Greek Catholics in Croatia |
The first Greek Catholics in what would later be Yugoslavia were Serbians living in Hungarian-controlled Croatia in the early 17th century. In 1611 they were given a bishop who served as Byzantine vicar of the Latin Bishop of Zagreb. He had his headquarters at Marcha Monastery, which became a center of efforts to bring Serbian Orthodox faithful in Croatia into communion with Rome.
After a period of tension with the local Latin bishops, the Serbs in Croatia were given their own diocesan bishop by Pope Pius VI on June 17, 1777, with his see at Krizevci, near Zagreb. At first he was made suffragan to the Primate of Hungary, and later (1853) to the Latin Archbishop of Zagreb.
The diocese of Krizevci was extended to embrace all the Greek Catholics in Yugoslavia when the country was founded after World War I. The diocese included five distinct groups: some ethnic Serbs in Croatia, Ruthenians who had emigrated from Slovakia around 1750, Ukrainians who emigrated from Galicia in about 1900, Slavic Macedonians in the south of the country who became Catholic through missionary activity in the 19th century, and a few Romanians in the Yugoslavian Banat.
Although they belong to the diocese of Krizevci, the Greek Catholics in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia come under the jurisdiction of the Latin bishop of Skopje as their Apostolic Visitator. They number 6,100 faithful and are divided into five parishes.
The diocese of Krizevci still officially includes all the Greek Catholics in the former republics of Yugoslavia. This arrangement has continued after the break-up of the country into several independent nations.
LOCATION: The republics of former Yugoslavia
HEAD: Bishop Slavomir Miklovš (born 1934, appointed 1983)
TITLE: Bishop of Krizevci
RESIDENCE: Zagreb, Croatia
MEMBERSHIP: 49,000
http://www.faswebdesign.com/ECPA/Byzantine/Croatian.html |
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