page_title: Italo-Albanian Catholic Church
section_title: Organisation
hierarchical_section_title: Italo-Albanian Catholic Church / Organisation
caption_attribution_description: Shqip: Brënda të Katedraljës e Shën Mitrit të Madhit Dëshmor në Horës së Arbëreshëvet. Italiano: Interno della Cattedrale di San Demetrio Megalomartire di Piana degli Albanesi. English: Interior of the Cathedral of St. Great Martyr Demetrius of Piana degli Albanesi.
context_page_description: The Italo-Albanian Catholic Church, Italo-Albanian Byzantine Catholic Church or Italo-Albanian Church, is one of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches which, together with the Latin Church, compose the Catholic Church. It is a particular church that is autonomous, using the Byzantine Rite and the ancient Greek language or the Albanian language for the liturgy, whose Italo-Albanian members are concentrated in Southern Italy, and Sicily.
  The Italo-Albanian Church is in full communion with the Pope of Rome, directly subject to the Roman Congregation for the Oriental Churches, but follows the ritual and spiritual traditions that are common in most of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Church members are the descendants of the exiled Albanians who fled to Italy in the 15th century under the pressure of the Turkish persecutions in Albania and the territories inhabited by Albanians in the Balkans and the Peloponnese. The Albanian population in Italy has maintained until today the language, customs and religious rites of their origin.
context_section_description: There are three ecclesiastical jurisdictions composing the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church:
  Eparchy of Lungro degli Italo-Albanesi
  Eparchy of Piana degli Albanesi
  Territorial Abbacy of Santa Maria of Grottaferrata
  The eparchies themselves have not been organized as a Metropolitan church, and remain on an equal footing, directly subject to the Holy See.
  These eparchies allow the ordination of married men as priests, and they also govern a few Latin Church parishes within the respective territories of the eparchies.
  As of 2010, the church's membership was estimated at approximately 61,000 faithful, with two bishops, 45 parishes, 82 priests, 5 deacons, and 207 religious brothers and sisters.
  In the church there are the following religious institutions: the Italo-Albanian Basilian Monks Order of Grottaferrata (present in Lazio, Calabria and Sicily), the Suore Collegine della Sacra Famiglia, and the congregation of the Italo-Albanian Basilian Sisters Figlie di Santa Macrina (present in Sicily, Calabria, Albania and Kosovo).
  Italo-Albanian communities were formed in the cities of Milan, Turin, Rome, Naples, Bari, Lecce, Crotone, Cosenza and Palermo, as well as in Switzerland, Germany, United States, Canada, Argentina and Brazil. They depend, however, on Latin dioceses and only in some cases is the Byzantine liturgy celebrated. Over the centuries, albeit limited, there have been contacts religious between Albanians of Italy with the Christian East (monasteries of Crete) and Albania (Archdiocese of Shkodër, Durrës, Himarë). Important is the spiritual and cultural contribution of the monks and ieromonaci Albanians in the monastery of Grottaferrata.
  Outside of Italy there are some diaspora communities Italo-Albanian organized in religious associations and parishes.
  In the United States there are other churches of the Byzantine Rite (for example Our Lady of Wisdom Church in Las Vegas, under the jurisdiction of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix,  and Italo-Greek Catholic Mission of Our Lady of Grace in New York, under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.) and more generally of the Eastern rite or different ethno-linguistic and historical tradition.
caption: Piana degli Albanesi Cathedral of the Albanians of Insular Italy
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