Latin Christendom

Latin Church
Latin: Ecclesia Latina
St. Peter's Basilica, burial place of Saint Peter
Classification	Catholic
Orientation	Western Christianity
Polity	Episcopal
Leader	Pope Francis
Region	Rome and worldwide
Origin	1st century
Merger of	Catholic Church
Separations	Protestantism, Anglicanism, Old Catholicism
Members	1.197 billion (December 2011)
Other name(s)	Latin Catholic Church
Official website	www.vatican.va

The Latin Church, sometimes called the Western Church, is the largest autonomous particular church sui iuris within the Catholic Church, applying Latin liturgical rites. There are 24 such sui iuris particular churches within the Catholic Church, the others being Eastern Catholic Churches. They differ from each other in liturgical rite (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 full communion with the Pope as Bishop of Rome as essential to being a Catholic.

The Latin Church, being the largest of these with a membership far greater than all the others combined, arose in Western Europe and North Africa, an area once encompassed by the Roman Empire, throughout which Latin was widely understood and spoken. All the other particular churches sui iuris, of which there are 23, originated farther east and are, therefore, collectively known as the Eastern Catholic Churches. Because of the population migrations, members of all of these particular churches sui iuris are no longer confined to their areas of origin and can be found all over the world.

The 1990 Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches defines the use within that code of the words "church" and "rite" as follows:

In accordance with these definitions of usage within the code that governs the Eastern Catholic churches, the Latin Church is one such group of Christian faithful united by a hierarchy and recognized by the supreme authority of the Catholic Church as a sui iuris particular church. The Latin rite is the whole of the patrimony of that distinct particular church, by which it manifests its own manner of living the faith, including its own liturgy, its theology, its spiritual practices and traditions and its canon law.