Apostolic Nunciature to Slovakia

Contents

The Apostolic Nunciature to Slovakia is an ecclesiastical office of the Catholic Church in Slovakia. It is a diplomatic post of the Holy See, whose representative is called the Apostolic Nuncio with the rank of an ambassador.

Holy See-Slovakia relations

Relations between the Holy See and what is now Slovakia began in 1919 with the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire but the relationship between the Holy See and the government of Czechoslovakia was strained more often than not. The new Czechoslovak government demanded that the incumbent bishops in Slovakia be replaced and systematically implemented a persecutory anti-church policy. Due to this imposition in 1920 all bishops but one had been replaced or forced out to resign.[1][2]

The proclamation of Slovak independence in March 1939, a few months before the outbreak of World War II, ended normal relations between the Vatican and Czechoslovakia, and the Holy See sought a diplomatic middle ground by granting recognition to the Slovak Republic, but sent a chargé d'affaires, Giuseppe Burzio, rather than a nuncio.

Apostolic Nuncios to Slovakia

Archbishop Giovanni Coppa was named Apostolic Nuncio to Czechoslovakia on 30 June 1990. With the division on that country into Slovakia and the Czech Republic on 1 January 1993, Coppa became nuncio to each of them, based in Prague.[3]

References

  1. 1.Luboslav Hromjak, Pietro Gasparri, il governo cecoslovacco e la Slovacchia in Laura Pettinaroli e Massimiliano Valente, Il cardinale Pietro Gasparri, segretario di Stato (1914-1930), Heidelberg University Publishing, 2020, pp. 185-206. The essay explicitly discusses the government's "persecutory policy against the Church" (politica ecclesiastica di carattere persecutorio, p. 189).
  2. 2.The Dioceses of Košice and Rožňava remained vacant for several decades, occasionally being governed by an apostolic administrator (Košice from 1925 to 1939, and from 1948 to 1990, Rožňava from 1920 to 1939, and from 1945 to 1990). The appointment of the Bishops of Košice and Rožňava in 1939 was possible only during the short period (1938-1945) of the return of these territories under Hungarian rule after the First Vienna Award. After the World War II also other dioceses remained vacant: Nitra from 1948 to 1973, Banská Bystrica from 1950 to 1973, Spiš from 1965 to 1989. Bratislava remained from 1922 to 1977 in a "legal limbo" (a territory under its own administrator but formally belonging to the Hungarian Archdiocese of Esztergom); the first Archbishop of Trnava, later of Bratislava-Trnava, did not take office until 1989 due to the opposition of the Czechoslovak communist government.
  3. 3."Apoštolská nunciatúra: Diplomatické styky SR s Vatikánom". Katolícka Cirkev na Slovensku (in Slovak).
  4. 4."E' morto il cardinale Giovanni Coppa, diplomatico e grande latinista. Aveva 91 anni". Faro di Roma (in Italian). 16 May 2016. Archived from the original on 5 June 2016. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  5. 5.[5.2]"Zomrel prvý apoštolský nuncius v SR Luigi Dossena" (in Slovak). SME. 9 September 2007. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  6. 6.[6.2]"Rinunce e Nomine, 08.02.2001" (Press release) (in Italian). Holy See Press Office. 8 February 2001. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  7. 7."Rinunce e Nomine, 28.11.2007" (Press release) (in Italian). Holy See Press Office. 28 November 2007. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  8. 8."Rinunce e Nomine, 15.03.2008" (Press release) (in Italian). Holy See Press Office. 15 March 2008. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  9. 9.[9.2]"Resignations and Appointments, 01.04.2017" (Press release). Holy See Press Office. 1 April 2017. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  10. 10."Rinunce e nomine, 31.10.2021" (Press release) (in Italian). Holy See Press Office. 31 October 2021. Retrieved 31 October 2021.
  11. 11."Resignations and Appointments, 02.07.2022". Retrieved 2 July 2022.