History
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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:
- Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Santa María del Patrocinio in Buenos Aires, Ukrainian language Byzantine Rite for Ukrainian Catholics in all Argentina, with cathedral see in Buenos Aires, an apostolic exarchate since February 9, 1968 and eparchy since April 24, 1978.
- Armenian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Latin America and Mexico, since July 3, 1981 and Eparchy of San Gregorio de Narek en Buenos Aires, from Armenian Rite, an eparchy since February 18, 1989.
- Maronite Catholic Eparchy of San Charbel in Buenos Aires, an Antiochene Rite, an eparchy since October 5, 1990.
- Melkite Greek Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Argentina from Byzantine Rite, an apostolic exarchate since March 21, 2002.
