Eastern Catholic Churches in the US

According to the list on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, there are currently 15 Eastern Rite Eparchies (dioceses) and 2 Arch-eparchies (archdiocese) in the USA. I was surprised there were this many, as I was familiar with only a few of them by name.

I have endeavored to add links to the official websites of all such eparchies as I could find. There were a few that appeared to have no office website, as far as I (or more precisely Google) could find. Each of them has some interesting information to peruse. It is worth it just to go and look at the various ecclesiastical vestments of the various bishops. They know snappy vestments in the East.

They are as follows:

Eastern Rite Eparchies
1. St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Diocese of Chicago (Illinois)
2. Eparchy of St. George in Canton for the Romanians (Ohio)
3. Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Stamford (Connecticut)
4. Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic (New Jersey)
5. Holy Protection of Mary Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix (Arizona)
6. Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance Syriac Catholic Diocese in the U.S. and Canada (New Jersey)
7. Chaldean Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle of Detroit (Michigan)
8. Chaldean Eparchy of St. Peter the Apostle, San Diego (California)
9. Eparchy of Parma, Ohio (Ruthenian)
10. Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn (New York)
11. Eparchy of Our Lady of Nareg in New York of Armenian Catholics
12. Eparchy of Newton, Our Lady of the Annunciation, Boston (Melkite Greek)(Massachusetts)
13. Eparchy of St. Nicholas in Chicago for Ukrainians (Illinois)
14. Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon (Maronite)
15. Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of St. Josaphat, Parma (Ohio)

Eastern Rite Archeparchies
Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia (Pennsylvania)
Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania)

Also noted on the USCCB website were the following statements:

"Eastern Catholic Churches are churches with origins in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa that have their own distinctive liturgical, legal and organizational systems and are identified by the national or ethnic character of their region of origin. Each is considered fully equal to the Latin tradition within the church. In the United States, there are 15 Eastern church dioceses (called eparchies) and two Eastern church archdioceses (or archeparchies), the Byzantine Catholic Archdiocese of Pittsburgh and the Ukrainian Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

 "The apostolic exarchate for the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church in the United States is headed by a bishop who is a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. An apostolic exarchate is the Eastern Catholic Church equivalent of an apostolic vicariate. It is not a full-fledged diocese/eparchy, but is established by the Holy See for the pastoral care of Eastern Catholics in an area outside the territory of the Eastern Catholic Church to which they belong. It is headed by a bishop or a priest with the title of exarch."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thoughts on the 'Connecticut 6'

For some weeks, I have had several friends (mostly non-Episcopalians surprisingly) wanting me to voice an opinion on this Connecticut 6 (sounds like a fleabag motel) business. If you are unfamiliar with this fiasco, for lack of a better term, let me describe it as best as I understand it. There is so much spin going on (from both sides I might add) that I have been having trouble discerning fact from fiction. As I understand the situation, the Rt. Rev. Andrew Smith is the Bishop of Connecticut. Well, at least he has a pointy hat, I do not think he is particularly acting like one. Likewise, as I understand, there are Six rectors of churches (at least they have collars, but likewise are not acting like it) that have applied for DEPO oversight (i.e. another Bishop to oversee them.) The best way I know how to describe the hoohah is as follows: The Feloniously Rev. Smith is trying to defrock the Superciliously Reverend Rectors. Darth Smith claims they have abandoned communion and has shadil...
Read more

My board gaming journey, pt. I

Image
     Something a bit different today than my normal reflections. I thought I would delve a little bit more into a topic that is not necessarily theological in nature. I am a real person, and not some ethereal doctor in an ivory tower who gets to smoke a pipe and contemplate the infinite mysteries all day. So, today, I thought I would delve into one of my personal hobbies: board gaming.      Now, do not tune me out because you hear "board gaming" and immediately default in your brain to your brother overturning a table with Monopoly money flying everywhere because the game has gone on for hours and overturning the table was the only option left other than murder. Most people, including myself at one time, thought of board games as those boring or frustrating games that seem stuck in 1952. You know the usual suspects: Clue!, Monopoly, Scrabble, Chess, maybe even more saccharine games like Life or Candy Land, i.e. those games that everyone owned at some p...
Read more

The History of the Football helmet

Image
NCAA.com put out an interesting editorial about the evolution of the football helmet that can be found here . This is in part due in my estimation to the current buzz (one might go so far as to describe it as hysteria) about concussions in contact sports, particularly football. I have always found this an interesting evolution. Long gone are the days of strapping on your leather helmet: In the 50's and 60's, the helmet evolved into, basically becoming a metal then hard plastic version of the leather helmet with the addition of a rudimentary face mask (which was really just a bar at first): Gradually, the helmet's face mask itself began to evolve: Combines with new space age style lightweight plastics and foams, the helmet mask ultimately became a type of full, goalie style face mask (This little number costs just under $1000 to purchase new): Ironically, being a military history major, the football helmet evolution followed the pattern of design that helmets worn...
Read more