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So the Annuario Pontificio (Pontifical Yearbook) is going digital from now on. I decided to subscribe, at least for a year. Before, I love surfing through websites such as GCatholic [gcatholic.org] and The Hierarchy of the Catholic Church [catholic-hierarchy.org], as well as the Italian and Spanish-language versions of Wikipedia to get info on Catholic structures.

The website is in Italian so I have to rely on my browser's webpage translator. So far here are some tidbits I find interesting.

Under "Circoscrizioni e Sedi Titolari" (Circumscriptions and Titular Sees) and then "Circoscrizioni Ecclesiastiche" (Ecclesiastical Circumscriptions), I get to look for existing dioceses, eparchies, and other equivalents. There's a search box if you want to look directly for a jurisdiction. Otherwise, there are 3 dropboxes for "Grado Territoriale" (Territorial Rank), "Nazione" (Nation/Country", and "Rito" (Rite).

• Under "Rito" (Rite), there are "Albanesi" (Albanian), "Alessandrino" (Alexandrian), "Ambrosiano" (Ambrosian), "Antiocheno" (Antiochene), "Armena" (Armenian), "Biancoruteni" (loosely translates to Belarussian), "Bielorussa" (Belarusian), "Bizantina Cattolica in Italia" (Byzantine Catholic in Italy), "Bizantina di Croazia e Serbia" (Byzantine of Croatia and Serbia), "Bizantina in Kazakhstan e Asia Centrale" (Byzantine of Kazakhstan and Central Asia), "Bulgara" (Bulgarian), "Caldea" (Chaldean), "Copta" (Coptic), "Costantinopolitano o bizantino" (Constantinopolitan or Byzantine), "Eritrea" (Eritrean), "Etiopica" (Ethiopic or Geez-Ethiopian), "Georgiani" (Georgian), "Greca" (Greek), "Greco-Melkita" (Greek-Melkite), "Macedone" (Macedonian), "Maronita" (Maronite), "Plurirituale" (Multiritual or Eastern Rites), "Romano" (Latin/Roman), "Romena" (Romanian), "Russa" (Russian), "Rutena" (Ruthenian), "Sira" (Syriac), "Siro-Malabarese" (Syro-Malabar), "Siro-Malankarese" (Syro-Malankara), "Slovacca" (Slovak), "Ucraina" (Ukrainian), "Ungherese" (Hungarian). Ambrosian being listed but not Mozarabic is weird. The list of eastern rites here raises some speculation which I will discuss later.
• Under "Grado Territoriale" (Territorial Rank)", there are also many but I will not list all like I did with the rites. Instead, I'll focus on those which concern the Eastern Catholic Churches. Patriarchates are divided between "Chiesa Patriarcale" (Patriarchal Church) and "Patriarcato Latino" (Latin Patriarchate). There is no "Patriarchate of the West" in the latter but "Patriarca dell'Occidente" (Patriarch of the West) is listed in the webpage dedicated to the Supreme Pontiff/Pope. There appears to be a duplication error regarding Major Archbishops. There is "Chiesa Arcivescovile Maggiore" (Major Archiepiscopal Church) and "Arcivescovati Maggiori" (Major Archbishopric). The latter is empty. Lastly, Metropolitans are divided into 3. The first is "Chiesa Metropolitana S.I." (Metropolitan Church sui iuris). Furthermore, the Provincial Metropolitans are subdivided into "Metropoli" (Roman Rite) and "Metropoli Orientali" (Eastern Rite).
• Under "Nazione", some countries are divided. Of course, there are the controversial ones because of separatism such as "Cina" (China) vs. "Taiwan", and "Serbia" vs. "Kosovo". On the other hand, transcontinental countries appear to be divided geographically, such as "Türkiye" vs. "Türkiye Europea", and "Russia" (Asian Part) vs. "Russia (Federazione Russa)" (European Part).
• For the "Dati Statistici" (Statistical Data) tab of each jurisdiction, some are updated up until 2024 while others are outdated. There also appears to be clerical errors (pun intended). The statistics of the Apostolic Exarchate in Greece and the Armenian Ordinariate in Greece got mixed up as of this post.

