Italo-Albanian Catholic Church (Eastern Catholic)

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ITALO-ALBANIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH (EASTERN CATHOLIC)

The Italo-Albanian Catholic Church comprises the faithful of the Albanian colonies in Italy, grouped into the Eparchies of Lungro (Cosenza) and Piana degli Albanesi (Palermo). This is a remnant of a once widespread Italo-Greek Church throughout southern Italy, with numerous parish churches and Greek monasteries, formed from the refugees from the Byzantine Empire when it fell under Turkish domination in 1453.

At the end of the 20th century, the only remaining example of the once vibrant Italo-Greek Church was the Basilian monastery of grottaferrata, founded by Saint Nilo of Rossano in 1004, on the slopes of the Tusculan hills within the boundaries of the suburban Diocese of Frascati. The Holy See, after providing for the restoration of the ancient ecclesial and liturgical traditions of this Church in all its purity at the monastery, elevated it with the constitution Pervetustum Cryptaeferratae Coenobium (Sept. 26, 1937) to the rank of an exarchate, equivalent to a Latin territorial abbacy. However, in the pontifical documents and in ancient and modern accounts, no distinction is made between Italo-Greeks and Italo-Albanians.

Immigration to Italy. The first Albanian immigrations into Italy have not been precisely dated. The only certainty is that relatively large groups landed on the Italian shores between the middle of the 15th century and the 18th century. There were various reasons for the Albanian migrations, but two were particularly important: military service and the danger of falling under Turkish oppression.

In 1468 the Albanian hero Giorgio Castriota, known as Skanderbeg, died in Alessio. Later, Krujë, the stronghold of Albanian resistance against the repeated attacks of the Ottoman army, fell. These two losses extinguished the Albanians' hope of liberty and of reconquest. In the hope of fleeing Turkish oppression, many families preferred exile and migrated to the Italian peninsula.

It is impossible to determine the number of immigrations or the size of each group of immigrants. All we know is that the refugees settled in uninhabited areas or abandoned villages of Apulia, Abbruzzi e Molise, Lucania, Calabria, and Sicily. Historians do not agree as to the number of the Italo-Albanian colonies. Some put the figure at 62, others at 82, and still more recent estimates have gone as high as 120. This last figure seems closest to the truth inasmuch as it is confirmed by the most recent studies of the archives.

Most of the Albanians who sought refuge in Italy belonged to the Albanian Orthodox Church, as the great majority of them came from the south-central regions of Albania. Thus the Italo-Greek Church, already in complete decline, was restored to vigor by the new refugees from Albania.

Conflicting Jurisdiction. The presence of the Albanian Orthodox Christians on Italian soil, however, brought new difficulties concerning their relations with the local bishops and with the Latin population in the surrounding areas or in the same localities. These problems related to the provision of means for training the clergy who were to look after the needs of the Albanians according to the traditions and usages of the Christian East.

Evidently, when the Albanians settled in Latin territory, they automatically came under the jurisdiction of the Latin ordinaries. However, the latter were unacquainted with Greek ecclesial and liturgical traditions and did not hide a certain aversion and condescension toward them. For their part the Albanians, attached as they were to their Byzantine traditions and customs, had no intention of submitting to Latin practices that were alien to their own. Hence they more readily turned to prelates of their own Church.

The popes of the first half of the 16th century intervened several times in favor of the Italo-Greeks. The Albanians benefited thereby, since they shared a common tradition with the Italo-Greeks and thus tended to be identified with them.

In his brief of May 18, 1521, Leo X ruled that the Greek liturgical rite was to be freely professed among the Latins; he conceded that the Greek prelates could celebrate pontifical functions in the Latin dioceses and commanded each Latin bishop to appoint a Greek vicar for the Greek faithful of his diocese; in areas where there were two bishops, a Greek and a Latin, each one was to exercise jurisdiction over the faithful according to their ecclesial traditions.

