The migration of Albanian exiles in the Kingdom of Naples following the repeated invasions of Albania by the Ottoman Turks, culminating in 1478, favored the formation of a large community that soon settled in the southern part of the Italian peninsula and, in particular, in the Calabrian provinces. This minority group, better known as the Italo-Albanian (or Arbëreshë) community, despite abandoning its motherland, remained strongly tied to its ethnic and linguistic roots, but above all to its religious traditions, which were based on the Catholic religion but professed according to the Byzantine rite. For this minority group, the religious factor represented throughout the modern age a strong element of identity but also the cause of misunderstandings and, even, suspicions of heresy, especially at the diocesan level by the Latin Bishops. Through the analysis of some of the main diocesan synods and provincial councils of the post-tridentine age, this paper aims to analyze from a historical-legal perspective the events of the Byzantine rite in southern Italy through the efforts and aspirations of the Italo-Albanian faithful to overcome inequalities with Latin Rite Catholics, in the name of a common belonging to the Catholic religion.