Major Archiepiscopal Church sui iuris

The major archbishop is the metropolitan of a see determined or recognized by supreme ecclesiastical authority who presides over an entire Eastern Church sui iuris not distinguished by the patriarchal title. This is governance of a whole Church, not merely the metropolitan supervision of one Ecclesiastical Province. The Church includes its own eparchies, bishops, clergy, religious, faithful, synodal organs, law, and liturgical-spiritual patrimony.

CCEO canon 152 applies what common law says of patriarchal Churches and patriarchs to major archiepiscopal Churches and major archbishops unless the law expressly provides otherwise or the nature of the matter requires a distinction. The form therefore possesses extensive synodal self-government. Major archiepiscopal is not a sacramental degree between archbishop and patriarch and does not imply incomplete Catholicity or provisional status awaiting inevitable elevation.

Mutua concordia amended the patriarchal canons on synodal convocation and grave-cause removal on 29 August 2026. Because canon 152 extends patriarchal law to major archiepiscopal Churches by analogy, the reform also governs them unless a contrary norm or the nature of the office prevents application. The procedure joins synodal accountability, the head's right of defense, a qualified secret vote, papal assent, and the right of recourse.^[2]

This current discipline illustrates the form's real but not isolated self-government. The synod is neither an advisory conference that can be ignored at will nor a sovereign parliament over doctrine and communion. The major archbishop is father and head in an ecclesial office, while the bishops remain brothers in episcopal dignity and members of the governing synod. Law orders their common responsibility within communion with Rome.^[3]

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic, Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara, and Romanian Greek Catholic Churches are major archiepiscopal. They belong to different ritual families and histories: Byzantine, East Syriac, and West Syriac traditions are represented. Their demographic size, territorial arrangements, diaspora structures, and relations with neighboring Churches differ, so the shared canonical class should not be mistaken for cultural uniformity.

Patriarchs and Major Archbishops are often discussed together because their law is closely parallel, but titles and election procedures must remain visible. A directory should name the Church sui iuris, major archiepiscopal see, head, synod, canonical territory, and eparchies rather than call the head patriarch informally. Equal dignity among the Churches is served by accurate classification, not by promoting every title into the one perceived as grandest.