Catholic Church

The Catholic Church consists of those churches in full communion with the Pope. It is divided into:

• the Latin Rite or Roman Catholic Church and

• the Eastern Rite or Eastern Catholic Church also known as the Uniate Church.

Confusingly, to avoid ambiguities discussed here, the whole Catholic Church, not just that part following the Latin rite, is sometimes referred to as the Roman Catholic Church.

Other churches also use the word catholic.

For more detail see also Catholicism.