Eparchy is an Eastern Catholic Particular Church: a portion of the People of God entrusted to an eparchial bishop with the cooperation of the presbyterate and gathered by the Gospel and Eucharist in the Holy Spirit.
The Eastern Particular Church
CCEO canon 177 uses substantially the same ecclesiological formula that Latin canon 369 applies to a Diocese. The eparchy is not a regional office of a Church sui iuris but a true Particular Church in which the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church of Christ is present and operative around its bishop, presbyterate, Gospel, and Eucharist.
An eparchy belongs to a Church sui iuris, but the two terms are not interchangeable. A large patriarchal or major archiepiscopal Church contains many eparchies; a small Church sui iuris may have only one primary jurisdiction. Neither numerical size nor ethnic composition settles the distinct canonical questions.
Eparchy and Diocese
Eparchy is the ordinary Eastern counterpart of Diocese, not a lesser missionary grade. Their codes and institutions are not identical, so Latin terminology should not be imposed mechanically. Both nevertheless name episcopally governed Particular Churches and share the doctrinal structure taught by Vatican II.[1]
Eparchy and Exarchate
An Exarchate is a portion not erected as an eparchy because of special circumstances. Its law generally follows eparchial law with adaptations, but that equivalence does not erase the difference expressed in the decree of erection or make an exarch automatically an eparchial bishop.
Erection and episcopal government
Within the proper territory of a patriarchal Church, erection, alteration, and suppression follow the competencies of the patriarch and Synod of Bishops established by the Eastern code. In other cases those acts belong to the Apostolic See. No group acquires eparchial status merely by customary usage or civil incorporation.[2]
The eparchial bishop governs in his own name as vicar and legate of Christ with ordinary, proper, and immediate power, while remaining within Hierarchical Communion and subject to powers reserved by universal law. His office is neither delegated branch management nor independent sovereignty.[3][4]
Patrimony and overlapping care
An eparchy normally serves faithful ascribed to its Church sui iuris and preserves that Church's liturgical, theological, spiritual, and disciplinary patrimony. In diaspora several Catholic jurisdictions can overlap territorially by Church, rite, or personal criterion without dividing the unity of the Catholic Church.
The eparchy itself, its episcopal see, its curia, and the wider Church sui iuris are distinct. A bishop can hold a titular Eparchy without governing its present faithful, and an apostolic administrator can govern an existing eparchy without converting it into an Apostolic Administration.
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
Eparchy (eparchia) was originally the name of one of the divisions of the Roman Empire. Diocletian (284-305) and Maximian divided the empire into four great Prefectures (Gaul, Italy, Illyricum, and the East). Each was subdivided into (civil) Dioceses, and these again into Eparchies under governors (proesides, hegemones). The Church accepted this division as a convenient one for her use. The Prefectures of Gaul, Italy, and Illyricum made up the Roman Patriarchate; the Prefecture of the East was divided (in the fourth century) between the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch and three exarchs. The Diocese of Egypt was the Patriarchate of Alexandria, the Diocese of the East (not to be confused with the Prefecture of the East) became that of Antioch. Asia was under the Exarch of Ephesus, Pontus under Cappadocia, and Thrace under Heraclea. Under these patriarchates and exarchates came the eparchies under metropolitans; they had under them the bishops of the various cities. The original ecclesiastical eparchies then were provinces, each under a metropolitan. The First Council of Nicaea (325) accepts this arrangement and orders that: "the authority [of appointing bishops] shall belong to the metropolitan in each eparchy" (can. iv). That is to say that in each such civil eparchy there shall be a metropolitan bishop who shall have authority over the others. This is the origin of our provinces. Later in Eastern Christendom the use of the word was gradually modified and now it means generally the diocese of a simple bishop. The name Eparchy is, however, not commonly used except in Russia. There it is the usual one for a diocese. The Russian Church now counts eighty-six eparchies, of which three (Kiev, Moscow, and St. Petersburg) are ruled by bishops who always bear the title "Metropolitan", and fourteen others are under archbishops.[5]
ADRIAN FORTESCUE
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 Canons of the Eastern Churches, canons 55–322 — The official Eastern code on patriarchal territory, eparchies, eparchial bishops, exarchies, exarchs, and assemblies of hierarchs
- 3.Lumen gentium — Vatican II's dogmatic constitution on the universal Church, particular Churches, episcopal office, hierarchical communion, and incorporation
- 4.Communionis notio — The CDF letter on visible and invisible ecclesial communion and the mutual interiority of the universal and particular Churches
- 5.1913 Catholic Encyclopedia: Eparchy