In conformity with the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEO), the eparchy is under the direct jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff.

[7] At that time, Pope Paul appointed Francis Mansour Zayek as the first exarch of the Maronites in the United States.

Zayek, who had just spent several years in a similar post in Brazil, arrived in the United States with a rudimentary knowledge of English, only to find an unfinished cathedral and rectory.

In this he remained guided by the advice which Pope John had given him on his original appointment, "What you Maronites have does not pertain to you alone but is part of the treasure of the Catholic Church".

[11] A part of its territory, which encompassed the entire United States, was lost on 19 March 1994 to the newly established Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles by Pope John Paul II's papal bull Omnium Catholicorum.