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The importance in Catholic theology of Communion with the Church of Rome is the reason why the Catholic Church as a whole, of which all the particular Churches, eastern or western, in full communion with Rome are considered part, is commonly designated ''Roman Catholic'', a term also used, though never officially by the Catholic Church itself, to refer only to its Latin Rite . The technical term "particular Church" thus has two distinct, though related, meanings. The )''. The 1990 ''Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches'', which is instead concerned above all with particular Churches in this second meaning, has shortened this phrase to "autonomous Church" (in Latin, ''Ecclesia Sui Iuris ''), as in its canon 27: "A group of Christ’s faithful hierarchically linked in accordance with law and given express or tacit recognition by the supreme authority of the Church is in this Code called an autonomous Church." Communion between particular Churches has existed since the 2 , Rev 1:8 , etc.), because, although they are particular, the universal Church becomes present in them with all its essential elements (33: Cf. PONTIFICAL BIBLICAL COMMISSION , Unité et diversité dans l'Eglise, Lib. Ed. Vaticana 1989, especially, pp. 14-28.)" ( Communionis Notio, 7 ). The Catholic Church as a whole is more than just the sum of the particular Churches ("dioceses" or "rites") within it: "The particular Churches, insofar as they are'' 'part of the one Church of Christ' ''(Second Vatican Council: Decree ''Christus Dominus'', 6/c), have a special relationship of ''mutual interiority'' with the whole, that is, with the universal Church, because in every particular Church'' 'the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christ is truly present and active' ''(Second Vatican Council: Decree ''Christus Dominus'', 11/a). For this reason, ''the universal Church cannot be conceived as the sum of the particular Churches, or as a federation of particular Churches''. It is not the result of the communion of the Churches, but, in its essential mystery, it is a reality ''ontologically'' and ''temporally'' prior to every ''individual'' particular Church" ( Communionis Notio, 9 ). Obviously, the phrase "particular Church" can be used also in a non-technical sense. If people speak of "their own particular Church", they are not necessarily giving the phrase the precise canonical and theological meaning considered here. And if the words "particular church" refer to a building and not to a body of Christians, the meaning is, of course, completely different. EXTERNAL LINKS
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