The Melkite Greek Catholic Church (Arabic: كنيسة الروم الكاثوليك‎, Kanīsät ar-Rūm al-Kāṯūlīk) is an Eastern Catholic sui juris particular Church in full union with the Roman Catholic Church. The church's origins lie in the Near East, but, today, Melkite Catholics are spread throughout the world. At present there is a worldwide membership of approximately 1.3 million.[ The Melkite Church has a high degree of ethnic homogeneity but its patriarch, its episcopate, its clergy and many of its faithful, are Arabic, French, English, and Spanish speaking. The church is a product of a schism within the Antiochian Orthodox Church in 1724 triggered when the pro-Western Seraphim Tanas was elected patriarch as Cyril VI in a move which was seen by the patriarch of Constantinople as a pro-Catholic coup. T