or Greeks.The division between "Latins" and "Greeks" does not cover the whole panoply of traditional Christian churches, since it leaves seriously out of reckoning the sizeable Eastern Catholic Churches, some of which follow the Byzantine liturgical tradition, but others, along with various ancient churches outside Chalcedonian Christianity jointly known as the Oriental Orthodoxy, and outside the Pentarchical state church of Roman Empire, known as the Church of the East, and follow the greatly varying cultural, spiritual and liturgical traditions of Syro-Oriental, Syro-Antiochene, Armenian and Coptic Christianity.
The Latin Church employs the Latin liturgical rites, which since the mid-20th century are very often translated into the vernacular.
Official source
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