| Ordinariate for Eastern Catholics in Argentina | |
| Population As Of: | 2013 |
| Catholics: | 2,000 |
| Parishes: | 1 |
| Bishop: | Mario Aurelio Poli |
| Emeritus Bishops: | Jorge Mario Bergoglio |
The Ordinariate for Eastern Catholics in Argentina is a Catholic Ordinariate for Eastern Catholic faithful (pseudo-diocesan jurisdiction within a Latin territory), jointly for all Eastern Catholics, regardless of rite, living in Argentina.
On August 27, 1897, a first community of faithful of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church established itself in Apóstoles, in the Misiones Province. In 1908 the first priest of the Byzantine rite arrived from Brazil: Father Clemente Bzhujovski, a religious of the Basilian Order of Saint Josaphat who celebrated his first Divine Liturgy in Argentina on March 21, 1908, in Posadas.[1]
At the end of the nineteenth century the immigration of Greek-Melkite Catholics began in Argentina, which peaked between 1910 and 1930. Between 1949 and 1950 there was a second wave. They were mostly natives of Syria and Lebanon but a small part of the families came from Palestine, Egypt and Jordan.[2] The celebration of the sacraments according to their rite began in 1910 with the arrival of the archimandrite Teófanos Badaoui. Their church of San Jorge was built in 1919 and was consecrated on 20 June 1920 by the auxiliary bishop of Córdoba Inocencio Dávila. In 1948 the Jesuit Philippe de Regis de Gatimel, former rector of the Collegium Russicum in Rome, established a mission for the faithful of the Russian Greek Catholic Church. He died in 1955.[3] Soon after, Father Ion Dan came from Rome to give spiritual care of the faithful of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church. He died on August 28, 1986.[4]
It was established on 19 February 1959 by Pope John XXIII, on territory previously only served by the Latin church, in which the Holy See united the faithful of the Eastern Catholic Churches that did not have their own hierarchy in the territory of Argentina. It was established on May 17, 1959, as a personal jurisdiction over the parishes and Eastern Catholic faithful. The Latin hierarch of Buenos Aires was appointed as ordinarian of the Eastern rite believers.
In 1961, the Ordinariate united around 250,000 believers from various Eastern Catholic churches. It included 20 temples and 33 priests. After the formation of its church structure in Argentina, four rite-particular churches sui iuris came out of the jurisdiction of the Ordinariate of Argentina for the faithful Eastern rite and have their own suffragan Eparchies (dioceses) in the ecclesiastical province of Buenos Aires:
The Ordinariate has its jurisdiction over all Eastern Rite believers in Argentina who do not have their own ordinary. At present there are missions of the Russian Greek Catholic Church, heirs of the Russian mission conducted by the Jesuits[5] and the Romanian Greek Catholic Church in the chapel of Saints Peter and Paul in Buenos Aires in which operates a priest.[6] [7] The chapel follows the Julian calendar and is also used by the faithful of the Romanian Orthodox Church. In the province of Buenos Aires there is also a small Russian Byzantine community founded in 1984: the Byzantine Center of Our Lady of Vladimir in Campana.[8] A small group of faithful of the Italian-Albanian Church meets at Luis Guillon, in the Esteban Echeverría Partido of the province of Buenos Aires. The Italo-Albanians were around 12,000 at the time of the creation of the ordinariate and were concentrated mainly in Luján. Most of them, however, passed to the Latin rite. The few hundreds of Chaldean faithful are completions dispersed throughout the territory.[9]
As per 2013, it pastorally served 2,000 Catholics with a single parish in the capital, Buenos Aires, at Avenida Rivadavia 415.
The Russian Catholic mission in Argentina included the Russian Christian Revival Society in Buenos Aires, the publishing house and the same-named newspaper For the Truth!, the Salguero printing house, the Institute of Russian Culture in Buenos Aires, the Parish of Peter and Paul, Guames (Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul: Misión rusa, Güemes 2962), the Transfiguration of Christ Skete, El Castilla–Ba Monteverde, Los Cardales, and the Boarding School of St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called.[10] The mission belonged to the so-called Russian apostolate. The head of the mission was Philippe de Feuges, except for him in the mission worked Russian priests George Kovalenko, Alexander Kulik, Nikolai Alexseev, Vsevolod Roshko and laymen M.V. Rozanov and A. Stavrovsky.[11]
Ordinaries for Eastern Catholics in Argentina (all Roman Rite):