Catholic Church

===Eastern rites===
{{Main|Catholic particular churches and liturgical rites#Eastern rites}}
[[File:Crowning in Syro-Malabar Nasrani Wedding by Mar Gregory Karotemprel.jpg|left|thumb|[[East Syrian Rite]] [[wedding crowning]] celebrated by a bishop of the [[Syro-Malabar Catholic Church]] in India, one of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in [[full communion]] with the pope and the Catholic Church]]
The Eastern Catholic Churches share common patrimony and liturgical rites as their counterparts, including [[Eastern Orthodox]] and other [[Eastern Christian]] churches who are no longer in communion with the Holy See. These include churches that historically developed in Russia, Caucasus, the Balkans, North Eastern Africa, India and the Middle East. The Eastern Catholic Churches are groups of faithful who have either never been out of communion with the Holy See or who have restored communion with it at the cost of breaking communion with their associates of the same tradition.<ref>{{cite CE1913 | wstitle = Eastern Churches | first = Adrian | last = Fortescue }} See "Eastern Catholic Churches"; In part: <!--quote-->"The definition of an Eastern-Rite Catholic is: A Christian of any Eastern Catholic churches in union with the pope: i.e. a Catholic who belongs not to the Roman, but to an Eastern rite. They differ from other Eastern Christians in that they are in communion with Rome, and from Latins in that they have other rites"<!--end quote--></ref>

The rites used by the Eastern Catholic Churches include the [[Byzantine Rite]], in its Antiochian, Greek and Slavonic varieties; the [[Alexandrian Rite]]; the [[West Syrian Rite|Syriac Rite]]; the [[Armenian Rite]]; the [[Maronite Rite]] and the [[Chaldean Rite]]. Eastern Catholic Churches have the autonomy to set the particulars of their liturgical forms and worship, within certain limits to protect the "accurate observance" of their liturgical tradition.<ref>{{cite web |title=''CCEO'', Canon 40 |publisher=Intratext.com (English translation) |date=1990 |url=http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG1199/_P14.HTM}}</ref> In the past some of the rites used by the Eastern Catholic Churches were subject to a degree of [[liturgical Latinization]]. However, in recent years Eastern Catholic Churches have returned to traditional Eastern practices in accord with the [[Second Vatican Council|Vatican II]] decree ''[[Orientalium Ecclesiarum]]''.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Parry|editor-first=Ken |editor2=David Melling|display-editors=etal |title=The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity |pages=357–385 |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |date=1999 |location=Malden, MA |isbn=978-0-631-23203-2}}</ref> Each church has its own [[liturgical calendar]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Eastern Rite Catholicism |url=http://ccky.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Eastern-Rite-Catholicism.pdf |publisher=Catholic Conference of Kentucky |access-date=4 April 2015 |archive-date=10 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150410005013/http://ccky.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Eastern-Rite-Catholicism.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>