Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh

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The Byzantine Catholic Metropolia of Pittsburgh is an autonomous Byzantine Rite particular church of the Catholic Church, originally serving members of the Ruthenian Catholic Church and their descendants in the United States, and is to be distinguished from the Latin Rite Diocese of Pittsburgh. The Metropolia itself is composed of the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh (60,200 faithful, 84 parishes, 83 priests) and the Eparchies of Parma (12,401 faithful, 37 parishes, 38 priests), Passaic (24,031 faithful, 89 parishes, 84 priests) and Van Nuys (2,849 faithful, 19 parishes, 25 priests). Although the Ruthenians remain the majority of the members of the Metropolia, the eparchies have ordinary jurisdiction over parishes of other Byzantine Rite traditions that do not have an established hierarchy in the United States, including the Italo-Albanians, Hungarians, Slovaks, and Croatians.

When the original center of the Ruthenian Catholic Church was under atheistic Communist rule and unable because of persecution to organize publicly, the impossibility of regular communication with it meant that the distant United States Metropolia, unable to be treated as a normal metropolia of an Eastern Rite Catholic Church (canons 133-139 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches), has been treated as a sui iuris (autonomous) Metropolitan Church (canons 155-173 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches). The Holy See's Annuario Pontificio has, however, always listed it not as a separate particular Church but as a Metropolia of the Ruthenian Church.

The Archeparchy of Pittsburgh was originally established, in 1924, as the Apostolic Exarchate for the Byzantine-Rite Faithful of Subcarpathia, becoming the Eparchy of Pittsburgh of the Ruthenians in 1963, the Metropolitan See of Munhall of the Ruthenians in 1969, and changing its name to Pittsburgh of the Byzantines in 1977. The dates of foundation of the suffragan sees are: Passaic 1963, Parma 1969, Van Nuys 1981.

The church's Byzantine Catholic Seminary of SS. Cyril and Methodius, established in 1950, is located on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Observatory Hill. In addition to the training of priests, it offers a program in Deacon Formation as well as a Cantor's Institute.

In January 2007 Metropolitan Basil Schott, Archbishop of Pittsburgh promulgated a complete revision of the major Divine Liturgies (Chrysostom and Basil) of the Byzantine Catholic Church. These Revised Divine Liturgies now create for the first time formal liturgical distinctions between Byzantine-Ruthenian Catholics and both other Byzantine Catholics (Ukrainian, Romanian, Hungarian, Slovak, and etc.) as well as Eastern Orthodox Christians. Formally they shared the same original Church Slavonic service books. With this promulgation Metropolitan Basil (Schott) has the distinction of being the first Catholic bishop to win Vatican approval for the use of so-called "inclusive language" in liturgical texts (better known as gender neutral language). The changes also imitate some of the changes made to the Roman Catholic Mass after Vatican II.