What are Eastern Catholic Churches?
Almost all of Australia’s five million Catholics belong to what is called the Latin Rite or the Western Catholic Church, but there are also a small number of Catholics who belong to Eastern Catholic Churches, often called Eastern Rites. The four largest Eastern Catholic Churches in Australia are the Maronite, Melkite, Ukrainian and Chaldean, each of which has been established as a diocese (or eparchy), with a bishop (or eparch) who is a member of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. As well as these four Eastern Catholic Churches, there are also five others that have clergy resident in Australia. These are the Armenian, Syrian, Syro-Malabar, Coptic and Russian Catholic Churches. There are probably Catholics belonging to other Eastern Rites as well, but they do not gather as distinct, organised Churches (Dixon 2005, p. 49).
