several, and members of several are now joined under one. The geographical idea is completely lost. A Maronite remains a Maronite, is still subject to the Maronite hierarchy, wherever he may dwell. Even in America immigration of Catholics of Eastern rites has led to the formation of groups there, corresponding to those in their original homes.
In the Levant the various Uniate groups are interlaced all over the various countries. There are Maronite communities in Egypt and Cyprus. In Syria especially, you may find representatives of nearly all the Uniate Churches, often in the same town. Each has its own hierarchy. The Patriarchs provide priests, and, where necessary, bishops for their own people, wherever there are enough of these people to make it necessary. So we find, not only bishops of the various sects as rivals in one town (that is not surprising), but, what at first does seem strange, several Catholic bishops bearing the same local title, residing in the same town. Yet these Catholic sharers of one title are, of course, not rivals. There is no case of cross-jurisdiction. No man can be subject to several claimants for his allegiance at the same time. Each hierarchy exists only for, rules only, its own "nation." The only modification of the ancient principle is that the various Patriarchates are no longer divided geographically. Now, as before, there are various groups of Catholics, each subject to its own Patriarch. Only the groups live together in the same cities. It is true that the groups themselves are no longer quite the same as they were. The ancient Church, for instance, knew nothing of such distinctions as those between a Copt and a Melkite, a Syrian Uniate and a Maronite. We have already explained how these came about.
In view of the controversial capital which people sometimes make out of the presence of several Catholic bishops in one place, it is important to member that these do not involve any kind of cross-jurisdiction or rivalry. Each rules his own people, as do our bishops in the West. The only difference is that the subjects of different bishops live side by side in the same towns.
So, in the Catholic Church too, as far as the East is concerned, we must reverse the old principle, at any rate as a practical expedient. Instead of saying that rite follows Patriarchate (with the idea that you obey and use the rite of the Patriarch in whose territory you live), we must now conceive the situation that Patriarchate follows rite. A man belongs to a certain rite, wherever he may live. His rite is determined
