Byzantine Catholic Church of Croatia and Serbia

Disciplinary status: Church discipline
Evidence type: Historical account
GuideThe church's Catholic communion and canonical rank are governed by ecclesiastical law; its origins, institutions, and development are historical matters.
Contents

Byzantine Catholic Church of Croatia and Serbia is a conventional name for the related Byzantine Catholic jurisdictions centered on Križevci in Croatia and Ruski Krstur in Serbia.

Several peoples and jurisdictions

The Eparchy of Križevci arose from communities of Byzantine Christians in Habsburg Croatia who entered Catholic communion; it was established as an eparchy in 1777. It later served Rusyn, Ukrainian, Croatian, Serbian, and other Greek Catholics across Yugoslavia.[1]

After Yugoslavia's dissolution, separate structures emerged. The Byzantine jurisdiction in North Macedonia became its own eparchy, and in 2018 the apostolic exarchate in Serbia was raised to the Eparchy of Saint Nicholas of Ruski Krstur.[2]

A conventional church label

The expression Byzantine Catholic Church of Croatia and Serbia is useful in standard lists of the churches sui iuris, but it must not suggest one metropolitan, patriarch, or common synod governing every jurisdiction. Križevci and Ruski Krstur are distinct immediately subject eparchies linked by history and Byzantine-Slavic tradition.

References

  1. 1.Greek Catholic Churches in Former Yugoslavia — CNEWA historical overview of Križevci and successor jurisdictions
  2. 2.Erection of the Eparchy of Saint Nicholas of Ruski Krstur — Official Holy See announcement elevating the Serbian exarchate in 2018