Editing Full communion (section)

=== Catholic Church<!--[[Communion with Rome]] redirects here--> ===

====Full versus partial communion====

The [[Catholic Church]] makes a distinction between full and partial communion: where full communion exists, there is but the one Church; partial communion, on the other hand, exists where some elements of Christian faith are held in common, but complete unity on essentials is lacking. Accordingly, they see the Church as in partial communion with Protestants and in much closer, but still incomplete, communion with Orthodox Churches. It has expressed this distinction in documents such as ''[[Unitatis redintegratio]]'', the [[Second Vatican Council]]'s decree on [[ecumenism]], which states: "quite large communities came to be separated from full communion with the Catholic Church. [...] Men who believe in Christ and have been truly baptized are in communion with the Catholic Church even though this communion is imperfect".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Unitatis redintegratio |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19641121_unitatis-redintegratio_en.html |access-date=2023-02-22 |website=www.vatican.va}}</ref>

Nonetheless, the Second Vatican Council used the word "communion" in a sense other than ''communio in sacris'' when speaking of Christians separated from the Catholic Church. The ''[[Catechism of the Catholic Church]]'', citing the Second Vatican Council and [[Pope Paul VI]], states:<ref>{{CCC|pp=838}}</ref>

{{Quote|"The Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honoured by the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter" (''Lumen gentium'' 15). Those "who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church" (''Unitatis redintegratio'' 3). With the Orthodox Churches, this communion is so profound that it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Lord's Eucharist|author=|title=|source=}}

Full communion thus involves completeness of "those bonds of communion &ndash; faith, sacraments and pastoral governance &ndash; that permit the Faithful to receive the life of grace within the Church."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://clsa.org/content/files/USCCB_memo_2006_0405.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080309122847/http://clsa.org/content/files/USCCB_memo_2006_0405.pdf|archive-date=9 March 2008|title=Notification from Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts on the actus formalis defectionis}}</ref>

====Universal and particular Churches====
{{See also|Catholic particular churches and liturgical rites|Sui juris}}
In Catholicism, the "universal Church" means Catholicism itself, from the Greek adjective καθολικός ([[Catholic (term)|katholikos]]), meaning "universal".<ref>{{OED|Catholic}}</ref> The term [[particular church]] denotes an ecclesiastical community headed by a bishop or equivalent, and this can include both local [[dioceses]] as well as [[Autonomous particular Churches|autonomous (or ''sui juris'')]] particular churches, which include other rites such as the [[Latin Church]] and the [[Eastern Catholic Churches]].<ref name="Paul VI-1964">{{cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19641121_orientalium-ecclesiarum_en.html |title=Orientalium Ecclesiarum|author=Vatican II|date=21 November 1964 |website=vatican.va|publisher=Libreria Editrice Vaticana |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000901223734/https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19641121_orientalium-ecclesiarum_en.html |archive-date=1 September 2000 |access-date=26 August 2016}}</ref>

A 1992 [[Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith]] (CDF) letter to Catholic bishops expressed this idea as: {{" '}}''the universal Church cannot be conceived as the sum of the particular Churches, or as a federation of particular Churches''<nowiki/>'. It is not the result of the communion of the Churches, but, in its essential mystery, it is a reality ''ontologically'' and ''temporally'' prior to every ''individual'' particular Church".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_28051992_communionis-notio_en.html |title=Letter to the bishops of the Catholic Church on some aspects of the Church understood as communion |author=Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith |publisher=Libreria Editrice Vaticana |date=28 May 1992 |access-date=8 September 2015 |at=n. 9 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101215111210/https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_28051992_communionis-notio_en.html |archive-date=15 December 2010 }}</ref>

====List of Catholic churches in full communion====

The autonomous Catholic churches in full communion with the [[Holy See]] are:
*Of [[Alexandrian Rite|Alexandria]]n liturgical tradition:
**[[Coptic Catholic Church]]
**[[Eritrean Catholic Church]]
**[[Ethiopian Catholic Church]]
*Of [[West Syriac Rite|Syro-Antiochian or West Syriac]]  liturgical tradition:
**[[Maronite Church]]
**[[Syriac Catholic Church]]
**[[Syro-Malankara Catholic Church]]
*Of [[Armenian Rite|Armenian]] liturgical tradition:
**[[Armenian Catholic Church]]
*Of [[Byzantine Rite|Byzantine]] ([[Constantinople|Constantinopolitan]]) liturgical tradition:
**[[Albanian Greek Catholic Church]]
**[[Belarusian Greek Catholic Church]]
**[[Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church]]
**[[Greek Byzantine Catholic Church]]
**[[Greek Catholic Church of Croatia and Serbia]]
**[[Hungarian Greek Catholic Church]]
**[[Italo-Albanian Catholic Church]]
**[[Macedonian Greek Catholic Church]]
**[[Melkite Greek Catholic Church]]
**[[Romanian Greek Catholic Church]]
**[[Russian Greek Catholic Church]]
**[[Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church]]
**[[Slovak Greek Catholic Church]]
**[[Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church]]
*Of [[East Syriac Rite|Chaldean or East Syriac]] tradition:
**[[Chaldean Catholic Church]]
**[[Syro-Malabar Church]]
*Of Western liturgical tradition:
**[[Latin Church]]{{efn|Of the various [[Latin liturgical rites]] used within the Latin particular Church, even those associated not with a religious order but with a geographical area do not constitute separate particular Churches. Thus there is no ''Ambrosian particular Church'' corresponding to the [[Ambrosian Rite]] in use in Milan and neighbouring areas of Italy and Switzerland, nor is there a ''Mozarabic particular Church'' in those parts of Spain where the [[Mozarabic Rite]] is practiced. In the Latin Church, governance is uniform, even where liturgical rite is not.}}

====Sharing in the Eucharist====
{{canon law}}
{{See also|Communicatio in sacris}}

As a practical matter for most Catholics, full communion means that a member of one Church may partake of the [[Eucharist]] celebrated in another,<ref name="BostonCatholic"/> and for priests, that they are accepted as celebrants of the Eucharist in the other Church.

