Everything about The Slovak Greek Catholic Church totally explained
The
Slovak Greek Catholic Church, or
Slovak Byzantine Catholic Church, is a
Byzantine Rite particular Church of the
Catholic Church in
full communion with
Rome.
L'Osservatore Romano of
31 January 2008 reported that, in the Slovak Republic alone, it had some 350,000 faithful, 374 priests and 254 parishes. In addition, the 2007
Annuario Pontificio gave its
Canadian Eparchy of Saints Cyril and Methodius of Toronto as having 25,000 faithful, 6 priests and 7 parishes.
History
Since the Union of
Užhorod in
1646 was unanimously accepted on the territory that includes present day eastern
Slovakia, the history of Slovak Greek Catholic Church was for centuries intertwined with that of the
Ruthenian Catholic Church.
At the end of
World War I, most Greek Catholic Ruthenians and Slovaks were included within the territory of
Czechoslovakia, including two
eparchies,
Prešov and
Mukačevo.
The eparchy of Prešov, created on
September 22 1818, was removed in
1937 from the jurisdiction of the
Hungarian primate and subjected directly to the
Holy See, while the 21 parishes of the eparchy of Prešov that were in Hungary were formed into the new eparchy of
Miskolc.
After
World War II, the eparchy of Mukačevo in
Transcarpathia was annexed by the
Soviet Union, thus the eparchy of Prešov included all the Greek Catholics that remained in Czechoslovakia.
After
communists seized the country in April 1950, a "synod" was convoked at Prešov, at which five priests and a number of laymen signed a document declaring that the union with Rome was disbanded and asking to be received into the jurisdiction of the
Moscow Patriarchate, later the Orthodox Church of Czechoslovakia. Greek Catholic bishop Blessed
Pavel Petro Gojdič of Prešov along with his auxiliary, Blessed
Basil Hopko, were imprisoned and bishop Gojdič died in prison in 1960.
During the
Prague Spring in 1968, the former Greek Catholic parishes were allowed to return to the Catholic faith. Of the 292 parishes involved, 205 voted for restoring communion with Rome. This was one of the few reforms by
Dubček that survived the Soviet invasion the same year. However, most of their church buildings remained in the hands of Orthodox Church.
After communism was overthrown in the 1989
Velvet Revolution, most of the Church property was returned to the Slovak Greek Catholic Church by 1993, the year after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia into the
Czech Republic and
Slovakia. For Greek Catholics in the Czech Republic, a separate
Apostolic Vicariate was created, elevated in 1996 to an
Exarchate; the 2007
Annuario Pontificio indicated that it had by then grown to having 177,704 faithful, 37 priests and 25 parishes.
In Slovakia itself,
Pope John Paul II created an
Apostolic Exarchate of
Košice in 1997.
Pope Benedict XVI raised this to the level of an
Eparchy on
30 January 2008 and at the same time erected the new Byzantine-rite Eparchy of
Bratislava. He also raised Prešov to the level of a metropolitan see, constituting the Slovak Greek Catholic Church as a
sui iuris metropolitan Church. At that date there were only two other
sui iuris metropolitan Eastern Catholic Churches: the
Ethiopian Catholic Church and the Ruthenian
Metropolia of Pittsburgh.
Abroad
In the
United States, the Slovak Greek Catholics are not distinguished from the
Ruthenians. Nonetheless, they've a eparchy in
Canada, the Eparchy of Saints Cyril and Methodius of
Toronto.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Slovak Greek Catholic Church'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://slovak_greek_catholic_church.totallyexplained.com">Slovak Greek Catholic Church Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
