Latin Church

The Latin Church is part of the Catholic Church. It is described as an autonomous or sui iuris particular church. There are several such autonomous particular churches within the Catholic Church. Other examples are the Maronite Church, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. They differ from each other in liturgy (ceremonies, vestments, chants, language), devotional traditions, theology, canon law, and pastors (even if in the same territory as another), but they all hold the same faith, and all see union with the bishop of Rome, the pope, as essential to being a Catholic.

The Latin Church is the largest of these, with a membership far greater than all the others taken together. It arose in Western Europe and North Africa, an area throughout which Latin was once understood and spoken by every formally educated person. It is sometimes called the Western Church. All the other autonomous particular churches, of which there are 23, originated farther east and are, therefore, collectively known as the Eastern Catholic Churches. Because of the facility with which people can nowadays take up residence in a different country, members of all of these autonomous particular churches are no longer confined to their areas of origin and can be found all over the world.