Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.53745/ccp.45.88.6
Archbishop Stadler and Organization of Geek-catholic Pastoral Care in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Milenko Krešić
orcid.org/0000-0001-5745-0254
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosna and Herzegovina
Abstract
The author analyzes circumstances and processes regarding the organization of pastoral care for the Greek-Catholic believers in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the times of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Special attention is put on the role of archbishop Stadler regarding finding the solution to this issue. Greek-Catholic Rusyns immigrated to Bosnia and Herzegovina at the end of the nineteenth century. According to the official Austro-Hungarian records in 1910, there were 8000 inhabited in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This article is divided into eight chapters. In the first chapter, the author describes the first attempts to arrange pastoral care for the Greek-Catholics at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the problem of the jurisdiction over the Greek-Catholics in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The second chapter contains a description of the mission of Andrej Schepyzki, archbishop of Lviv, who in 1902 has visited Greek Catholics in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the author of the third and fourth chapters analyzes the endeavors of archbishop Stadler regarding this issue. Namely, Stadler wanted to establish a Greek-Catholic bishopric, or at least an Apostolic administration in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Such a solution demanded cooperation and agreement with the Austro-Hungarian administration. Still, though the Austro-Hungarian administration was not against Stadler’s idea, they objected it because of political and financial reasons. The fifth chapter discusses the question of jurisdiction over the Greek-Catholics in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and this issue was solved by decree of the Holy See, according to which jurisdiction over them was assigned to the local ordinary of the Roman liturgy, and not to the Greek-Catholic bishop in Križevci. In the sixth chapter, the author elaborates the negative reaction of the local Greek-Catholics to the decree of the Holy See, and Stadler’s efforts to adequately solve this problem together with the Austro-Hungarian administration. The Holy See and archbishop of Lviv Scheptyzkyj were adequately involved in these processes and a compromising – but temporary – the solution was achieved when J. Žuka, Rusyn Greek-Catholic priest, was appointed to the position of general vicar of the Roman rite bishop in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Later in 1914, this issue was finally solved by establishing the Apostolic administration in Bosnia and Herzegovina. With this solution problem of priests, who would perform pastoral care, was resolved by bringing more Greek-Catholic priests from Galicia, and this issue is described in the last two chapters of the article.
Keywords
Greek Catholics; Bosnia and Herzegovina; archbishop Stadler; bishop Drohobeczky; archbishop Scheptyzkyj; Holy See; jurisdiction; Austro-Hungarian administration
Hrčak ID:
267570
URI
Publication date:
18.12.2021.
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