Hungarian Greek Catholic Church

Coordinates: 47.9554°N 21.7124°E

The Hungarian Greek Catholic Church[a] or the Byzantine

Greek Catholic Church in
Catholic Church in Hungary is a sui iuris (autonomous) Eastern
Catholic church based in Hungary. As a particular church of the
Hungary
Catholic Church, it is in full communion with the Holy See.[3][4][1]
Its liturgical usage is that of the Byzantine Rite in the Hungarian
language.

History
Hungary's Greek Catholics were originally concentrated in what is
now northeastern Hungary. This region was historically inhabited
by Byzantine Rite Christians from the Carpathian Mountains
(Ruthenians and Romanians). Serbs fleeing the Turkish advance
arrived later in what was then Hungary, but most stayed in the area
that is now part of Serbia. Later still, when the Turks were driven
back from Vienna in 1683 and from Buda and central Hungary in
1686, Ruthenians and Slovaks settled in the abandoned lands of
Hungary. They were cared for by the Ruthenian Eparchy of
Cathedral of Hajdúdorog,
Mukacheve (Hungarian: Munkács). In the 17-18th centuries,
Hajdúdorog
during the conflict with Protestants, many Hungarians joined the
Greek Catholic Church, and so adopted the Byzantine Rite rather Classification Catholic
than the Latin, which resulted in a considerable increase in their Orientation Eastern Catholic
number.[5]
Theology Catholic theology
Perhaps largely because of this last element, Byzantine Hungarians Polity Episcopal
began to use the Hungarian language in their liturgy. A translation
Governance Metropolitanate
of the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom for private study was
published in 1795. A book containing the parts of the liturgy that Pope Francis
the people sing appeared in 1862. Representatives of 58 Archbishop Metropolitan
Hungarian-speaking parishes met in 1868 and set up an Péter Fülöp
organization to promote the liturgical use of the Hungarian
Kocsis
language and the establishment of a separate eparchy. 1882 saw
the publication, without formal ecclesiastical approval, of a Associations Congregation for
Hungarian translation of the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom for the Oriental
actual use, which was soon followed by Hungarian translations of Churches
other liturgical texts. Region Hungary
Liturgy Byzantine Rite
Sui iuris Headquarters Debrecen,
Hungary[1]
Finally, on 8 June 1912, Pope Pius X established the Eparchy of
Hajdúdorog[6][7] for the 162 Hungarian-speaking Greek Catholic Origin 8 June 1912
parishes. He limited the use of Hungarian to non-liturgical Hungary
functions, requiring the clergy to use Greek in the liturgy, but
granted an interval of three years for the change of language to be Congregations 187[2]
effected. Because of the outbreak of the First World War, this
Members 326,200[2]
interval was prolonged indefinitely, and use of Hungarian has
continued. Official website gorogkatolikus.hu
(http://www.gorog
The change of national frontiers after the First World War led to katolikus.hu/)
the reduction of the territory of the Eparchy of
Hajdúdorog from the 168 parishes to which it had grown
to only 90. Within Hungary there were also 21 parishes
of the Eparchy of Prešov and one of the Eparchy of
Mukačevo. On 4 June 1924, these were brought together
as the new Exarchate of Miskolc,[8][9] at first - because at
that time they still used Church Slavonic in the liturgy -
classified as Ruthenian, but now considered part of the
Hungarian Greek Catholic Church.

The church was in a unique position under the

Hungarian Communist regime. Unlike its counterparts in Greek Catholic Church in Hungary
bordering Romania, Slovakia or Soviet Ukraine, it was administrative divisions
neither outlawed nor especially targeted for persecution.
Factors for this relative leniency include the church's
small size, its poverty (northeast Hungary, where its adherents are concentrated, has historically been the
country's poorest area) as well as the near absence of an Orthodox church into which Greek Catholics
could have been forced to merge.[10]

The territory of the eparchy at first corresponded to that of the Latin Church Archdiocese of Eger in eastern
Hungary and Budapest. But its jurisdiction was extended on 17 July 1980 to the whole of Hungary.

