History
Byzantine Catholics in the United States were given sui iuris (self-governing) status as a Metropolia by Pope Paul VI in 1969. Archbishop Stephen Kocisko was installed as the first Metropolitan-Archbishop on June 11, 1969, at Holy Spirit Church in Oakland (Pittsburgh). He was the first prelate in the history of people from the Subcarpathian Rus region (of present day Ukraine and Slovakia), to hold this rank.
In 1924, the church had been established by the Holy See as an exarchate, known as the '"Apostolic Exarchate of Pittsburgh for Faithful of the Oriental Rite (Ruthenian)'". Exarchate is an ecclesiastical term which indicates a "missionary diocese" or territory.
This move separated the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church in the United States into two distinct groups: one for those originating from Galicia (in modern day Ukraine) with its see in Philadelphia, PA and the other for those who were from the Carpathian Mountain region (in modern day Ukraine and Slovakia), as well as those from Hungary and Croatia. In time, the two groups would come to be known as Ukrainian Greek Catholics and Ruthenian Byzantine Catholics, respectively. The Exarchate of Pittsburgh was elevated to the status of an eparchy in 1963.
Read more about this topic: Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy Of Pittsburgh
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