Italo-Albanian Catholic Church - Name of The Church

Name of The Church

Italo-Albanian Catholics are of three races: the original Greek-speaking inhabitants of the Greek colonies in Lower Italy and Sicily, Levantine colonies & Balkans Greeks & Albanians and those Italians who changed over to the Greek Rite since the Byzantine period. In the fifteenth century, the original Italo-Greeks were gradually being Latinized but through an influx of Albanians of the Byzantine Rite, the church began to once again flourish. As a result, it is referred to as Italo-Albanian Catholic Church or as the Italo-Albanian Greek Catholic Church. In these names, "Greek" refers to the Byzantine Rite and the "Italo-" and "Albanian" components refer to the nationalities and languages used in the liturgy, although Greek is the historical liturgical language.

It is also referred to by the name Italo-Greek Catholic Church, which is derived from the Italo-Greek (Italo-Græcus) demonym which was traditionally used to classify the inhabitants of Southern Italy and Sicily; people who are modern day Italians but are historically of Greek origin. The name inherited a dual meaning when it was assigned to the inhabitants of Italy and its islands (Sicily, Sardinia and formerly Corsica) who followed the Byzantine Rite in Koine Greek.