Archeparchy is an Eastern Catholic eparchy accorded archiepiscopal rank, commonly because it is a metropolitan see, a principal see of a Church sui iuris, or a historically distinguished jurisdiction.
An eparchy of archiepiscopal rank
The underlying local Church remains an Eparchy in the canonical sense of CCEO canon 177. Archeparchy marks its archiepiscopal dignity and institutional place; it does not create another sacramental grade above the episcopate or transform the jurisdiction into a separate Church sui iuris.[1]
Official acts may elevate an eparchy to a metropolitan archeparchy, retain an ancient archeparchial title, or attach the principal see of a patriarchal or major archiepiscopal Church to an archbishop. The act and the applicable Eastern law, not the word arch alone, establish the resulting rights and obligations.
Metropolitan archeparchy
A metropolitan archeparchy is the see of a metropolitan within an ecclesiastical province or, in a metropolitan Church sui iuris, the determining see of the hierarch who heads that entire Church. These are distinct structures even though both use metropolitan language; one must identify the governing code and erection act.
Major archeparchy and principal see
The head of a Major Archiepiscopal Church governs the whole Church sui iuris under canons analogous to those for a patriarch, while also holding a determinate see. Major archiepiscopal describes the entire Church and its head; archeparchy describes a Particular Church or see. Collapsing the two obscures synodal and local authority.
Archbishop and jurisdiction
An archbishop governing an archeparchy exercises the episcopal authority proper to that Particular Church. Additional metropolitan, patriarchal, or curial competencies arise from another office and its law. The title archbishop alone does not prove that its bearer heads an ecclesiastical province or a Church sui iuris.[2]
A titular archbishop can be assigned an ancient archeparchial title without governing the present territory, while an apostolic administrator can temporarily govern an archeparchy without possessing its title as ordinary. Title, ordination, office, and jurisdiction remain separate.
Names and reliable classification
English sources vary between archeparchy and archieparchy. Both point to the Eastern institution, but one spelling should be canonical for navigation and the other supplied as a redirect. Historical Latin forms and local-language titles may be recorded in the lead or infobox.
An archeparchy is identified by its Church sui iuris, liturgical tradition, metropolitan or suffragan relation, territory or personal scope, cathedral, erection and elevation acts, and succession of hierarchs. Current rank cannot be inferred from an obsolete directory or from an archbishop's personal honorific.[3]
References
- 1.Orientalium Ecclesiarum — Vatican II's decree on the dignity and patrimony of the Eastern Catholic Churches and the reception of separated Eastern Christians
- 2.Code of Canon Law, canons 431–459 — Binding Latin law on ecclesiastical provinces, ecclesiastical regions, metropolitans, particular councils, and episcopal conferences
- 3.Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, canons 55–322 — The official Eastern code on patriarchal territory, eparchies, eparchial bishops, exarchies, exarchs, and assemblies of hierarchs