Apostolic Exarchate in the Czech Republic, Byzantine Catholic institution in Prague, Czech Republic
The Apostolic Exarchate in the Czech Republic is an exempt Eastern Catholic jurisdiction of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, erected by Pope John Paul II on 13 March 1996 and directly subject to the Holy See. Its episcopal seat is the Cathedral of St. Clement in Prague, and it is organised into seven deaneries with 25 priests serving parishes and chapels across the country.
Pope John Paul II established the institution in 1996 to serve the Byzantine Catholic community after decades of suppression during the communist era. This founding marked a revival of Eastern Catholic worship in a nation where such traditions had been forced underground.
The exarchate follows the Byzantine Rite, the liturgy shared with most Orthodox Christians, and its seat is the Cathedral of St. Clement in Prague. Its parishes are served by 25 priests; a large share of the faithful are workers and refugees from Ukraine.
The seat is the Cathedral of St. Clement in Prague, and the exarchate covers the whole of the Czech Republic through parishes grouped into seven deaneries. Its 25 priests serve 20 parishes and 12 chapels, so a visitor should check locally which church in a given town holds Byzantine Rite services.
After the 1989 Velvet Revolution, married men secretly ordained as Roman Catholic priests by underground bishop Felix Maria Davídek were ordered by Pope John Paul II to submit to conditional re-ordination and permanent transfer to the Byzantine Rite exarchate. The exarchate's seat is the Cathedral of St. Clement in Prague.
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