One Church, twenty-four Churches.

Summary

The Catholic Church is one Church made of many Churches. Those baptized “are fully in the communion of the Catholic Church on this earth who are joined with Christ in its visible structure by the bonds of the profession of faith, the sacraments, and ecclesiastical governance”⁠.¹ Within that communion the Latin Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches are “of equal dignity, so that none of them is superior to the others as regards rite”⁠.² “There are 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, which are self-governing and in full communion with the Pope”⁠.³

The take: a Catholic is defined by communion, not by a style of worship. A Maronite, a Ukrainian Greek Catholic, a member of an Anglican ordinariate and a Catholic at a Latin Mass the bishop has permitted are all fully Catholic. A group can say the old Mass, use the name Catholic and have validly ordained bishops and still stand outside that communion. On July 2, 2026 the Holy See declared the clergy of the Society of St. Pius X in schism and excommunicated the six bishops of that summer’s consecrations⁠.⁴

What full communion is

The Council names the same three bonds: “The bonds which bind men to the Church in a visible way are profession of faith, the sacraments, and ecclesiastical government and communion”⁠.⁵ Canon law names what breaks them: “Heresy is the obstinate denial or obstinate doubt after the reception of baptism of some truth which is to be believed by divine and Catholic faith; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith,” and “schism is the refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him”⁠.⁶

The one Church of Christ “subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him”⁠.⁵ It lives in its particular Churches, “in and from which churches comes into being the one and only Catholic Church”⁠.⁵

The Churches in communion

The Council calls the Eastern Catholic Churches “separate Churches or Rites” and teaches that “the variety within the Church in no way harms its unity; rather it manifests it”⁠.² Their faithful “can and should always preserve their legitimate liturgical rite and their established way of life”⁠.² The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches derives the rites from five traditions: “Alexandrina, Antiochena, Armena, Chaldaea et Constantinopolitana”⁠.⁷ Together they reach “from Ethiopia to the Middle East, from Europe to India”⁠.⁸

Different paths within the Latin Church

Personal ordinariates receive Anglicans into full communion. Each is “juridically comparable to a diocese”⁠,⁹ and worships “according to the liturgical books proper to the Anglican tradition, which have been approved by the Holy See”⁠⁹ in the Missal entitled “Divine Worship”⁠.¹⁰ Opus Dei is a personal prelature, erected by John Paul II “in Praelaturam personalem ambitus internationalis”⁠.¹¹ Since 2022 “the Prelature depends on the Dicastery for the Clergy”⁠.¹²

The standing of the 1962 Missal has changed several times. In 1984 and 1988 its use was permitted by indult, and John Paul II asked for “a wide and generous application of the directives already issued some time ago by the Apostolic See for the use” of the 1962 Missal⁠.¹³ In 2007 Benedict XVI called the reformed Missal “the ordinary expression of the lex orandi” and the 1962 Missal “an extraordinary expression of the same lex orandi of the Church”⁠,¹⁴ and wrote that it “was never juridically abrogated”⁠.¹⁵ In 2021 Francis made the reformed books “the unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite,” and the use of the 1962 Missal the bishop’s “exclusive competence”⁠.¹⁶ In March 2026 a message from Leo XIV to the French bishops, signed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, invited them to seek “concrete solutions” for those attached to the Vetus Ordo, while remaining faithful to the directions of the Second Vatican Council⁠.¹⁷

The Society of St. Pius X

Two days before the July 1 consecrations at Écône, Switzerland⁠,⁴ in a letter dated June 29, 2026, Pope Leo XIV wrote to the Society’s superior general, Father Davide Pagliarani: “I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!”⁠.²³ He warned that “the schismatic act you are about to undertake” would deprive the faithful “of the licit and, in some cases, even valid reception of the Sacraments,” and wrote that “The Church is open to a path of dialogue and understanding that the Holy Spirit can make possible and fruitful”⁠²³

The Dicastery’s explanatory note of July 2, 2026 states that “The sacred ministers belonging to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X are in schism,” that lay faithful “who formally adhere” to it “are to be considered schismatics,” and that its ministers “administer the sacraments illicitly, and that the sacrament of penance administered by them and marriages assisted by them are invalid”⁠.⁴ It ends with an open door: “The Church, as a caring mother, will welcome with sincere affection and lively solicitude all those who wish to return to full communion”⁠.⁴

Other bodies that use the name Catholic

The Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht describe themselves as “a family of nationally organised Catholic Churches that hold fast to the beliefs and practices of the early undivided Church”⁠.²⁴ Pope Francis received their bishops in 2014 and said the differences “are now more difficult to overcome due to the increasing distance between us on matters of ministry and ethical discernment”⁠.²⁵

The 2006 joint declaration of the Polish National Catholic and Roman Catholic dialogue says the two churches “recognize each other’s ecclesial character and sacraments”⁠.²⁶ In 1993 Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, stated that “members of the Polish National Catholic Church in the United States and Canada may receive the sacraments of Penance, Holy Communion and Anointing of the Sick” from Catholic priests⁠.²⁷

Dioceses warn of independent groups. The Archdiocese of Detroit lists churches that “are not in communion with Rome but represent that they are,” and states that knowingly joining one “compromises his or her good standing with the Catholic Church”⁠.²⁸ The Diocese of Providence advised that “except for the Sacrament of Baptism, any sacrament received in these” churches is invalid⁠.²⁹ The Palmarian Church holds, in its own words, that “Christ translated the See of His Church from Rome to El Palmar de Troya on the 9th of August 1978”⁠.³⁰

The Church in China

In 2018 the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China “signed a Provisional Agreement on the appointment of Bishops”⁠,³¹ renewed in 2020 and 2022, and in 2024 extended “for four years from the present date”⁠.³² Vatican News describes it as “allowing all bishops to be in full hierarchical communion with the Pope”⁠.³²

At a glance