In the constitution of Dec. 23, 1534, Paul III confirmed all the concessions of Leo X and recognized as legitimate the ecclesial, disciplinary, liturgical customs of the Italo-Greek Catholic Church, e.g., the Byzantine formula of Baptism, the marriage of the clergy before receiving sacred orders, their wearing of beards, and the administration of triple sacraments of baptism, chrismation and the Eucharist to newly baptized infants. Two years later the same pontiff permitted Josaphat Lampos, Metropolitan of Rhodes who had taken refuge in Italy, to exercise jurisdiction over his Greek faithful residing on the peninsula.

In 1553 Julius III confirmed the same faculties for Italy and Sicily for Pafnuzio, who was consecrated archbishop of Agrigento by Prochoro, Archbishop of Ochrida. Other refugee bishops from the Eastern regions exercised an occasional ministry, administering the Sacraments and especially advancing candidates of the Greek Church to holy orders.

While the Catholic faith of many Greek prelates may have been open to question, the Italo-Albanians, confident in the possession of privileges granted them by the Roman pontiffs, addressed themselves in good faith to Bishops of the Albanian Orthodox Church for sacred ordinations, since they had no ordaining Byzantine Catholic bishop.

The occasional interference of the Greek prelates in the Italo-Albanian colonies and probably the aspirations of the latter to have their own bishop appeared to the ordinaries of the place as seriously prejudicial to their own jurisdictional powers. Thus the ancient aversion and distrust between Greeks and Latins soon revived. Appeals were made to the Holy See accusing the Italo-Albanians of heresies, errors, and lack of discipline. It was said that they did not admit the existence of purgatory or the primacy of the Roman pontiff, that they did not observe the feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of the Holy Apostles, and of the other saints of the Roman Church; that they administered Communion to infants, etc.

The accusations so alarmed Pope Pius IV that he issued the constitution Romanus Pontifex (Feb. 16, 1564) revoking all concessions and privileges granted by his predecessors and subjecting all Greek institutions, clerics and faithful to the full and exclusive jurisdiction of the Latin ordinaries. Consequently, the authority to supervise Byzantine churches, to regulate the divine worship, and to administer the Sacraments devolved upon Latin bishops. These regulations notwithstanding, the pope declared that he did not intend to encourage the faithful to abandon their Byzantine heritage, not even when they were forbidden by their own Latin ordinaries or others from professing their rite freely.

But while this was the will of the Holy See, the bishops did not hold the same views. Therefore the Italo-Albanian Church, deprived of its own hierarchy, without its own seminary in which to educate new recruits for holy orders, unappreciated and misunderstood by the Latin prelates and clerics, lapsed into a decline in discipline and in the observance of its rite.

Attempts at Reform. Meanwhile the pastoral visitations, which became more frequent in accordance with the decrees of the Council of Trent, had turned the attention of the authorities to the Italo-Albanians. In answer to continued requests by the interested ordinaries, the Holy See entrusted the solution of these questions to a commission, which met in 1593. The results of its labors were summarized in the Instructio super ritibus Italograecorum transmitted by Clement VIII on Aug. 31, 1595, to the Latin bishops in whose territory resided the Italo-Albanians.

The Clementine instruction eliminated some of the more obvious abuses and established an ordaining bishop for the Greeks in Rome; unfortunately, it banned or modified several legitimate customs and traditions of the Greek church. Besides, it let it be known that its restrictive regulations were based on doubts regarding the orthodoxy of the Italo-Albanians, and it consequently gave a place of preeminence to the Latin rite.

The most significant regulations were: priests of the Byzantine rite were forbidden to administer Confirmation after Baptism, the use of the portable altar was recommended, and the use of antimensium tolerated. The indicative Latin form was to be used in sacramental formulae, rather than the indirect Byzantine form. A Latin husband did not have to observe the Greek rite of his wife; and a Latin wife did not have to observe the Greek rite of her husband. A Greek wife was encouraged to observe the rite of her Latin husband; the children followed the father's rite unless the Latin mother insisted otherwise. The use of meat was allowed on Saturday, and it was also permissible not to fast on the Saturdays of Lent. It was stressed that it would be best if the Greeks were induced, without constraint, to observe the fasts and vigils of the Latin Church. In addition, they were required to observe the days of obligation of the Latin Church, and follow the Latin liturgical calendar.

