Did you ever happen to see people who share common beliefs but are at odds because they do not speak a common language?
This occurs especially [in conversations] when we use commonplace words, from one language to another. I’m sure you are familiar with people who omit to translate words and just “Romanianizes” them [or in English, they anglicize them], even if in Romanian [or English] these could mean something completely different.
To understand what I am trying to say, let me suggest a few words that mean one thing in English, and something completely different in Romanian: car in English is auto or wagon, while in Romanian the same exact word means “cart”; to support in English means to carry or assist, whereas in Romanian suport signifies “to bear or to endure someone/something”; library in English is the building/room that contains a collection of books, while in Romanian librărie means bookstore, and so on.
I’m sure those of you who know other languages know many words which in one language means one thing, while the broken translation of it means a completely different thing.
“Clear pacts, long friendship” – says an Italian proverb, in other words, those who clarify from the beginning how things should be, avoid unpleasant situations. For these reasons, in this article I would like to clarify the correct way of using the terms Diocese and/or Eparchy.
From the beginning of the primary Church, even if it was not forced to shape her territorial divisions taking into account the civil ones, she used territorial delimitation in order to ease the solving of different problems. Thus, civilian metropolises almost always determined the Metropolitan Churches. Dioikesis in Greek and Diocese in Latin, means the leadership or management of a house (in Romanian translated as dieceză, not dioceză). It is worth remembering that the Roman Empire, under the rule of Diocletian (292), consisted of twelve dioceses. Once with the first Council of Nicea (325) this situation was canonized, canon 4 accepting the division of the Church into Provinces, granting the Metropolitan the right to govern upon all the Bishops of his jurisdiction. In Greek, the word used for the Province was Eparchia, term representing jurisdiction and governance over of something like a province, prefecture or territory. Due to the fact that both the term Diocese and Eparchy come from the Roman Empire, a question arises: is the Diocese superior to the Eparchy?
Currently, the Code of Canon Law for the Latin Rite or Roman Catholic Church, in effect since 1994, uses the term of Diocese (can. 369), while the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, in effect since 1991, uses the term Eparchy (can. 177, §1). Both refer to the same thing, that is a portion of God’s people, entrusted the pastoral care of a Bishop who, in collaboration with his priests, adhering to their Shepherd and “reunited by him in the Holy Spirit, through the Gospel and the Eucharist, constitutes a particular church in which the Church of Christ is truly present and active, as one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church”.
In short, in the current terminology, both terms are correct and equivalent, neither of them being subordinated to the other. Diocese refers to the Roman Catholic Church, while the Eparchy refers to the Oriental or Eastern Rite Churches.
English translation by Raul Botha