Yes - there's nothing else for them to enroll in. There was a group a few decades ago functioning out of West Germany that seemed to be trying to organize a "Ruthenian" presence, but it's a long time since anyone heard from them.
There was also an attempt to organize a "Carpatho-Rusyn" parish in Toronto, but the founding of the Slovak parish put an end to it. There is still a small "Carpatho-Russian" organization in Toronto, but it's Communist (it may have vanished in the general diminution of the Communist presence in North America). Fr. Serge
Fr. Serge,
I refer you to Dr. Magocsi's book "Our People:(in Rusyn: Po Nashemu)Carpatho-Rusyns and their Descendants in North America", Fourth Edition c.2005, Chapter 9 pp.102-109 (Carpatho-Rusyns in Canada).
"...As in the United States, Carpatho-Rusyns in Canada are divided along religious, national, and political lines. The Greek or Byzantine-rite Catholics have come primarily from the Preshov (i.e. Prjashev) Region in eastern Slovakia, but because they were few in number they did not have their own Greek Catholic jurisdiction as in the United States. Rather, they came under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada. But not wanting to assimilate with Ukrainians, they were able to maintain a few parishes which were exclusively or largely made up of
Rusyns or
Rusnaks, as they called themselves. For instance, the first of these Byzantine-rite Rusyn churches was established in 1921 in the southern Alberta farming town of Lethbridge by immigrants who came from three ethnolinguistic Rusyn villges (Slovinky, Porac, and Zavadka) located in the old county of Szepes (Spish) in the Preshov Region.
While the Greek Catholic immigrants from eastern Slovakia who arrived before World War II were for the most part ethnically Rusyn, those who came subsequently, especially during and just right after the liberalization period in Czechoslovakia in 1968, were Slovaks. Despite the presence of this Slovak element and some efforts to have Byzantine-rite religious services conducted in the Slovak language, the older Rusyn immigrants were able to maintain Church Slavonic for the liturgy, the only other language used being English.
The leadership of the Byzantine-rite Rusyns has opted for a Slovak idenity, so that adherents of that religion (whether they were ethnically Rusyn or Slovak) have since World War II come to be known as Slovak Byzantine-rite Catholics. In 1964, one of their priests, Michael Rusnak, was made an auxiliary bishop within the Ukrainian Catholic jurisdiction for "Slovak" parishes. Then, in 1980, the Vatican created a distinct Slovak Byzantine Catholic Eparchy headed by Bishop Rusnak. With financial assistance from the industrialist Stephen B. Roman, a monumental church was dedicated in 1984 in a Toronto suburb in the presence of +Pope John Paul II and representatives from the Byzantine Ruthenian hierarchy and from Rusyn secular organizations in the United States. Despite its financial resources, the Slovak Byzantine Catholic Church was limited to only a few thousand members in six parishes and two missions, all in Ontario. In recent years, its Slovak and Rusyn membership has declined, and its official Slovak-language magazine,
Maria (Toronto, 1961-88), ceased publications..."
Dr. Magocsi then goes on to describe the presence of Orthodox Lemko Rusyns who, as in the United States, did not join Ukrainian Orthodox churches but rather Russian Orthodox churches, for the most part those parishes under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church in America (formerly the Metropolia).
Because of these Slovak, Ukrainian and Orthodox Great Russian church environments, Carpatho-Rusyns were not able to preserve a distinct Rusyn Church and Rusyn identity in Canada.
Ungcsertezs
