The Catholic Church the world over is at the same time, both "one" and diverse. It is "one" because it has one Supreme Head, the Pope, one faith and the same seven sacraments throughout the world. But the different nations and peoples in the Church express the one faith, and receive the same sacraments in different ways and with different customs. They are referred to as a "Local Church." The way of celebrating the Eucharist, feast days, times of fasting and many other things are different too. Each local Church that has its own special customs and ways of expressing the faith; we call a RITE of the Church. The different Rites (of which there are eighteen) come under two principal groups: Western and Eastern Rites. Among the Western Rites, the Roman or Latin Rite embraces the largest number of Catholics. Among the Eastern Rites, the Byzantine Rite is the largest, and our Ukrainian Catholic Rite is part of it.
