Big Sheepfold: This Sunday is Good Shepherd Sunday - In the forefront of Vatican City in Rome, Bernini’s colonnades stretch forth from the entrance of Saint Peter’s Basilica in the form of enormous arms, as if to form a gigantic “embrace” of the people within. It was the artist’s conception of sheepfold of all peoples. This week’s gospel message centers on the “Good Shepherd.” He says, “I know mine, and mine know me.” Who are Jesus’ sheep? Christians, those who are baptized. Jesus’ “mine” are more than solely Catholic, it includes all Christians who are baptized. The Catechism teaches, CCC754 "The Church is, accordingly, a sheepfold, the sole and necessary gateway to which is Christ. It is also the flock of which God himself foretold that he would be the shepherd, and whose sheep, even though governed by human shepherds, are unfailingly nourished and led by Christ himself, the Good Shepherd and Prince of Shepherds, who gave his life for his sheep.” The Church, we should note refers to the two main Apostolic Churches founded by Jesus – Roman Catholic (Saint Peter) and Christian Orthodox, who also known as Eastern Orthodox (Saint Andrew).
Byzantine Church: Life is rarely tidy, thus we must include 22 other churches that have apostolic origins and over the centuries have attached themselves to the Church of Rome. Some of these were break-off congregations of various Orthodox Christian Churches. The following Churches follow Pope Francis. They are known as the, namely: 1. Coptic Catholic Church (in Cairo), 2.Maronite Church (in Lebanon), 3. Syriac Catholic Church (in Beirut), 4. Armenian Catholic Church (in Beirut), 5. Chaldean Catholic Church (in Baghdad), 6. Melkite Greek Catholic Church (in Damascus), 7. Syro-Malankara Catholic Church (in India), 8. Syro-Malabar Church (in India), 9. Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek Catholic (in Romania), 10. Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (in Ukraine), 11. Ethiopian Catholic Church (in Ethiopia), 12. Ruthenian Catholic Church (in Pittsburg, PA), 13. Slovak Greek Catholic Church (in Czech Republic), 14. Albanian Greek Catholic Church (in Albania), 15. Belarusian Greek Catholic Church (in Belarus), 16.Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church (in Bulgaria), 17. Byzantine Church of the Eparchy of Križevci (in Croatia), 18. Greek Byzantine Catholic Church (in Greece), 19. Hungarian Greek Catholic Church (in Hungary), 20. Italo-Albanian Catholic Church (in Italy), 21. Macedonian Greek Catholic Church (in Republic of Macedonia), 22. Russian Catholic Church (in Russia & China). All of these above-listed churches have all 7 sacraments, such as Eucharist, Priesthood etc. They share one creed. They share one Sacred Scripture. Their foundation is upon the ministry of one of the Twelve Apostles. As such, they enjoy the fullness of means of sanctification.
Eastern Orthodox Churches split off from union with the Catholic Church in the Great Schism of 1054. These handfuls of churches are led by their regional leader, or “Patriarch”; they do not follow Pope Francis. Some of the larger of these are: Greek Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodox Church, and Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Very similar to us Catholics, they all share the same basic doctrine, they all have 7 sacraments. Eastern Orthodox Christian can receive Catholic sacraments in some circumstances – namely Penance, Eucharist and Anointing of the Sick. (See Canon Law 844 § 3)
Our Protestant Brethren, those “separated ecclesiastical communities” which have broken off from the apostolic churches, are numerous. We hold that they have less than the complete means sanctification. However, they baptize with water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and most base themselves on the bible. They are truly followers of Jesus Christ; yet lacking in some way. We hold that, our Protestant brethren “subsist” in the embrace of the The Church. As a general rule though we share baptism with our Protestant brethren we do not share other sacraments with them – though a rare exception can occur (See Canon Law 844 § 3)
So how big is the Sheepfold? Well about 2.5 billion, of which 1.39 billion are Catholic Christians, about 220-250 million Orthodox Christian; about 800 million Protestant Christians. We calculate the world population to be about 8 billion persons, thus we can see that Jesus wishes that we share Him with many others who do not yet know Him through evangelization.
Fr. Charles