Slovakian Greek Catholic Church

[twf]

The Slovakian Church has an Eparchy in Canada based out of Toronto. According to Catholic-Hierarchy.org, there were 30 000 Catholics and 17 priests in the Eparchy in 1990. As of 2010, there were a mere 2400 faithful and 6 priests. If these statistics are even remotely accurate, does anyone have any idea what happened?
catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dtosl.html

 

[LoyalViews]

I’d say emigration.

 

[twf]

I’d say emigration.

Emigration **out **of Canada?

 

[SyroMalankara]

More likely many 2nd/3rd generation simply merged into the local Latin parishes or stopped attending altogether.

 

[twf]

More likely many 2nd/3rd generation simply merged into the local Latin parishes or stopped attending altogether.

I imagine it would also be very difficult in a country as geographically vast as Canada. A relatively small Eparchy based out of Toronto would have great difficulties supporting parishes in each province if members of the Slovak community have since moved out of Toronto to distant Calgary or Vancouver. The Ukrainians are the only Eastern Church with an actual metropolia in Canada with an Eparchy for at least each of the Western provinces.

 

[malphono]

Or it could simply have something to do with a change in the (usually odd, but never mind that) criteria used by Rome for the Annuario Pontificio.

 

[LoyalViews]

Emigration **out **of Canada?

Yeah! Didn’t a good number of Slovaks go back after the Velvet Revolution or go to the States? I could be wrong - I only read like maybe two articles on it.

They probably did spread out though. Alberta has the highest concentrations of people of Slovakian descent in the Dominion of Canada, isn’t that right?

 

[twf]

Yeah! Didn’t a good number of Slovaks go back after the Velvet Revolution or go to the States? I could be wrong - I only read like maybe two articles on it.

They probably did spread out though. Alberta has the highest concentrations of people of Slovakian descent in the Dominion of Canada, isn’t that right?

I honestly don’t know…but this could be a factor.
As an aside, it is simply “Canada” and no longer the “Dominion of Canada”. The 1982 Constitution Act doesn’t employ the term “Dominion”.

 

[Peter_J]

I imagine it would also be very difficult in a country as geographically vast as Canada. A relatively small Eparchy based out of Toronto would have great difficulties supporting parishes in each province if members of the Slovak community have since moved out of Toronto to distant Calgary or Vancouver. The Ukrainians are the only Eastern Church with an actual metropolia in Canada with an Eparchy for at least each of the Western provinces.

Indeed; one possibility is that a number of parishes that had previously been classified (at least officially) as Slovak were reclassified as Ukrainian between 1990 and 1999. I can’t be sure, naturally, but the numbers support that possibility.

 

[twf]

Indeed; one possibility is that a number of parishes that had previously been classified (at least officially) as Slovak were reclassified as Ukrainian between 1990 and 1999. I can’t be sure, naturally, but the numbers support that possibility.

Does this seem likely? Are you aware of other cases where parishes have switched from one Church sui iuris to another?

 

[Vico]

The Slovakian Church has an Eparchy in Canada based out of Toronto. According to Catholic-Hierarchy.org, there were 30 000 Catholics and 17 priests in the Eparchy in 1990. As of 2010, there were a mere 2400 faithful and 6 priests. If these statistics are even remotely accurate, does anyone have any idea what happened?
catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dtosl.html

The estimates for Eparchy of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Toronto, Canada are inaccurate. There are currently five parishes.

Church of the Assumption in Hamilton
Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Toronto
Church of the Protection of the Mother of God in Oshowa
Cathedral Mission in Thornhill
Church of St. Michael in Windsor

1990 - 30,000
2000 - 20,000
2010 - 2,500
2013 - 5,000
2014 - 4,975

www.cnewa.org

 

[Peter_J]

The estimates for Eparchy of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Toronto, Canada are inaccurate. There are currently five parishes.

Church of the Assumption in Hamilton
Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Toronto
Church of the Protection of the Mother of God in Oshowa
Cathedral Mission in Thornhill
Church of St. Michael in Windsor

1990 - 30,000
2000 - 20,000
2010 - 2,500
2013 - 5,000
2014 - 4,975

www.cnewa.org

Can you say anything about the parishes that used to be in that eparchy but no longer are (cf twf’s question)?

 

[Vico]

Can you say anything about the parishes that used to be in that eparchy but no longer are (cf twf’s question)?

The number of Canadian Slovak Greek-Catholic parishes has dropped from 7 parishes with 5000 members to 5 parishes with 4975 members between 2005 and 2014. I don’t know how they came up with so many in the parishes in 2000 and before. There are many deaths and family size is smaller in North America, and many move away and marry into a Latin Catholic parish.

I don’t know if they combined the Hungarian Greek-Catholics with the Ruthenian Greek-Catholics into their Slovak Greek Catholic parish statistics.

 

[Peter_J]

I don’t know if they combined the Hungarian Greek-Catholics with the Ruthenian Greek-Catholics into their Slovak Greek Catholic parish statistics.

I hadn’t really considered that, but in any case the increase in the reported number of Ukrainian parishes, from 1990 to 1999 is striking.

 

[twf]

I hadn’t really considered that, but in any case the increase in the reported number of Ukrainian parishes, from 1990 to 1999 is striking.

Was the increase across the Canadian metropolia or specific to an eparchy?

 

[Peter_J]

I hadn’t really considered that, but in any case the increase in the reported number of Ukrainian parishes, from 1990 to 1999 is striking.

Was the increase across the Canadian metropolia or specific to an eparchy?

Well, here catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dwiuk.html we see increase from 35 to 96. (I’d guess the majority were formerly Roman-Rite parishes.)

 

[Vico]

I hadn’t really considered that, but in any case the increase in the reported number of Ukrainian parishes, from 1990 to 1999 is striking.

I see the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Archeparchy of Winnipeg has these membership numbers between 1990 and 2014:

1990 = 49,350
1995 = 45,000
2000 = 45,000
2005 = 29,740 (144 parishes)
2010 = 29,740 (131 parishes)
2014 = 30,700 (109 parishes)

cnewa.org/default.aspx?ID=125&pagetypeID=1&sitecode=HQ&pageno=1

 

[twf]

Well, here catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dwiuk.html we see increase from 35 to 96. (I’d guess the majority were formerly Roman-Rite parishes.)

That is interesting. I assume the parish count also includes missions.

I find many of the statistics on this site baffling. Perhaps Malphono will elaborate on the odd, changing criteria used by Annuario Pontificio.

 

[Peter_J]

Yeah, I’ve seen many oddities in the statistics over the years. You have to take it with a grain of salt and not assume that the numbers are perfect … but still, I’ve found those stats to be pretty helpful for keeping abreast of changes.

 

[malphono]

Yeah, I’ve seen many oddities in the statistics over the years. You have to take it with a grain of salt and not assume that the numbers are perfect … but still, I’ve found those stats to be pretty helpful for keeping abreast of changes.

One of the oddities in Rome’s stats is the source: in some cases, they use parish enrollment records. One can see that the numbers for Maronites and Melkites, e.g, in the US, are inordinately low. In others they use official government census data, and one can see that in the Maronite numbers in Brazil which are huge. In still others they apparently use guesstimates based on whatever. There seems to be no consistency in the source data which means to me there’s little accuracy in the output.