ARMENIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

The 'Armenian Catholic Church' is an Eastern Catholic church ''sui juris'' within the Catholic Church. Historically it represents a schism from the Armenian Apostolic Church. It is in full communion with and subject to the authority of the pope in Rome as regulated by Eastern canon law.

Contents

History

See also

External links

History

After the Armenian Apostolic Church, along with the rest of Oriental Orthodoxy, formally broke off communion from the Chalcedonian churches, numerous Armenian bishops made attempts to restore communion with the Catholic Church (Rome). In 1195 during the Crusades, the church of the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia entered into a union with the Roman Catholic Church which lasted until Cilicia was conquered by the Mamluks in 1375.
The union was later re-established during the Council of Florence in 1439, but did not have any real effects until the year 1740, when Abraham-Pierre I Ardzivian, who had earlier become a Catholic, was elected as the patriarch of Sis. Two years later Pope Benedict XIV formally established the 'Armenian Catholic Church'. The headquarters of the patriarchate was later moved to Antelias, north of Beirut. In 1749, the Armenian Catholic Church built a convent in Bzoummar, Lebanon. During the horrific Armenian genocide in 1915–1918 the Church scattered among neighboring countries, mainly Lebanon and Syria.
The Armenian Catholic Church can also refer to the church formed by Armenians living in Poland in 1620 after the union of Leopolis by Mikołaj (Nicholas) Torosowicz, which has since established bonds with the older Armenian Catholic Church. The church which had been historically centered in Galicia as well as in the Polish borderlands in the east, now has two primary centers; one in Gdansk, and the other in Gliwice. A number of its members migrated to Sweden, which holds its own chapter (see Catholic Church of Sweden).
The current patriarch is Nerses Bedros XIX. The church is one of the Eastern Rite Catholic churches and uses the Armenian Rite and Armenian language in the liturgy.
Today there are sizeable Armenian Catholic communities in Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Canada, France, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Romania and the United States.

See also

★ Mechitarists

External links

★ Official web site

★ The Armenian Catholic Church website by the Catholic Near East Welfare Association

★ Armenian Catholic Church in Lebanon

★ Armenian Catholic Church in Russia

★ Armeniapedia - Armenian Catholic Church

★ One Magazine (CNEWA) - A New Start for Armenia’s Catholics

★ Catholic Churches

★ Armenian Apostolic Church Library

★ St. Mark's Armenian Catholic Church, near Philadelphia, Pa.