Under "Note Storiche" (Historical Notes), there are trivia. Again, I will be focusing on those related to Eastern Churches. Furthermore, I will be discussing interesting implication/speculation when some info are taken together with what I discussed above for Ecclesiastical Circumscriptions.

• Under "La Gerarchia Cattolica e le Sue Sedi" (The Catholic Hierarchy and Its Seats) page, there are further subpages for "Chiese Patriarcali" (Patriarchal Churches), "Chiese Arcivescovili Maggiori" (Major Archiepiscopal Churches), "Chiese Metropolitane Sui Iuris" (Metropolitan Church sui iuris), "Arcidiocesi e Diocesi" (Archdioceses and Dioceses), "Esarcati Apostolici e Ordinariati per Fedeli di Rito Orientale" (Apostolic Exarchates and Ordinariates for Faithful of the Eastern Rites), and "Conseil Des Patriarches Catholiques d’Orient" (Council of Catholic Patriarchs of the East). They are pretty straightforward but some sentences and paragraphs do offer interesting Catholic perspective regarding Eastern Churches. There is mention of how the Metropolitans of Caesarea, of Ephesus, and of Heraclea acted as the Primate-Exarchs of Pontus, of Asia, and of Thrace respectively. The rank of "Archbishop" was originally reserved for Patriarchs, and then the Primate-Exarchs. At least for the West, Metropolitans would eventually be called Archbishops as well. The Metropolitan and Archiepiscopal ranks remained separate for Greek Orthodoxy. Lastly, there is mention of when the Eastern Orthodox Churches attained their Patriarchal rank: Russia (1589), Serbia (1920), Romania (1925), Georgia (7th century), and Bulgaria (1953, 1961). It is interesting how the ancient declaration of autocephaly and of Patriarchal/Catholicos rank for the Georgian Orthodox is recognized but not the ancient declarations for the Serbian Orthodox Church (Pec Patriarchate back in 1346) and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (Preslav Patriarchate back in 918). It is also interesting how double dates are listed for the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, as if trying to maintain a balancing act of when the Bulgarian Orthodox Church restored their patriarchal status (1953) and when the Ecumenical Patriarchate recognized such Patriarchal status (1961).
• Under "Riti" (Rites), there are further subpages for "here are further subpages for "Tradizione Rituale Alessandrina" (Alexandrian), "Tradizione Rituale Antiochena" (Antiochene), "Tradizione Rituale Armena" (Armenian), "Tradizione Rituale Caldea" (Chaldean), and "Tradizione Rituale Costantinopolitana o Bizantina" (Constantinopolitan or Byzantine). Each discusses a short history on said rites. Going back to the Ecclesiastical Circumscriptions, it is interesting how some of these are listed under the Rites. The jurisdictions for "Armenian" and "Chaldean" do correspond to those of the Armenian and Chaldean Patriarchal Churches. However, "Alexandrian", "Antiochene", and "Constantinopolitan or Byzantine" are currently blank. Hence, I do wonder if in the future, joint Eastern Catholic jurisdictions will be established in the future. For example, an "Alexandrian" eparchy/exarchate/ordinariate in the diaspora could join all Copts, Geez-Ethiopians, and Eritrean together. There is precedent as I remember reading how the Eastern-Rite Ordinariate in Austria originally covered only all Catholics of the Byzantine Rite regardless of ethnicity.
• Lastly, I was also curious about the official number of Church sui iuris. I remember reading up how the Albanian Greek Catholic Church is no longer considered as such by the Annuario Pontificio 2020. I also read up how the "Apostolic Administration for the Faithful of the Byzantine Rite in Kazakhstan and Central Asia" was originally listed under Ruthenian by Annuario Pontificio 2020 and 2021 before becoming its own Church sui iuris in Annuario Pontificio 2022. As far I as I have searched, there is no explicit list for the "Other Eastern Church sui iuris". Hence, only the Patriarchal, Major Archiepiscopal, and Metropolitan Churches are definitive. Again, I can go back to the Rites listed under Ecclesiastical Circumscriptions to make some speculations. It is interesting how Albanian and Georgian are included in the list despite being empty.

