# Melkite Greek Catholic Church The Melkite Greek Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic church of the Byzantine Rite in full communion with Rome, historically centered in the Levant and the Patriarchate of Antioch. It enters [[The Octopus]] frame through [[Paul Weyrich]], a founding architect of the modern American religious right, who joined it and served as a deacon. ## Background and the Weyrich link The Melkite church accepts papal authority while retaining Byzantine liturgy; it entered communion with Rome in 1724, splitting from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch. [[Paul Weyrich]] -- co-founder of the Heritage Foundation and a coiner of "Moral Majority" -- was raised Roman Catholic but converted to the Melkite church after the [[Second Vatican Council]] and was ordained a deacon. His move was a traditionalist gesture: an older liturgical form while remaining loyal to Rome, an Eastern-Rite alternative to the vernacularized Mass. ## Epistemic status The church's history and Weyrich's deaconate are documented. Its relevance here is the personal link between movement-conservative machinery and Vatican II-era liturgical traditionalism; the church's Levantine roots are a thematic, not conspiratorial, connection and should not be overread. ## See also - [[The Octopus]] - [[Paul Weyrich]] - [[Second Vatican Council]] - [[Vatican]]