The Armenian Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic Church sui juris in union with the other Eastern Rite, Oriental Rite and Latin Rite Catholics who accept the Bishop of Rome as spiritual leader of the Church. It is regulated by Eastern canon law.

Since 1749, the Armenian Catholic Church has been headquartered at the Armenian Catholic Patriarchate complex in Bzoummar, Lebanon.

After the Armenian Apostolic Church formally broke off communion from the Chalcedonian churches in the 5th century, some Armenian bishops and congregations made attempts to restore communion with the Catholic Church.

During the Crusades, the church of the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia entered into a union with the Catholic Church, an attempt that did not last. The union was later re-established during the Council of Florence in 1439, but did not have any real effects for centuries.

In 1740, Abraham-Pierre I Ardzivian, who had earlier become a Catholic, was elected as the patriarch of Sis. Two years later Pope Benedict XIV formally established the Armenian Catholic Church.

In 1749, the Armenian Catholic Church built a convent in Bzoummar, Lebanon. During the horrific Armenian genocide in 1915–1918 the Church scattered among neighboring countries, mainly Lebanon and Syria.

The Armenian Catholic Church can also refer to the church formed by Armenians living in Poland in 1620 after the union of Leopolis by Mikołaj (Nicholas) Torosowicz, which has since established bonds with the older Armenian Catholic Church.

The church which had been historically centered in Galicia as well as in the pre-1939 Polish borderlands in the east, now has two primary centers; one in Gdansk, and the other in Gliwice. A number of its members migrated to Sweden, which holds its own chapter (see Catholic Church in Sweden).

This is where the vast majority of Armenian Catholics live. Beginning in the late 1920s, persecution caused many Armenian Catholics to flee their homeland in order to settle in Georgia and the Ukraine.

In 1991, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Bishop of Rome, Pope John Paul II merged the churches in Georgia and the Ukraine with those in Armenia, creating a new eparchy of Armenia and Oriental Europe.

A small seminary was established in Gyumri, Armenia, during 1994; there candidates for the Priesthood engage in basic studies before moving to the Pontifical College of the Armenians (established 1885) in Rome where they pursue philosophy and theology.

Presently, around 1.5 million Armenians live in North America, of which 35,000 belong to the Armenian Catholic Church.

In the 19th century Catholic Armenians from Western Armenia, mainly from the towns and cities of Erzurum, Constantinople, Mardin etc., came to the United States seeking employment. In the end of the same century many survivors of the Hamidian Massacreshad concentrated in several U.S. cities, mainly in New York.

Catholic Armenian communities were also founded in New Jersey, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, and other cities of California.

Catholic Armenian educational organizations were also founded in many cities. In Philadelphia and Boston Colleges of Armenian sisters were founded, educating hundreds of kids.

Later, a similar college was founded in Los Angeles. Mechitarists were preoccupied with the problem of the “staying Armenian”. By the effort of Mkhitarists, Mkhitarian College was founded in Los Angeles.

Many Armenians came to the United States and Canada from the Middle Eastern countries of Lebanon and Syria in the 1970’s and in later years. Also many Armenians came from Argentina, because of the economic crisis.

At the same time, many Catholic Armenians inside the United States moved to San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Miami and Indianapolis.

In 2005, by Pope Benedict XVI’s decision, the Catholic Exarchate of the USA and Canada was advanced to the status of a diocese. It serviced 35,000 Catholic Armenians in the United States and some 10,000 in Canada. The bishop of the dioceses became Manuel Batakian.

Next to North America, France holds the largest number of Armenian Catholics outside of the areas of the Middle East and Oriental Europe. The Eparchy of Sainte-Croix-de-Paris was established in 1960 with Bishop Garabed Armadouni as exarch. Since 1977, the eparchy has been led by His Excellency Bishop Krikor Gabroyan.

There are some 30,000 Armenian Catholics in the eparchy, the headquarters of which is in Paris. The eparchy has six churches apart from the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Paris: Arnouville-lès-Gonesse, Lyon, Marseille, Saint-Chamond, Sèvre and Valence.

A community of Mekhitarist Fathers resides in Sevre and a convent of Armenian Sisters of the Immaculate Conception runs a school in Marseille

The Armenian Catholic Patriarchate of the See of Cilicia is the supreme authority of the Armenian Catholic Church. Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni is the current Catholicos-Patriarch.

The church belongs to the group of Eastern Rite Catholic churches and uses the Armenian Rite and the Armenian language in its liturgy.

Apart from Armenia, France and North America, sizable Armenian Catholic communities exist in Argentina, Australia, Lebanon, Mexico, Syria and Romania and Turkey.

Structure of the Armenian Catholic Church
Archdioceses:
Beirut, Lebanon
Aleppe, Syria
Baghdad, Iraq
Constantinopole (Istanbul), Turkey
Lviv, Ukraine
Eparchies
Alexandria, Egypt
Isfahan, Iran
Al Qamishli, Syria
New York (Our Lady of Nareg)
Paris, France (Sainte-Croix-de-Paris)
Buenos Aires, Argentina (San Gregorio de Narek en Buenos Aires)
Apostolic Exarchates
Latin America
Mexico
Ordinariates for the Faithful of the Eastern Rite
East Europe
Greece
Romania
Patriarchal Exarchates
Damascus, Syria
Jerusalem, Israel
Amman, Jordan