Editing Full communion (section)

====Universal and particular Churches====
{{See also|Catholic particular churches and liturgical rites|Sui juris}}
In Catholicism, the "universal Church" means Catholicism itself, from the Greek adjective καθολικός ([[Catholic (term)|katholikos]]), meaning "universal".<ref>{{OED|Catholic}}</ref> The term [[particular church]] denotes an ecclesiastical community headed by a bishop or equivalent, and this can include both local [[dioceses]] as well as [[Autonomous particular Churches|autonomous (or ''sui juris'')]] particular churches, which include other rites such as the [[Latin Church]] and the [[Eastern Catholic Churches]].<ref name="Paul VI-1964">{{cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19641121_orientalium-ecclesiarum_en.html |title=Orientalium Ecclesiarum|author=Vatican II|date=21 November 1964 |website=vatican.va|publisher=Libreria Editrice Vaticana |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000901223734/https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19641121_orientalium-ecclesiarum_en.html |archive-date=1 September 2000 |access-date=26 August 2016}}</ref>

A 1992 [[Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith]] (CDF) letter to Catholic bishops expressed this idea as: {{" '}}''the universal Church cannot be conceived as the sum of the particular Churches, or as a federation of particular Churches''<nowiki/>'. 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".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_28051992_communionis-notio_en.html |title=Letter to the bishops of the Catholic Church on some aspects of the Church understood as communion |author=Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith |publisher=Libreria Editrice Vaticana |date=28 May 1992 |access-date=8 September 2015 |at=n. 9 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101215111210/https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_28051992_communionis-notio_en.html |archive-date=15 December 2010 }}</ref>