 Catholic Church in Kosovo | |
|---|---|
| Kisha Katolike në Kosovë | |
 Church of Letnica | |
| Type | National polity |
| Classification | Catholic |
| Orientation | Latin |
| Scripture | Bible |
| Theology | Catholic theology |
| Polity | Episcopal |
| Pope | Leo XIV |
| Region | Kosovo |
| Language | Albanian,Latin |
| Headquarters | Prizren |
| Number of followers | 246,000 |
TheCatholic Church in Kosovo (Albanian:Kisha Katolike në Kosovë) has a number of approximately 246,000 members in a region of roughly 1.5 million people.[1]
Another 60,000 (according to the 2011 census) Kosovan Catholics are outside the region, mainly for work.[2] They are mainly ethnicAlbanians, with a fewCroats.
TheDiocese of Prizren and Pristina (until 5 September 2018, an Apostolic Administration of Prizren) is the ecclesiastical district of theCatholic Church inKosovo. It is centered in the city ofPrizren.BishopDodë Gjergji serves as diocesan bishop as of 2019[update].
TheHoly Seedoes not recognise Kosovo as a sovereign state (see alsoHoly See's reaction to the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence).BishopDodë Gjergji, the Kosovan prelate of theDiocese of Prizren-Pristina, stated “The Vatican has two segments: the Vatican as the seat of the Catholic Church and as a state. Pope Francis has raised our church from the Church of Kosovo to the Church of Prizren-Pristina, just like the bishops all over the world. Therefore, religiously we are very fine. The state aspect is a diplomatic aspect.”[3]
ArchbishopJuliusz Janusz, 66, originally a priest of theArchdiocese of Kraków,Poland, is theApostolic Nuncio toSlovenia and theApostolic Delegate toKosovo; he had served previously as Apostolic Nuncio toHungary and before that as Apostolic Nuncio toMozambique andRwanda. He was delegate from 10 February 2011 to 21 September 2018.
Titular archbishop ofSulciJean-Marie Speich isApostolic Nuncio toSlovenia andApostolic Delegate toKosovo from 19 March 2019.
In 535, emperorJustinian I created theArchbishopric of Justiniana Prima, centered in the emperor's birth-city ofJustiniana Prima, near modernLebane in Serbia. The archbishopric had ecclesiastical jurisdiction over all provinces of theDiocese of Dacia.[citation needed] By the beginning of the 7th century, Byzantine provincial and ecclesiastical order in the region was destroyed by invadingAvars andSlavs. After theGreat Schism between theeast and thewest, Albanians who had ties to the Roman church started converting to Catholicism. Northern Albanians started to convert to Catholicism en masse during the 12th and 13th centuries, including Albanians living in Kosovo.[4] During the late 12th century Kosovo was fully conquered byStefan Nemanja, thus introducingSerbian Orthodoxy to localVlachs,Bulgarians and Catholic Albanians. Albanians in Kosovo are reported byStefan Uroš I, as well as Albanian toponyms in theDrenica valley andDukagjin plains (1246-1255) and inRugovo (1292).[5] Most of these Albanians were Roman Catholic.[6]
WhenStefan Dečanski founded theVisoki Dečani monastery in 1327, he referred to "villages and katuns ofVlachs and Albanians" in the area ofWhite Drin.[7] King Stefan Dečanski granted the Visoki Dečani monastery with pasture land along with catholic Vlach and Albanian katuns around Drin and Lim rivers of whom had to carry salt and provide serf labour for the monastery.[8]
Achrysobull issued by Serbian TsarStefan Dušan to the Monastery of Saint Mihail and Gavril in Prizren, between 1348 and 1353, records the presence of Catholic[failed verification] Albanians in the Plains of Dukagjin, the vicinity of Prizren, and the villages of Drenica.[7][5] Albanians also moved north to work in the mines of Novo Brdo, thus reinforcing the Albanian population in Kosovo, and Ragusan documents from the early 14th century report 150 Catholic Albanian household heads residing in Novo Brdo with their families, living alongsideSaxon miners andRagusan merchants.[9][10][11][12] These documents also note Albanian communities inTrepça andPrizren.[10] Ragusan documents attest to the presence of a significant number ofAlbanians living in Novo Brdo throughout the 14th and early 15th centuries, including members of the Catholic Albanian clergy. Many Albanian Catholic priests were registered as residing in Novo Brdo, as well as in towns likeJanjevo,Trepça,Prizren and others.[13] These Catholic Albanian priests served as the primary Catholic priests for the town of Novo Brdo.[14] Subsequent waves of Catholic Albanians kept arriving in Novo Brdo up until the 17th century.[12] Further Albanian expansion into Kosovo became evident in the 17th century, with waves of Catholic Albanian colonists arriving in the mining areas and settling in towns like Pristina and Gjakova. In 1638 the Roman archbishop of AntivariGjergj Bardhi reported that the Gjakova and Prizren areas had an Albanian majority and were Albanian speaking.[15]
