Ruthenians Lands South of the Carpathians: Carpathian Ruthenians – Greek Catholics of the Uzhhorod Union Tradition from International Recognition (1919) To Communist Proselytism (1950)

Abstract

As an ecclesiastical community, the Carpathian Ruthenians – Greek Catholics of the Uzhhorod union tradition first received international recognition on September 19, 1771, when Pope Clement XIV, under pressure from the Apostolic Queen Maria Theresa of Habsburg, canonically established an independent Mukachevo diocese of the Greek rite. As an ethnic community, at first they were recognized by the international society as “the Ruthenian lands on south of the Carpathians” at the Paris Peace Conference under the influence of USA. That was manifested in separate articles of the Treaty of Versailles signed on 28th June 1919 with Germany, of the Treaty of Saint-Germain signed on 10th September 1919 with Austria and of the Treaty of Trianon on 4 June 1920, signed with Hungary.

Only a few decades will pass from this moment before the Carpathian Ruthenians – Greek Catholics – will became victims of communist proselytism of the years 1945-1950. Because of the new government’s violent ethnoreligious conversion, the Ruthenians were officially named as Ukrainians and Greek Catholics as Orthodox. This article focuses not so much on the political as on the religious factors, such as the role of the Holy Seein preserving and shaping the Carpatho-Rusyn Greek Catholics identity. During this period, this role was manifested several times: in 1924, when a separate exarchate for American Carpatho-Ruthenians in Pittsburgh was created, in 1937, when, the Papal bull declared the rights of the Ruthenian Church, and in 1940 and 1944, when, contrary to “political circumstances,” the Holy See appointed Carpatho-Ruthenians Pavel Petro Gojdych and Teodor Romzha as ordinary bishops of the Presov and Mukachevo dioceses. As a result, despite the official ban in the USSR, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Romania (“The Powers of This World”) after the communist proselytism (1945-1950), the ethno-confessional identity of the Carpathian Ruthenians – Greek-Catholics of the Uzhhorod Union tradition was preserved thanks to the Holy See (by the grace of God). As soon as the communist regime in these countries collapsed (1989-1991), this identity was revived as if it had never disappeared.