![]() Slovak Greek Catholic Church | |
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Classification | Eastern Catholic |
Orientation | Eastern Christianity |
Theology | Catholic theology |
Polity | Episcopal |
Governance | Metropolitanate |
Pope | Francis |
Primate | Vacant |
Associations | Congregation for the Oriental Churches |
Region | Slovakia |
Liturgy | Byzantine Rite |
Headquarters | Prešov, Slovakia |
Members | 207,320 [1] |
Other name(s) | Slovak Byzantine Catholic Church |
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Particular churches sui iuris of the Catholic Church |
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Particular churches are grouped by liturgical rite |
Alexandrian Rite |
Armenian Rite |
Byzantine Rite |
East Syriac Rite |
Latin liturgical rites |
West Syriac Rite |
Eastern Catholic liturgy ![]() ![]() |
The Slovak Greek Catholic Church (Slovak: Gréckokatolícka cirkev na Slovensku, "Greek-Catholic Church in Slovakia"; Latin : Ecclesia Graeco Catholica Slovacica), or Slovak Byzantine Catholic Church, is a metropolitan sui iuris Eastern Catholic particular church in full communion with the Catholic Church and the Pope of Rome. Its liturgical rite is the Byzantine Rite. In 2008 in Slovakia alone, the Slovak Greek Catholic Church had some 350,000 faithful, 374 priests and 254 parishes. In 2017, the Catholic Church counted 207,320 Slovak Greek Catholics worldwide, representing roughly one percent of all Eastern Catholics. [2]
Since the unanimous acceptance of the Union of Uzhhorod on the territory that includes present day eastern Slovakia in 1646, the history of the Slovak Greek Catholic Church was intertwined with that of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church for a period of several centuries. 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 exarchate 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 restore communion with Rome. [3] Of the 292 parishes involved, 205 voted in favor. 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, Church property was gradually returned to the Slovak Greek Catholic Church. This process was almost completed 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 thus forming the Apostolic Exarchate in the Czech Republic (now considered part of Ruthenian Catholic Church); 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 January 30, 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.
Slovakia:
In the United States and Canada, the Slovak Greek Catholics fall under the jurisdiction of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, with the Exarchate of Saints Cyril and Methodius of Toronto for Slovak Greek Catholics reduced from an eparchy and transferred to Ruthenian authority in 2022. [4]
An exarch was the holder of any of various historical offices, some of them being political or military and others being ecclesiastical.
The Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia is a self-governing body of the Eastern Orthodox Church that territorially covers the countries of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The current primate of the Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church is Rastislav of Prešov, Metropolitan of the Czech Lands and Slovakia since 2014.
Sui iuris also spelled sui juris, is a Latin phrase that literally means "of one's own right". It is used in both secular law and the Catholic Church's canon law. The term church sui iuris is used in the Catholic Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEO) to denote the autonomous churches in Catholic communion. The Catholic Church consists of 24 churches, including the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic churches.
The Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, also known in the United States simply as the Byzantine Catholic Church, is an Eastern Catholic church that uses the Byzantine Rite for its liturgies, laws, and cultural identity. It is one of the 23 sui juris Eastern Catholic churches that are in full communion with the Holy See and the rest of the Catholic Church. There are significant, culturally distinct communities in the United States, Canada, and Europe. In the United States, the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh is self-governing. In Europe, Ruthenian jurisdictions are exempt, i.e. dependent directly on the Holy See. The European branch has an eparchy in Ukraine and another in the Czech Republic.
The Byzantine Catholic Metropolis of Pittsburgh is a metropolitan province for Eastern Catholics of the Byzantine Rite in the United States of America, with specific jurisdiction over several communities that originated from the regions of Carpathian Ruthenia, Slovakia, Hungary and former Yugoslavia. Its membership thus includes several Byzantine Catholic groups, mainly among Rusyn Americans, Slovak Americans, Hungarian Americans, and Croatian Americans. Since 2022, the Exarchate of Saints Cyril and Methodius of Toronto in Canada has also been under the provincial jurisdiction the Metropolis of Pittsburgh rather than the Slovak Greek Catholic Church.
The Holy Protection of Mary Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix, commonly known as the Eparchy of Phoenix and formerly known as the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Van Nuys, is a Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church territory jurisdiction or eparchy of the Catholic Church in the western United States. Its episcopal see is Phoenix, Arizona. The last bishop was the Most Reverend John Stephen Pazak.
The Catholic Church in Slovakia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.
The Hungarian Greek Catholic Church or Hungarian Byzantine Catholic Church is a metropolitan sui iuris ("autonomous") Eastern Catholic particular church in full communion with the Catholic Church. It is headquartered in Debrecen. Its liturgical usage is that of the Byzantine Rite in the Hungarian language.
Stephen John Kocisko was the first Metropolitan Archbishop of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh, the American branch of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church
The Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh is a Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church ecclesiastical territory or archeparchy of the Catholic Church that serves portions of the Eastern United States. Its territory covers the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Commonwealth of Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. The current archbishop is the Most Reverend William C. Skurla, whose is resident in the archepiscopal see of Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The Hungarian (Greek) Catholic Archeparchy of Hajdúdorog is a Metropolitan archeparchy of the Hungarian Greek Catholic Church.
The Archeparchy of Prešov is a Slovak Greek Catholic Church ecclesiastical territory or archeparchy of the Catholic Church in Slovakia. Its territory covers the Prešov Region.
Pavel Peter Gojdič, was a Rusyn Basilian monk and the eparch of the Slovak Catholic Eparchy of Prešov. He was imprisoned by the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2001 and recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 2007.
The Eparchy of Križevci is a Greek Catholic Church of Croatia and Serbia eparchy of the Catholic Church in Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its current eparch is Milan Stipić. The cathedra is in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, in the episcopal see of Križevci, Croatia.
The Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo is an eparchy (diocese) associated with the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church under an unidentified status and territory located in the west of Ukraine, roughly equivalent with Zakarpatska Oblast. The eparchy was created by the Pope Clement XIV in 1771.
The Apostolic Exarchate of the Greek Catholic Church in the Czech Republic is an Eastern Catholic institution overseeing Catholics of byzantine-slavonic rite in the Czech Republic. It uses the localized Byzantine Rite in archaic Church Slavonic language. Its cathedral episcopal see is St. Clement's Cathedral, Prague.
A particular church is an ecclesiastical community of faithful headed by a bishop, as defined by Catholic canon law and ecclesiology. A liturgical rite, a collection liturgies descending from shared historic or regional context, depends on the particular church the bishop belongs to. Thus "particular church" refers to an institution, and "liturgical rite" to its ritual practices.
The Exarchate of Saints Cyril and Methodius of Toronto is a ecclesiastical territory or exarchate serving Slovak Greek Catholic Church of the Catholic Church in Canada. Its territory extends over the whole territory of Canada. In 2022, Pope Francis transferred the jurisdiction of the exarchate from the Slovak Greek Catholic Church to the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh, a ecclesiastical province allocated to the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, changing the territory's status from eparchy to exarchate at the same time.
Milan Chautur, C.Ss.R. is a Slovak Greek Catholic hierarch, who served as the first Bishop of the Slovak Catholic Eparchy of Košice from 30 January 2008 until his resignation on 24 June 2021.
Bishop Ján Eugen Kočiš was a Slovak-Czech Ruthenian Greek Catholic hierarch, who served as a titular bishop of Abrittum and an auxiliary bishop of the Ruthenian Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Czech Republic from 24 April 2004 until 7 October 2006.
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