When people refer to Catholics today, they often mean Roman Catholics. But, there are many other types of Catholics. Some are associated with cultural groups like Byzantine Catholics or Polish National Catholics while others such as Old Catholics span all cultures. While some groups are in union with Rome, their own bishops, in the tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church, for well over 200 years, have independently governed others.

    The Saint Maximilian Kolbe Pastoral Center is a Catholic community outside the institutional church, dedicated to making the world a more compassionate place. Guided by its own Bishops we celebrate the same sacraments and follow the spirit of reform initiated in Vatican Council II. During much of the first eleven hundred years after Jesus, there was only one church that developed different traditions. Everything from the way the Mass and sacraments were celebrated to the date of Easter and celibacy were interpreted differently.

    Even today, the Eastern and Western churches have many externals that are vastly different yet all celebrate the same sacraments and scripture. The institutional church of today can be traced, in part, to ongoing disagreements over papal supremacy in the 12th century resulting in a schism with the Eastern Church, reaction to the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century and the proclamation of papal infallibility in the 19th century, which created further schisms. All these events speak to the confusion of unity with uniformity.