The Patriarchate of Antioch never recognized the mutual excommunications of Rome and Constantinople of 1054, so it was canonically still in union with both. After a disputed patriarchal election in 1724, it divided into two groups, one in union with Rome and the other with Constantinople. Today the term "Melkite" is in use mostly among the Greek Catholics of Syria and Lebanon. Like its sister-church the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch ('Eastern Orthodox'), the Melkite Greek Catholic Church uses both Greek and Arabic in its traditional liturgy. Most of the 375,000 Catholics in Syria belong to the Melkite Rite, the rest are Latin Rite, Maronites (52,000), Armenian or Syriac Rites.