www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News New Bishop for Czech Exarchate

It was made public on Saturday April 24 that the Holy Father:


- Elevated Msgr. Jan Kocis, protosyncellus of the Apostolic Exarchate for Catholics of the Byzantine Rite resident in the Czech Republic, to the dignity of bishop.

Good day, Deacon Lance, peace.

The Holy See`s Press Office website did not publish a curriculum vitae for Bishop Kocis. The Czech Bishops`Conference has published one at:
http://tisk.cirkev.cz/art/clanek.asp?id=5483

Bishop Kocis was born on 25 June 1926 at Pozdislovce, Slovakia, and he was ordained a priest on 1 January 1951 by Bishop Robert Pobozny of Roznava. I note that on the following day, Bishop Pobozny consecrated Father Pavel Hnilica, S.J., as bishop. Both ceremonies were done in secret.

What is not stated in the biographical notes on the new bishop is that he was secretly consecrated bishop on 3 December 1967 by Bishop Felix Maria Davidek. He was the first bishop consecrated by Bishop Davidek and it is also of interest that the second bishop consecrated by Bishop Davidek was Bishop Ivan Ljavinec, on 24 March 1968. This information is found in "Skryta Cirkev" by Petr Fiala and Jir� Hanus (Brno, 1999). The authors also state that Father Mari�n Pot�s, O.S.B.M., was consecrated bishop in August 1972 by Bishop Davidek. The same information is found in Ondrej Liska`s "Cirkev v Podzemi" (1999, Brno).

It is apparent that the Holy See either does not recognize the previous consecrations of these prelates or has reservations about them, since Bishop Ljavinec was consecrated in Rome on 30 March 1996 by Archbishop Marusyn.

Given Bishop Kocis` age, I do not think it unreasonable to view his nomination as a titular bishop (Abrittum) as an honor for his fidelity.

Peace,

Charles

Christ is Risen!

Charles,

Yes, the Holy See has deeemed Bishop Davidek's episcopal consecrations of questionable vaildity due to concerns about the form he used for the consecrations. I don't know whether they are considered absolutley null or not. I saw nothing stating that the 96 consecration of Bishop Ivan was conditional.

Fr. Deacon Lance

Truly He is Risen! Dear Deacon Lance and Charles, Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't part of the problem with Bishop Davidek was that he ordained married men secretly?If this is the same bishop I heard of, he ordained married men as priests, perhaps not so much because he advocated a married priesthood, but rather as an emergency measure,citing unusual circumstances,i.e.,persecution.And wern't some of these men allowed to continue as priests, but in the Byzantine Rite?would you or anyone posting here know about this?

Dear Father Deacon Lance,

First, my apologies for my incorrect addressing of you in my previous post, omitting the title "Father."

I do not believe that Bishop Ivan`s consecration was conditional. I have checked the rather full account published in "l`Osservatore Romano" at the time and there is no mention of it being conditional, nor has there ever been anything in print from "official" sources referring to his consecration by Bishop Davidek. There is no doubt that Bishop Davidek himself was validly consecrated.

Peace,

Charles

Dear Father Al,

Yes, Bishop Davidek did ordain married men as priests and a few as bishops. It is alleged that he ordained at least one woman as a priest.

There was a commission set up to regularize those who were ordained clandestinely. Part of the mandate of the commission was to judge the validity of their orders and their fitness for ministry. For those who were found to possess valid orders, if they were deemed fit for ministry, the celibate Roman-rite priests were incardinated into dioceses (and some joined religious communities). Those who were married were given the option of incardination as priests into the Eparchy of Presov or as permanent deacons into a Roman-rite diocese.

Those whose orders were of questionable validity, but who were deemed worthy of ministry, were conditionally ordained.

All those who had been consecrated as bishops were asked to sign documents in which they agreed not to dress or function as bishops in the future and in which they renounced all rights to the episcopal dignity. Most, but not all, eventually signed the documents.

The above should be distinguished from those whose episcopal orders originated from Bishop Pobozny in 1951 and about whose orders there are no doubts. Those four are: Bishop Pavel Hnilica, S.J. (consecrated by Bp. Pobozny in 1951); Cardinal Jan Chryzostom Korec, S.J., Bishop of Nitra (consecrated by Bp. Hnilica in 1951); Bishop Dominik Kalata, S.J. (consecrated by then Bp. Korec in 1955); and Bishop Peter Dubovsky, S.J. (consecrated by Bp. Kalata in 1961). All are still living.

Peace,

Charles

Charles,

No apology needed, "Deacon" is fine as well.

Fr. Deacon Lance

Does anyone know which Greek Catholic (Byzantine) and Latin rite bishops were present at the consecration, and in which church / cathedral it took place ? Also, there is a Catholic Czech web site which states that there were less than 9,000 Greek Catholics in the Czech Exarchate. Does this figure represent all of the Greek Catholics, or only those who specifically identify themselves as Ruthenians ? This adherance figure was very low relative to statistics I have seen in the past.

Hritzko

Good morning.

To which consecration are you referring?

Peace,

Charles

Dear Charles,

In reply to your question, it was Monsignor Jan Kocis whom Fr. Deacon Lance mentions in the original post.

Thanks.

Speaking of the hierarchy descending from Bishop Davidek, does anyone know what has become of Msgr. Fridolin Zahradnik?
Christ is Risen!
Incognitus

Dear Hritzko,

My reason for asking is that in my subsequent posts I referred to Bishop Ivan`s consecration in Rome as well as some other clandestine consecrations. Concerning Bishop Jan, he was consecrated in secret by Bishop Davidek, with no co-consecrators. I assume that he will be consecrated again, as was Bishop Ivan, and without any reference to his previous consecration.

Dear Incognitus,

The most recent item I found about Bishop Fridolin Zahradnik is a story in the publication "Jesus". I believe the article is from the year 2000. The article, in Italian, is about the clandestine bishops and priests and goes into the question of the married priests being incardinated in the Prague Exarchate and of the re-ordinations. I found it very interesting. The url is: http://www.stpauls.it/jesus00/0010je/0010je40.htm

Peace,

Charles

Sorry folks for going just a tad bit off subject here.

How close is Slovakian (or Czech) language to Croatian? Juuuuuust curious.

Hvala mnogo!

SPDundas
Deaf Byzantine

Dear SPDundas, You have toyched on one of my favorite subjects, Slavic linguistics.I'm no expert,but yes, Slovak and Czech would have some similarities with Croatian, since they're all Slavic languages.You probably know that Croatian is almost the same language as Serbian, with Slovenian being a differant, but closely related tongue.They are South Slavic languages, whereas Czech and Slovak as West Slavic languages.It is thought the the Slovaks and the Slovenes were once the same people, seperated by the Magyar invasion.Many Croatian family sames seem to be of Slovak, Czech, or even Polish origin, no doubt this dates back to the Austro-Hungarian empire, when members of the various nationalities interacted.I would say that the differance between Czech and Slovak would be a bit more than between Serbian and Croatian, but probably less then the differance between Serbo-Croatian and Slovene.Perhaps some real experts on this forum can provide additional information,In Christ,Fr. Andrei

Greg,

Can you double-check that site or post the link, please?

The 2003 edition of Annuario Pontificio, which represents 2002 census data, gave a figure of 190,000 faithful in the Exarchate. The 2002 edition reported 250,000; there were 270,000 according to the 2001 issue; in the 2000 edition, 200,000. Those up and down numbers sound a bit dramatic, but are easily attributable to the inaccuracies encountered in census-taking during a jurisdiction's early years. A drop to 9,000, however, would be more than a bit alarming

Many years,

Neil