Liturgy: 6 rites, 24 Churches
24 Churches, one Catholic faith
The Catholic Church is a communion of 24 Churches: the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Churches. All share one faith and one Pope. They use six main families of rites, so several Churches can share one rite. Tap a rite to see its Churches, then tap a Church to read about it.
AlexandrianFrom the Church of St Mark in Egypt3 ChurchesAntiochene (West Syriac)From the ancient Church of Antioch, where the disciples were first called Christians3 ChurchesArmenianFrom the Church of Armenia1 ChurchByzantine (Constantinopolitan)The largest Eastern family, from the Church of Constantinople, using the liturgy of St John Chrysostom in many languages14 ChurchesEast Syriac (Chaldean)From the Church of the East, which spread from Mesopotamia as far as India and China2 ChurchesLatinThe tradition of the West1 Church
About the figures
Eastern members are rounded, from the 2023 Annuario Pontificio as reported in Wikipedia’s table of the Eastern Catholic Churches. The Latin figure is our estimate: the 2026 Annuario’s world total of about 1.42 billion Catholics, less the Eastern Churches. Diocese counts include exarchates and similar units, from the current lists on Catholic-Hierarchy.org (Eastern) and GCatholic.org (Latin), seen in November 2026.