What is the Name - Part 1

Melkite Catholic Church

What's in a name?

Over the years, as our Church developed and grew in the Middle East, there has been great fluidity in the use of names. Even today, there is a difference in terminology used in referring to our Church, between the Middle East and Western cultures such as Australia and New Zealand.

MANY NAMES

Today in the Western world our Church is called Melkite Catholic or Melkite Greek Catholic, whereas in the Middle East we are generally known as Room Katulcek (literally Roman Catholic). Similarly, those whom we call Antiochian or Greek Orthodox here are known as Room Orthodox (Roman Orthodox) in the Middle East. However, the word 'Room (Roman) refers not to the Rome in Italy, but to Constantinople (Byzantium), capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, which the Ancients also called New Rome. Those known as Roman Catholics in the West are called Lateen (Latins) in the Middle East.

Simply put, the proper distinction is between the Latin (Western, Rome) heritage/tradition and the Greek (Eastern, Byzantine, New Rome) heritage/tradition of the Church.

This often causes confusion when immigrants arrive from the Middle East and, with a literal translation, speak of themselves as Roman Catholics when they actually mean Room Katulcek. It is also confusing for others who come to our churches and are confronted with the multitude of names our Church uses. It is to help clarify some of this confusion that the following definitions are offered.

MELKITE

This term comes from the Semetic words for king, (melko, or melek). The king in this case was the Byzantine Emperor who supported the teachings of the Council of Chalcedon, held in AD 451. The opponents of this Council, most of whom were in the Middle East, called its supporters Royalists (rnalakiyeen). So the name, which today refers to the Byzantine Catholics of the Middle East, originally was an insult aimed at all Christians, both Eastern and Western, who supported the Council of Chalcedon.

GREEK (Room' in Arabic)

This word refers to the spiritual tradition of the Greek Fathers which our Church follows. At the time of Christ, Greek was the spoken language in the major cities of the Middle East. The New Testament and the writings of the most important Church Fathers were composed in Greek. In contrast, people in the rural areas spoke Aramaic or Syriac, the historic language of the Chaldean, Maronite and Syrian Churches. Only after the Muslim conquest of the Middle East did Arabic become the universal language of this area.

CATHOLIC

This word means universal. When we say that the Church is Catholic we mean that it teaches universally and completely the full Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. In contrast, sects stress one doctrine and exclude another.

St. Ignatius of Antioch in the second century AD is credited with being the first to describe the Church as Catholic. Thus the Greek-speaking Christians of the Middle East were the first to be called Catholics. And so to say that we are Melkite Greek Catholics means that we are a Church which:

• Is in harmony with the Chalcedonian teaching (Melkite);
• Follows the traditions of the Greek Fathers (Greek); and
• Is in the fullness of the Gospel (Catholic).
  

There are a number of other names associated with our heritage, although not part of the official name of our Church. These are:

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