On 20 March 2015, Pope Francis elevated the Hungarian Church to a metropolitanate with Debrecen as its
metropolitan see, naming Bishop Fülöp Kocsis as its metropolitan. He also raised the Apostolic Exarchate
of Miskolc to the status of an eparchy, to be headed by Bishop Atanáz Orosz. Finally he erected the
Eparchy of Nyiregyhaza from territory previously within the See of Hajdúdorog. The two eparchies are
suffragans of the Hajdúdorog see.[11]

A small number of Hungarian Greek Catholics have emigrated to North America, where their few parishes
are under the jurisdiction of the Metropolis of Pittsburgh in the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church.[12] More
than half of the diocesan priests are married.[13]

Structure
The Hungarian Greek Catholic Church comprises a single ecclesiastical province, which consists of the
metropolitan archeparchy and two suffragan eparchies:

Archeparchy of Hajdúdorog
Eparchy of Miskolc
Eparchy of Nyiregyhaza
Greek Catholic eparchs (bishops) are members of the (mainly Latin) episcopal conference of Hungary.

See also
Catholic Church in Hungary

Notes
a. Hungarian: Magyar görögkatolikus egyház; Latin: Ecclesia Graeco-Catholica Hungariae

References
1. "Ferenc pápa megalapította a Hajdúdorogi Metropóliát" (http://www.gorogkatolikus.hu/?muv
=hir&hir_id=3625) (in Hungarian). Hungarian Catholic Church website. 20 March 2015.
Retrieved 21 March 2015.
2. Roberson, Ronald G. "The Eastern Catholic Churches 2014" (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0140822015856/http://www.cnewa.org/source-images/Roberson-eastcath-statistics/eastcath
olic-stat14.pdf) (PDF). Eastern Catholic Churches Statistics. Catholic Near East Welfare
Association. Archived from the original (http://www.cnewa.org/source-images/Roberson-east
cath-statistics/eastcatholic-stat14.pdf) (PDF) on 22 August 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
3. "Metropolitanate of Hajdúdorog" (http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/diocese/hajd0.htm).
GCatholic. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
4. "Metropolitan Archeparchy of Hajdúdorog" (https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dhaj
d.html).
5. Magyar Katolikus Lexikon (Hungarian Catholic Lexicon): Görögkatolikusok (Greek
Catholics) [1] (http://lexikon.katolikus.hu/G/g%C3%B6r%C3%B6gkatolikusok.html)
6. Cheney, David M. "Diocese of Hajdúdorog" (http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dhaj
d.html). All Dioceses. catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
7. "Diocese of Hajdúdorog" (http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/diocese/hajd0.htm). Catholic
Dioceses in the World. GCatholic.org. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
8. Cheney, David M. "Apostolic Exarchate of Miskolc" (http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/dioces
e/dmisk.html). All Dioceses. catholic-hierarchy.org. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
9. "Apostolic Exarchate of Miskolc" (http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/diocese/misk0.htm).
Catholic Dioceses in the World. GCatholic. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
10. Stéphane Mahieu, “The Hungarian Greek Catholic Church”, in Lucian Leuștean (ed.),
Eastern Christianity and Politics in the Twenty-First Century, p. 590-91. Routledge, 2014,
ISBN 978-1-315-81903-7
11. "Pope raises Byzantine-rite Hungarian Catholic Church to status of sui juris metropolitan
see | News Headlines" (http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=24
396).
12. Roberson, Ronald G. "The Hungarian Catholic Church. Page 2" (https://cnewa.org/eastern-c
hristian-churches/the-catholic-eastern-churches/from-the-orthodox-church/the-hungarian-cat
holic-church/?highlight=Hungarian). Eastern Catholic Churches. Catholic Near East Welfare
Association. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
13. Galadza, Peter (2010). "Eastern Catholic Christianity" (https://books.google.com/books?id=f
Wp9JA3aBvcC&pg=PA303). In Parry, Kenneth (ed.). The Blackwell companion to Eastern
Christianity. Blackwell companions to religion. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 303.
ISBN 978-1-4443-3361-9.
External links
Official website (http://gorogkatolikus.hu)
Byzantine Rite Catholics in Hungary - A Historical Retrospection (http://byzantinohungarica.
com/index.php/veghseo-tamas-our-paths-byzantine-rite-catholics-in-hungary-summary)
Article on the Hungarian Greek Catholic Church by Ronald Roberson on the CNEWA web
site (https://cnewa.org/eastern-christian-churches/toc/the-catholic-eastern-churches/from-the
-orthodox-church/the-hungarian-catholic-church/)

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