The consequences of the Clementine regulations were highly detrimental to the Italo-Albanian community. Individuals, family groups, and entire regions turned to the Latin Church under duress from Latin prelates. The causes were varied, but the most compelling reason was to avoid finding themselves in a position of inferiority or ridicule, because they were Byzantines. Another contributing factor was the lack of Italo-Albanian clergy to replace those who died. The vacant posts were ultimately occupied by the Latin clergy, who looked upon the traditions and customs of Byzantine Christianity with disdain.

Growth in Calabria. To curb the fearful decline into extinction, to which the Italo-Albanian Church was headed, the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, toward the end of 1625, began to consider the erection of an Italo-Albanian seminary at Reggio Calabria. Difficulties of every sort, raised by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of the locality, delayed its realization for another century.

Finally, in 1732, Clement XII erected a seminary for the Italo-Albanians of the Kingdom of Naples at San Benedetto Ullano (Cosenza) and named it Collegio Corsini after his own ancestral name. In 1735 the pope named the ordaining bishop for the Italo-Albanians to the presidency of the college. However, mistrust still prevailed. The territorial jurisdiction of the new prelate was circumscribed by the walls of the college, extending neither to the ecclesiastics nor to the Italo-Albanian faithful. He was permitted to visit the Italo-Albanian churches only with the previous permission of the Latin ordinaries, who retained the authority to have the wishes of the Albanian bishop executed at their own discretion.

The series of ordaining bishops began with Felice Samuele Rodotà (173540); nine others succeeded practically without interruption until 1912. With a few laudable exceptions these prelates generally took little interest in the seminary and practically none at all in the Albanian colonies.

The pope had a twofold purpose in conferring the presidency of Collegio Corsini upon a bishop: (1) to take away from the Latin bishops the formation of the Italo-Albanian clergy, so that the latter might be educated according to Byzantine tradition, and (2) to give the Latin bishops an auxiliary for the government of the Albanian parishes within their boundaries. Unfortunately, the pope's expectations were frustrated either by the incompetence of men, by the defects of the institutions and the lack of support by suspicious Latin prelates.

The Collegio Corsini was opposed first of all by the episcopal curia of Bisignano. In 1794, since the building was no longer adequate, it was transferred to San Demetrio Corone (Cosenza), on the site of the Basilian monastery of Saint Adrian. The college had a brief moment of splendor, but the incompetence of some of the presidents and poor administration caused its decline, until finally, following the political events of 1860, it became the property of the Italian state.

On the one hand, the ordaining bishops were never looked upon favorably by the Latin prelates, and consequently were never given the authority and jurisdiction over the Italo-Albanian faithful that Clement XII had envisaged. On the other hand, it must be admitted that not all the blame lay with intransigent Latin bishops. The Italo-Albanian bishops themselves did not always prove themselves equal to the mission entrusted to them.

Sicily. Things were not much better in Sicily. Here too the Albanian colonies were threatened with decline. A holy priest, Father Giorgio Guzzetta (16821756), an Italo-Albanian from Piana and member of the Congregation of the Oratory, founded a house of the Oratory in his own region, where he gathered together some celibate Byzantine priests. Within a short time they were able to open a school for young boys. In 1734, as had happened in Calabria, an Italo-Albanian seminary was opened near the Greek parish of Saint Nicholas in order to assure the colonies the supply of Byzantine clergy. The institution proved very valuable to the colonies and proved itself a vital cultural center. Father Guzzetta was anxious also to obtain an ordaining bishop for the Albanians of Sicily and to this end initiated proceedings with the competent authorities. In 1784 Pius VI satisfied this noble aspiration by promulgating the bull Commissa nobis.

Papal Intervention. The initiatives taken both in Calabria and Sicily, while very good, never settled the Italo-Albanian problems in a definitive way. Moreover, the legislative intervention of Benedict XIV in Etsi pastoralis did not attain its purpose because it was not free from defects, including the failure to understand the mentality of the Italo-Albanians.

