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| Albanian Greek Catholic Church | |
|---|---|
 Cathedral of St. Mary and St. Louis inVlorë | |
| Type | Particular church (sui iuris) |
| Classification | Christian |
| Orientation | Eastern Catholic |
| Polity | Episcopal |
| Governance | Apostolic administration |
| Pope | Leo XIV |
| Apostolic Administrator | Giovanni Peragine |
| Associations | Congregation for the Oriental Churches |
| Region | SouthernAlbania |
| Liturgy | Byzantine Rite |
| Headquarters | Elbasan |
| Congregations | 9 |
| Members | 3,845[citation needed] |
| Ministers | 12 |
| Other name | Apostolic Administration of Southern Albania |
TheAlbanian Greek Catholic Church,[a] or theAlbanian Byzantine Catholic Church, is an autonomous (sui iuris in Latin)Byzantine Riteparticular church infull communion with theCatholic Church and thePope ofRome, whose members live inAlbania and which comprises theApostolic Administration of Southern Albania. The Albanian Greek Catholic Church, with itsByzantine Rite, is closely linked to theItalo-Albanian Catholic Church sharing a significant commonality of history, identity and traditions.
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| Albanians |
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The conversion toChristianity of Albania took place underLatin Christianity (and itsRoman Rite liturgy) influence in the north andByzantine Christianity in the south. Christianity was the first and the oldest monotheistic religion of Albanian people. After the fifteenth-century Ottoman conquest, some two thirds of the population acceptedIslam. In 1967,Communist-ruled Albania was officially declared an atheist state.
Though the Greek liturgical rite was used in many of its churches, Albania was part of thepatriarchate of Rome until 731, whenByzantine EmperorLeo III, in reprisal for the opposition ofPope Gregory III to the emperor'siconoclast policy, attached the whole ofEastern Illyricum to thepatriarchate of Constantinople.
Catholics of the Latin Church were long established in the north of the country. A Catholic mission worked in the south between 1660, when the Orthodox archbishop joined the Catholic Church, to 1765 when the effort was abandoned because of obstacles placed by the Ottoman rulers. In 1895 a group of villages in Mali Shpati, southeast ofElbasan in central Albania, decided to become Catholic and demanded a bishop of their own rite, a proposal to which the consular representatives of Russia and Montenegro raised objections with the civil authorities. At about the same time, another group of Greek Catholics arose, centred on anarchimandrite,George Germanos, who was a nephew of the Orthodox metropolitan in 1900, and concluded a definitive movement of Catholic unity formed in Elbasan. Numbers grew only to a small extent, but enough for southern Albania to become in 1939 aseparate ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the care of anApostolic Administrator. However, after less than seven years, the administrator was expelled, and contact seemed lost with the Byzantine faithful, who found themselves under strict Communist rule.
Only in 1992 was it possible to appoint a new apostolic administrator. At first the post was given to the Holy See's diplomatic representative inTirana, ArchbishopIvan Dias, who later became Archbishop ofMumbai and acardinal. Archbishop Dias's successor as Apostolic Administrator of Southern Albania, not as Nuncio, is the Croatian-born Byzantine-RiteFranciscan bishopHil Kabashi [sq], who was appointed in 1996.
By 1998 there were no parishes or priests for the few Byzantine Catholic faithful. Later a small Byzantine parish was established in Elbasan, the same place where Friar Jorgji Germanos settled in 1900. Josif Papamihali was beatified in Shkodër on November 5, 2016.
The apostolic administratorship of Southern Albania has 3,200 Catholics in nine parishes, with 11 churches, and is served by four diocesan and 10 religious priests, 10 male and 97 female religious, who administer 10 schools and 20 charitable institutions. The great majority of these are of the Latin Church.[citation needed]
| Patriarchal churches |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Major archiepiscopal churches | ||||||
| Metropolitan churches | ||||||
| Othersui iuris churches | ||||||
| Province of Shkodër–Pult |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Province of Tiranë–Durrës | ||
| Churches | ||
| Albanian Byzantine | ||
| Saints | ||
| Blessed | ||
| Orders | ||
| Former dioceses | ||
| See also | ||
