Hungarian Greek Catholic Church

Hungarian Greek Catholic Church
Classification	Catholic
Orientation	Eastern Catholic, Byzantine Rite
Polity	Episcopal
Governance	Metropolitanate
Leader	Metropolitan Péter Fülöp Kocsis Archbishop of Hajdúdorog
Associations	Congregation for the Oriental Churches
Region	Hungary
Headquarters	Debrecen, Hungary
Origin	June 18, 1912 Hungary
Separated from	Greek Orthodox Church
Branched from	Eastern Catholic Church
Merger of	Roman Catholic Church
Separations	Byzantine Church
Congregations	187
Members	326,200
Ministers	262
Official website	gorogkatolikus.hu

The Hungarian Greek Catholic Church is a Metropolitan sui iuris Eastern particular Church in full union with the Catholic Church. It is headquartered in Debrecen. Its liturgical rite is the Byzantine Rite in Hungarian.

Hungary's Greek Catholics were originally concentrated in what is now northeastern Hungary. This region was historically inhabited by Greek rite Christians from the Carpathian Mountains (Ruthenians and Romanians). Serbs fleeing the Turkish advance arrived later in what was then Hungary, but most stayed in the area that is now part of Serbia. Later still, when the Turks were driven back from Vienna in 1683 and from Buda and central Hungary in 1686, Ruthenians and Slovaks settled in the abandoned lands of Hungary. They were cared for by the Ruthenian Byzantine Rite Eparchy of Mukacheve (Hungarian: Munkács). In the 17-18th centuries, during the conflict with Protestants, many Hungarians joined the Greek Catholic Church, and so adopted the Byzantine Rite rather than the Latin, which resulted in a considerable increase in their number.

Perhaps largely because of this last element, Byzantine Hungarians began to use the Hungarian language in their liturgy. A translation of the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom for private study was published in 1795. A book containing the parts of the liturgy that the people sing appeared in 1862. Representatives of 58 Hungarian-speaking parishes met in 1868 and set up an organization to promote the liturgical use of the Hungarian language and the establishment of a separate eparchy. 1882 saw the publication, without formal ecclesiastical approval, of a Hungarian translation of the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom for actual use, which was soon followed by Hungarian translations of other liturgical texts.

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