Restrictions in this matter were already in force in the second century as witnessed to by [[Justin Martyr]] in his ''[[First Apology]]'': "No one is allowed to partake (of the Eucharist) but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined."<ref>{{cite wikisource |editor1-last=Roberts |editor1-first=Alexander |editor2-last=Donaldson |editor2-first=James |editor3-last=Coxe |editor3-first=A. Cleveland |series=The Ante-Nicene Fathers: the writings of the fathers down to A.D. 325 |location=Buffalo |publisher=Christian Literature |edition=American |year=1870 |volume=2 |plaintitle=The writings of Justin Martyr and Athenagoras |author=Justin Martyr |translator=Marcus Dods |chapter=The First Apology of Justin Martyr |wslink=Ante-Nicene Christian Library |at=ch. 66}}</ref>

For acceptance into full communion with the Catholic Church a specific profession of the faith of the Catholic Church is required even of those who have been members of a separate church whose [[sacrament]]s the Catholic Church considers to be valid.<ref name="BostonCatholic">{{cite web |url=http://www.bostoncatholic.org/Offices-And-Services/Office-Detail.aspx?id=12446&pid=464 |title=RCIA and Confirmation Qualifications: On Participants in RCIA and Confirmation |website=bostoncatholic.org |publisher=Archdiocese of Boston |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151004233906/http://www.bostoncatholic.org/Offices-And-Services/Office-Detail.aspx?id=12446&pid=464 |archive-date=4 October 2015 |access-date=8 November 2015 }}</ref><ref name=McNam-2007>{{cite web |url=http://www.zenit.org/article-20753?l=english |title=When an Orthodox joins the Catholic Church |last1=McNamara |first1=Edward |location=Rome |website=Zenit.org |publisher= Innovative Media Inc |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090831204812/http://www.zenit.org/article-20753?l=english |archive-date=31 August 2009 |access-date=8 November 2015 }}</ref> Being "in full communion with the Catholic Church" requires that they "firmly accept" its teaching on faith and morals.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_1998_professio-fidei_en.html |title=Doctrinal Commentary on the Concluding Formula of the ''Professio fidei'' |last=Ratzinger |first=Joseph |author-link=Pope Benedict XVI |last2=Bertone |first2=Tarcisio |publisher=Libreria Editrice Vatican |date=29 June 1998 |access-date=26 August 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202223910/https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_1998_professio-fidei_en.html |archive-date=2 December 2013 }}</ref>

Intercommunion usually means an agreement between churches by which all members of each church (clergy with clergy, or laity with laity, respectively) may participate in the other's Eucharistic celebrations or may hold joint celebrations.<ref name="Gribble-2010">{{cite book |last=Gribble |first=Richard |title=The Everything Guide to Catholicism: A complete introduction to the beliefs, traditions, and tenets of the Catholic Church from past to present |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MwGJrUDcPjcC&pg=PA115 |access-date=7 November 2015 |date=18 November 2010 |publisher=Everything Books |location=Avon, Massacnusetts |isbn=978-1-4405-0409-9 |page=115 |chapter=Part IV: Roman Catholic Theology }}{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The Catholic Church has entered into no such agreement: it allows no Eucharistic [[concelebration]] by its clergy with clergy of churches not in full communion with it.{{efn|"Catholic priests are forbidden to [[concelebrate]] the Eucharist with priests or ministers of churches or ecclesial communities which do not have full communion with the Catholic Church{{CIC1983|908}}{{sfn|CCEO|1990|loc=c. 702}}}}

The Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism indicates the limited circumstances in which Catholics may receive the Eucharist from clergy of churches not in full communion (never if those churches are judged not to have valid [[apostolic succession]] and thus valid Eucharist), and in which Catholic clergy may administer the sacraments to members of other churches.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/general-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_19930325_directory_en.html |title=Principles And Norms On Ecumenism |publisher=Vatican.va |access-date=8 September 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100816040600/https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/general-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_19930325_directory_en.html |archive-date=16 August 2010 }}</ref>{{rp|at=nn. 122–136}}

The norms there indicated for the giving of the Eucharist to other Christians ({{lang|la|[[communicatio in sacris]]}}) are summarized in [[canon 844]] of the [[Latin Church]]'s [[1983 Code of Canon Law|1983 ''Code of Canon Law'']].{{CIC1983|844}} The ''[[Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches]]'' (CCEO) indicates that the norms of the Directory apply also to the clergy and laity of the [[Eastern Catholic Churches]].{{sfn|CCEO|1990|loc=cc. 908, 1440}}