In the above-mentioned bull, published on May 26, 1742, Benedict XIV reworked the earlier legislation for the Italo-Albanians and presented a new and very precise statute whose purpose was to eliminate all jurisdictional controversies between Italo-Albanians and Latins arising from shared ecclesial jurisdiction, which in practice meant that legitimate Byzantine traditions and usages were overwhelmed by Latin ones.

The fundamental principle underlying the Benedictine constitution was the superiority of the Latin rite, as the rite of the Holy Roman Church, the mother and teacher of all the Churches. There was greater reason for this superiority in Italian regions where the Albanians were subject to Latin bishops. In the light of this principle, Etsi pastoralis not only maintained the restrictive regulations of the Clementine instruction, but introduced a few more restrictive regulations. It called for the continued use of the filioque in the recitation of the Creed wherever it was already in use, and in certain instances it imposed the use of the filioque where it was not used. Communion under both species was restricted to places where it was still the custom, but the Latin faithful attending the Eucharist at Italo-Albanian Churches were forbidden to receive Communion in the form of leavened bread. The Greek faithful were permitted to receive Communion in the form of unleavened bread where there was no Greek parish. They were authorized to erect altars or chapels in addition to the main altar, so that Mass could be celebrated in either the Latin or the Greek rite. It prohibited the return to the Greek rite without special authorization of the Holy See of anyone who had received the simple tonsure or other minor orders in the Latin rite without apostolic dispensation, etc.

It was certainly not the intention of Benedict XIV to harm the Italo-Albanian Church in Italy. On the contrary, he expressly declared that he wanted to preserve it, enjoined the Latin ordinaries and clergy not to oppose it, and finally urged the Italo-Albanians to be faithful to their own legitimate traditions and customs. However, an eventual rigorous application of any of the regulations could not have failed to produce deleterious effects. Sometimes this proved to be true, and conflict between the Latin hierarchy and the Italo-Albanian faithful revived. It was due to the tenaciousness of the Italo-Albanians and to the unsuccessful exequatur of the Neapolitan government for Sicily that the decisions of the constitution did not have more harmful effects for the wider Italo-Albanian community in Italy.

In the second half of the 19th century a new attitude developed, resulting from a better understanding of the problems involved. Etsi pastoralis was supplemented by the constitution Orientalium dignitas of 1894, in which Leo XIII recognized the equality and dignity of the Italo-Albanian Church. From that time until the present there has been an uninterrupted succession of pontificial interventions to safeguard its legitimate traditions, laws and liturgical rites.

Organization and Structure. As presently constituted, the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church comprises two eparchies of equal rank and dignity. The eparchy of Lungro

(in Calabria) was created on Feb. 13, 1919, by the constitution Catholici fideles. It covers all of southern Italy and includes 27 parishes, having jurisdiction over the Italo-Albanian Church in continental Italy. The eparchy of Piana degli Albanesi, was created by the constitution Apostolica sedes of Oct. 26, 1937. It covers the island of Sicily and includes 15 parishes, including the five Albanian colonies of Sicily: Piana degli Albanesi, Mezzoiuso, Palazzo Adriano, Contessa Entellina, and Santa Cristina Gela.

Bibliography: e. benedetti, "La S. Congregazione di Propaganda Fide e gli Italo-greci del Regno di Napoli," Roma e l'Oriente 17 (1919) 5261; 18 (1919) 3752; 19 (1920) 5669; 20 (1921) 9199. a. fortescue, The Uniate Eastern Churches: The Byzantine Rite in Italy, Sicily, Syria and Egypt, ed. g. d. smith, (New York 1923). c. gatti and c. korolevskij, Il rito bizantino e le Chiese bizantine, v.1 of I riti e le Chiese orientali (Genova 1942). Oriente Cattolico: Cenni storici e statistiche (Vatican City 1962). d. zangari, Le colonie italo albanesi di Calabria: Storia e demografia secoli XVXIX (Naples 1941). r. roberson, The Eastern Christian Churches: A Brief Survey (6th ed. Rome 1999).

[m. petta/eds.]