HIS-Press-Service, 1981 (6. évfolyam, 19-21. szám)

1981-10-01 / 21. szám

HIS Press Service No. 21, October 1981

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originated from a single monastery, became a center for the country's Greek Catholics. In 1595 Pope Clement VIII reduced the bishopric to the status of a district vicariate under the jurisdiction of the Archdioceses of Eger and Esztergom.

From the 13th century on, great number of Christians belonging to the Orthodox rite immigrated to Hungary from the East and settled in that area of the country. I 1646, four hundred of their priestsin Ungvár agreed to unite with the Roman Catholic Church, while retaining their traditional liturgy and the right to continue to choose their own bishops. It was not until 80 years later that the smaller territory of Máramaros, with 200 priests, affiliated itself with this religious union. With time, groups of the Greek Orthodox population of Transylvania also affiliated themselves with the Roman Catholics, and were placed directly under the authority of the Holy See in 1721. The Diocese of Esztergom retained jurisdiction over them only in matters regarding marriage. In the meantime, several Greek-rite bishoprics had been founded in what is now Yugoslavia. These were followed by the establishment of the Diocese of Eperjes in 1816, and that of Szamosújvár in 1856.

The Diocese of Hajdúdorog

Efforts at founding a Hungarian-speaking Greek Catholic bishopric in Hajdúdorog began in 1863. The first such request was unsuccessful. A "Common Action Committee" was founded in 1868; its goal was to establish a Greek Catholic diocese and secure permission for a Hungarian-1anguage liturgy.

In 1898 the Common Action Committee was replaced by a national committee which again requested the establishment of a Greek Catholic diocese. The request submitted was signed by 113 parishes and 568 mission parishes. On 6 May 1912, the Greek Catholic Diocese of Hajdúdorog was finally established by Emperor Francis Joseph, King of Hungary, and was constituted on 8 June of that year by Pope Pius X in the papal bull, "Christifideles Graeci." The Hungarian parliament officially recognized the new diocese in Legal Article XXXV/1913.

The papal bull lists 162 parishes with 261,000 members as belonging to the new diocese. These parishes were spread throughout 6 Roman Catholic dioceses. The city of Hajdúdorog was to be the episcopal see. (At present, the center of the diocese is at Nyíregyháza.) Ancient Greek, rather than Hungarian, was designated as the liturgical language of the new diocese. This did not hinder the faithful from continuing to use it as such. As a result of both its many years of use in the liturgy and its de facto recognition by the Second Vatican Council, the Hungarian language was finally accepted as the official liturgical language of the country's Greek Catholic Church.