Anyways, if you want me to try and look for other specific information, feel free to ask. Be patient though. It is hard to navigate through a foreign-language website, relying on webpage translators. There also appears to be bugs and errors on the part of the website itself.

Thanks for sharing, San Nicolas! Official terminology and statuses of various ecclesial bodies is always of interest to me. It is often hard to be precise with language because different sources seem to use the same words differently and interpret ecclesial statuses differently.

Based on what you've shared, the Annuario Pontificio doesn't seem to help clear up the confusion. It would seem logical to me to group churches by rite, but that's not happening - otherwise, all the Byzantine churches would be under one category, which they are not. And the duplicates certainly don't help, either.

I guess I'll be regularly posting some random tidbits every now and then.

• Under the "Collegio Cardinalizio (College of Cardinals)" page, it is mentioned that there are 3 orders: 1. Diaconi (Deacons), 2. Presbiteri (Priests), 3. Vescovi (Bishops) e Cardinali Patriarchi di Rito Orientale (Cardinal Patriarchs of the Eastern Rite). So apparently, "Cardinal-Patriarch" is more or less an official term albeit some form of subcategory under Cardinal-Bishops.
• The Opus Dei is no longer found under "Circoscrizioni Ecclesiastiche (Ecclesiastical Circumscriptions)" even though "Prelatura Personale (Personal Prelature)" is still considered a "Grado Territoriale (Territorial Grade/Rank). Instead, it can be found under "Istituti Religiosi (Religious Institute), still classified as "Prelatura Personale (Personal Prelature)". Being the only Personal Prelature so far, it is up to speculation whether this change applies solely to Opus Dei or all future Personal Prelatures.
• Ruling out possible errors, there appears to be a new parish in the Apostolic Exarchate of Constantinople. For the longest time, it is posted in its Italian- and Spanish-language Wikipedia pages that there remains one parish with less than 20 faithful. The current 2024 statistic mentions that there are now 2 parishes and that the faithful are up to 80. Either the new parish caters to the Ukrainian refugees or the perhaps the scattered Georgians and Melkites.

By the way, one benefit of the Annuario Pontificio going digital is that changes in circumscriptions and appointments are reflected much earlier. Some changes for 2026 are already taken into account in their respective webpages. It still takes some time though to take into account the more recent releases of the Vatican Bulletin though.

According to the Vatican Bulletin for January 31, 2026 [press.vatican.va], Bishop Manuel Nin Güell, the (soon to be former) Apostolic Exarch for Catholics of Byzantine rite resident in Greece, has been appointed as "Apostolic exarch of the territorial abbey of Saint Mary of Grottaferrata, Italy". As of this post, there are no changes in the Annuario Pontificio webpages for the Territorial abbey of Saint Mary of Grottaferrata nor for Bishop Manuel Nin Güell. I am curious as to whether the so called "Exarchic Monastery" is formally promoted as an Apostolic Exarchate or formally remains a Territorial Abbey led by a "titular" Apostolic Exarch.

Another interesting thing about the appointment is that it sort of solidifies previous notions I have read that while the eparchies of Lungro and Piana are "Italo-Albanian", the monastery of Grottaferrata remains "Italo-Greek". This distinction supposedly keeps the Byzantine Catholic Church in Italy from becoming a unified Metropolitan Church sui iuris.

UPDATE: The Digital Annuario Pontificio now describes Bishop Manuel Nin Güell as "Apostolic Exarch" but the Monastery of Saint Mary of Grottaferrata remains a "Territorial Abbey".