The Catholic Church is made of 23 "particular churches", otherwise known as "rites". As well as being head of the Latin Rite of the church (which is the largest with over 1 billion members), the Pope is ultimately the leader of 22 Eastern Catholic Churches, these churches are of the Orthodox tradition of Christianity and it is often the case that they have broken away from their Orthodox mother church to come into communion with (join) the Pope and submit to his authority as successor of St. Peter. The Eastern Catholic Churches are based all over the world, from the United States to the Middle East to India.