Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia

Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia

Latin Ecclesia Graeco-Catholica Slovaciae , Slovak Gréckokatolícka cirkev na Slovensku
Basic data
Jurisdiction status	Metropolitan Church
rite	Byzantine rite
Liturgical language	Slovak , Church Slavonic
calendar	Gregorian calendar
Establishment date	1646
Seat	Archeparchy of Presov
Hierarch	Metropolitan of Prešov Ján Babjak SJ
statistics
Jurisdictions	4th
Believers	233,000
Bishops	5
Parishes	274
Diocesan priest	419
Religious priest	38
Permanent deacons	2
Friars	45
Religious sisters	138
Status: 2014

The Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia , as the Eastern Catholic Church, is the rite church of the Catholics of the Byzantine Rite in Slovakia and part of the Roman Catholic Church . It comprises 4 dioceses, including one in the diaspora in Canada , and a good 233,000 believers.

construction

Map of the dioceses with coats of arms

Today there are three dioceses: the Archeparchy of Prešov (founded in 1816/1818), the Eparchy of Košice , which existed from 1997 to 2008 from the Apostolic Exarchate of Košice, and the Eparchy of Bratislava, founded in 2008 . The majority of the members of the Slovak Greek Catholic Church live in eastern Slovakia. The metropolis is subordinate to the Holy See ( Congregation for the Eastern Churches ). The Archeparchy of Prešov includes the political circle (Kraj) Prešov, the Eparchy Košice the political circle (Kraj) Košice and the Eparchy of Bratislava is responsible for the members of the Slovak Greek Catholic Church living in the rest of Slovakia. There are only a few parishes in central and western Slovakia.

According to the 2001 census, there are 219,831 Greek Catholics in Slovakia, 4.1 percent of the population. The Slovak bishoprics of the Byzantine rite do not form a national church in two respects. On the one hand only a small part of the Slovaks belong to these dioceses, on the other hand they also have Ruthenian and (few) Hungarian-speaking members. The liturgy is celebrated either in Church Slavonic or in Slovak , so as a ritual church it is an independent part of Catholicism.

The Slovak Eparchy of the Byzantine Rite in Toronto, Ontario with 5000 believers is linguistically mixed today (English, Slovak, Russian , Hungarian), and for the time being there is no closer organizational connection with the Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia. In the rest of the diaspora, the differences to the Ruthenian mother church hardly emerge.

history

The church emerged from the Ruthenian (Greek-Catholic) church beginning with the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy after the First World War . In 1787 a vicariate of the Byzantine-Slavic rite was established in Košice , which was moved to Prešov in 1792. At the instigation of the Austrian Emperor Franz I , the vicariate was raised to an independent eparchy in 1816. This was officially confirmed by the Holy See on September 22, 1818, which can be described as the "year of birth" of this church.

In the 1920s, the Vatican and the government of Czechoslovakia agreed on the establishment of a metropolis for the Greek Catholic faithful. However, the project was not carried out before the Second World War .

With the communist seizure of power in 1948, the situation of the churches in Czechoslovakia became increasingly difficult. In April 1950, at a synod in Prešov, under pressure from the communists, five priests and a number of lay people terminated the union with Rome and placed themselves under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church . Bishops Pavol Gojdič OSBM and Vasiľ Hopko were imprisoned along with many other clergymen. The rest of them converted to Orthodoxy or were relocated to the Czech Republic . Under this pressure, most of the faithful attended Roman Catholic services. The Prague Spring 1968 brought some relief to the communities. They were free to choose whether they wanted to remain in association with Moscow or whether they wanted to return under the custody of Rome , which 205 of 292 did. The Greek Catholic Church was now allowed, but the continued persecution by the state made organized reconstruction practically impossible. The previously confiscated property was not returned in full and the establishment of a Greek Catholic seminary was also prohibited until the fall of the Wall.

Only after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 could the seminary and theological faculty be founded in Prešov. In the 1990s the Vatican adapted the diocese organization of Catholics of the Byzantine Rite to the new political realities. After the collapse of Czechoslovakia (1993), the Prague Exarchate was established in 1996 for the faithful of the Greek Catholic Church in the Czech Republic . In 1997 the Košice Exarchate was established.

On 30 January 2008, the proclaimed Holy See with the Apostolic Constitution Spiritali emolumento of Pope Benedict XVI. the reorganization of the Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia and its elevation to a metropolitan church sui iuris ( church in its own right ). The Eparchat Prešov was raised to the Archparchy of Prešov and the Apostolic Exarchate Košice received the status of an independent eparchy Košice . The west of Slovakia was separated from the Eparchat Prešov and also raised to an independent Eparchy Bratislava . As a result, the Slovak Greek Catholic Church has got its own first hierarch , the Metropolitan Archbishop of Prešov . A merger with the Canadian eparchy Saints Cyril and Methodius of Toronto , founded in 1980, to form a universal church should be possible in the long term.

See also

• List of Greek Catholic Bishops in Slovakia
• List of Roman Catholic Dioceses

literature

• Ján Babjak: The Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia. In: EAST-WEST. European Perspectives , 7 (2006), Issue 4 ( online , owep.de).
• Andrej Škoviera: The Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia after World War II. In: Ostkirchliche Studien, 57, 2008, issue 1, pp. 150–156. ( online , academia.edu).

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Eastern Catholic Churches 2014. (PDF) Catholic Near East Welfare Association, accessed March 5, 2015 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia , prooriente.at

Web links

• Homepage of the Slovak Greek Catholic Church
• Entry on Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia at Pro Oriente
• Entry on Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia on gcatholic.org (English)

Coordinates: 48 ° 59 ′ 39.1 "  N , 21 ° 14 ′ 35.4"  E