Pope John XXII tried to turn Catholic Albanians againstSerbian rule, but this didn't succeed.[16] In 1332, an anonymous Dominican priest called for help to liberate "catholic Latins and Albanians who detest Slavic rule" from theKingdom of Rascia(Serbia).[17] Under the rule TsarStefan Dušan, all Catholic believers were persecuted, including those Albanians of the Catholic faith.[18][19][20] After the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 Serbian rule in Kosovo started to weaken and Ottoman Islam was first introduced in Kosovo, with the first mosques being built in Pristina,Vushtrri and Prizren. In 1455 Kosovo was fully conquered by the Ottomans, with Novo Brdo falling in 27 of June 1441,[21] Prizren in 21 of June 1455[22] and Zvečan in 1455,[23] thus ending 157 years of Serbian rule in Kosovo.[24]
During theKosovo war, vandalization of Kosovo Albanian Catholic churches occurred.[25] TheCatholic Church of St Anthony located in Gjakovë had major damage done by Yugoslav Serb soldiers.[26] In Pristina, Yugoslav Serb officers ejected nuns and a priest from the Catholic church of St. Anthony and installedaircraft radar in thesteeple.[25]
An important Catholic charity organization isCaritas Kosovo which has a presence all over the country, including in the Serbian dominated areas.
On 26 November 2019,an earthquake struck Albania. The Catholic Church in Kosovo held mass on 1 December across the country and it collected charitable donations by parishioners for earthquake victims and their families.[27][28]
One of the oldest Catholic churches in Kosovo is theCatholic church of Vinarc, inMitrovica.[29][30] It is disputed by Serbian Orthodox Church.[31]
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Religious differences also existed before the coming of the Turks. Originally, all Albanians had belonged to the Eastern Orthodox Church... Then the Ghegs in the North adopted in order to better resist the pressure of Orthodox Serbs.
"And Dusan's chrysobull of 1348 for the Monastery of the Holy Archangels in Prizren mentions a total of nine Albanian katuns."(The monastery Dečani isn't in Prizren, which this quote is talking about)
The monastery at Dečani stands on a terrace commanding passes into High Albania. When Stefan Uros III founded it in 1330, he gave it many villages in the plain and catuns of Vlachs and Albanians between the Lim and the Beli Drim. Vlachs and Albanians had to carry salt for the monastery and provide it with serf labour.
Albanians went to the north to work in the mines of Srbrenica and Novo Brdo in Kosovo
Another wave of Catholic Albanian colonists came to the mining area in the 17th century, to the towns in Prishtina and Gjakova.
...it is inhabited by two peoples, i.e. the Albanians and the Latins who, in their beliefs, their rites and their obedience, both abide by the Roman Catholic Church... The Latins have six towns with bishops: firstly Antibarum (Bar), the seat of the archbishop, then Chatarensis (Kotor), Dulcedinensis (Ulcinj), Suacinensis (Shas) (2), Scutarensis (Shkodra) and Drivascensis (Drisht) (3), which are inhabited by the Latins alone. Outside the town walls, the Albanians make up the population throughout the diocese. There are four Albanian towns: Polatum Maius (Greater Pult) (4), Polatum Minus (Lesser Pult), Sabatensis (Sapa) (5) and Albanensis (Albanopolis) (6) which, together with the towns of the Latins, are all legally subject to the Archbishop of Bar and his church as their metropolitan. The Albanians indeed have a language quite different from Latin. However they use Latin letters in all their books (7). The sway of the Latins is thus confined to the limits of their towns. Outside the towns, they do possess vineyards and fields, but there are no fortifications or villages actually inhabited by the Latins. The Albanians for their part, the larger of the two peoples, could assemble over fifteen thousand horsemen for warfare according to the custom and manner of the country, who would be courageous and industrious warriors. Since the said Latins and Albanians suffer under the unbearable yoke and extremely dire bondage of their odious Slav leaders whom they detest – the people being tormented, the clergy humiliated and oppressed, the bishops and abbots often kept in chains, the nobles disinherited and held hostage, episcopal and other churches disbanded and deprived of their rights, and the monasteries in decay and ruin – they would all to a man believe that they were consecrating their hands in the blood of the aforementioned Slavs if a French prince were to appear... With the help of the aforementioned Albanians and Latins, one thousand French knights and five or six thousand foot soldiers could without a doubt easily conquer the whole length and breadth of this kingdom.
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