Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh

Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church Of Pittsburgh

The Byzantine Catholic Metropolia of Pittsburgh (Latin: Pittsburgensis ritus byzantini) is an autonomous Byzantine Rite particular church of the Catholic Church, originally serving members of the Ruthenian Catholic Church (mostly Rusyns from the Carpathian Mountains, but also Hungarians and Slovaks) and their descendants in the United States. It is to be distinguished from the Latin Rite Diocese of Pittsburgh.

The Metropolia itself has four components:

• Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh (60,200 faithful, 84 parishes, 83 priests)
• Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma (12,401 faithful, 37 parishes, 38 priests)
• Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic (24,031 faithful, 89 parishes, 84 priests)
• Holy Protection of Mary Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix (2,849 faithful, 19 parishes, 25 priests).

Although Rusyn Americans constitute the majority of members of the Metropolia, the Church has ordinary jurisdiction over the faithful of certain Churches within the Slavic Tradition of the Byzantine Rite that do not have an established hierarchy in the United States, specifically those of the Hungarian, Slovak, and Croatian Greek-Catholic Churches.

When the Ruthenian Catholic Church in Europe was under atheistic Communist rule, and because of persecution, unable to organize publicly, the impossibility of regular communication with it meant that the distant American Metropolia, unable to be treated as a normal metropolia of an Eastern Rite Catholic Church (canons 133–139 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches), has been treated as a sui iuris (autonomous) Metropolitan Church (canons 155–173 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches). The Holy See's Annuario Pontificio has, however, always listed it not as a separate particular Church but as a Metropolia of the Ruthenian Church.