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Slovak Byzantine Catholic Church was elevated to the status of Metropolitan Church sui iuris. New Byzantine Catholic Eparchy in Bratislava (Capital of Slovakia) was erected on Wednesday January 30th 2008. The roman pope Benedict XVI appointed as the new bishop father Peter Rusnak, the actual parish priest and protopresbyteros in Bratislava. The eparchy of Preshov was raised to Archeparchy and bishop Jan Babjak was appointed as archbishop. Further, the status of the Apostolic Exarchate of Košice was changed to that of an Eparchy.
1. The new Greek Catholic Eparchy of Bratislava has jurisdiction over western and central part of Slovakia (regions of Bratislava, Trnava, Trenčín, Nitra, Žilina and Banská Bystrica). The new Eparchy has actually 10 parishes: Bratislava, Trenčín, Nitra, Banská Bystrica, Brezno, Zvolen, Telgárt, Šumiac, Žilina, Martin. Byzantine Catholic services are celebrated in other cities too: Trnava, Piešťany, Komárno, Prievidza, Ružomberok and Liptovský Mikuláš. In the census of 2001 14641 faithful from this territory declared themselves Byzantine Catholics, but this number does not include a high number of people working and studying in western and central Slovakia while officially having residence in Eastern Slovakia and a certain part of Byzantine Catholics that declare themselves by mistake as Roman Catholics. The real number of faithful of the new Eparchy is about 25.000. The Byzantine Catholic church of Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Bratislava was chosen as the cathedral church of the new Eparchy.
2. The bishop-elect father Peter Rusnák was born in Humenné on 6 September 1950 in the family of a Byzantine Catholic priest. The family was heavily persecuted during communist regime. He studied theology on Roman catholic theological faculty of the Comenius University in Bratislava (the only catholic theological faculty during the communist period in Slovakia). Ordained a priest on 14 June 1987. Served as parish administrator at several parishes (Kapišová, Prešov, Vranov nad Topľou, Petrová, Bardejov), since 2003 parish priest and protopresbyteros in Bratislava. 1990-1993 spiritual of the priest seminary in Prešov, 1994-1995 secretary of the eparchial curia and ceremonary, 1995-1998 synkellos and director of the eparchial curia. During 1990-2003 held lectures on pastoral theology and homiletics on the Greek Catholic Theological faculty in Prešov. For long years worked as a member of the liturgical commission. Ordination of the bishop-elect will take place on Saturday, February 16th 2008 in the City Sports Palace in Prešov at 10:00 a.m. local time. The enthronisation will take place on Sunday March 9th 2008 in the Roman Catholic church of St. Vincent de Paul in Bratislava - Ruzhinov at 11:00 a.m. local time. (changed!)
3. Elevation to the status of the metropolitan church sui iuris will be celebrated on Sunday February 17th 2008 in the City Sports Palace in Prešov at 10:00 a.m. local time.Anyone ho desires to see the Sunday celebration, can see it live on line in Slovak television on Sunday 17th February, beginning at 10:00 a.m. local time (9:00 a.m. GMT, 4:00 a.m. EST, 3:00 a.m. CST, 2:00 a.m. MST, 1:00 a.m. PST). The transmission will take 2 hours.
4. The feast of the elevation of the Exarchate of Košice to the Eparchy of Košice will be celebrated in the Cathedral Church of the Nativity of Mother of God in Košice on Monday February 18th 2008 at 9:30 a.m. local time.
Pictures
Information on Vatican official site.
Audio (all in Slovak language only)
For more information (only in Slovak) see www.grkatpo.sk a www.tkkbs.sk.
 This is NOT an official webpage of the Byzantine Catholic Church in Slovakia.
(c) www.grkat.net 2008-03-04 by andreios |
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