Catholic Intelligence

Diocese of Piana degli Albanesi

Planen(sis) Albanensium

Italo-Albanian (Byzantine rite) eparchy in Sicily serving the Arbereshe communities, erected in 1937 and immediately subject to the Holy See. Raffaele De Angelis became eparch in 2025. Note: this is an Eastern Catholic eparchy, not a Latin rite diocese.

The see

Rank
Eparchy immediately subject to the Holy See
Tradition
Byzantine tradition
Erected
26 October 1937
Latin
Planen(sis) Albanensium
Patron
Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki
Annuario code
001002598

The see in figures

Catholics
23,400
Population
24,500
Catholic share
95.5%

of the people living within its bounds

Priests
21
Catholics per priest
1,114
Extent
418 km²
Catholics per km²
56

Figures as recorded in the register, from the Annuario Pontificio and the see's own published statements. Shares and ratios are computed from the two figures shown beside them.

The bishop

Eparch
Raffaele De Angelis
Born
24 October 1979
Birthplace
Castrovillari

A see whose chair stands empty is recorded as vacant rather than filled with a guess. On what a bishop is, see the bishop.

The cathedral

Cathedral of Saint Demetrius the Martyr stands in Piana degli Albanesi, the church that holds the cathedra from which this see takes its name.

Its co-cathedral is Concattedrale di Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio (La Martorana), Palermo.

On what a cathedral is, see the cathedral; every see church on earth is gathered at the cathedrals.

History

The whole island of Sicily in Italy falls under a single eparchy (diocese) of the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church, a Byzantine Rite Eastern Catholic church sui iuris: the Eparchy of Piana degli Albanesi. In Arbëreshë Albanian the see is called Eparhia e Horës së Arbëreshëvet, and in Italian, Eparchia di Piana degli Albanesi.

What is kept by invitation

The record above is published because it is public: what this see is, when it was erected, who holds its chair, and where it stands among its neighbours.

The working record is not. The chancery's address, telephone and email, the clergy of the see, and the hours of Mass, confession and adoration in the parishes within it are kept for members, and a person reads every request.

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Sources

The see's own website · Wikipedia

This record is compiled from the published statements of the see and the references of the Holy See, among them the Annuario Pontificio. On the method, see the keeping of the record. Whoever finds an error is asked, in charity, to write: [email protected].