Byzantine Church of Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro

The Byzantine Church of Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro is an Eastern Catholic Church sui iuris of the Byzantine Rite which is in full union with the Roman Catholic Church. It consists of the Eparchy of Križevci and the Apostolic Exarchate of Serbia and Montenegro.[1] The eparchy of Križevci has been headed by Bishop Nikola Kekić since his appointment in 2009.

History

The eparchy ("diocese") of Križevci once spanned the former Yugoslav republics of Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina; it mostly gathered its faithful among the Croats in central and eastern Croatia, Macedonians in the Republic of Macedonia, and among the Rusyns or Ukrainians in eastern Croatia, northern Bosnia and northern Serbia. The liturgy in the Slavonic Rite uses the Old Church Slavonic language and the Cyrillic alphabet.

After the formation of independent republics from what had been Yugoslavia, a separate Apostolic Exarchate was created in Serbia and Montenegro, the Apostolic Exarchate of Serbia and Montenegro. It was formed in 2002 and its first exarch Đura Džudžar (Ђура Џуџар) was appointed in 2003, with his see in Ruski Krstur. This is still associated with the Eparchy of Križevci, unlike the separate Apostolic Exarchate that was formed in Macedonia in 2003 and that is classified in the Annuario Pontificio as a separate particular Church.

On 19 January 2013 the faithful of Montenegro were entrusted to the local Latin bishop, so the jurisdiction of the Apostolic Exarchate of Serbia and Montenegro was reduced to Serbia only.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Annuario Pontificio 2012 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2012 ISBN 978-88-209-8722-0), p. 1140
  2. ↑ Decree Attenta norma, AAS 105 (2013), p. 187

External links

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