Although two eparchies are canonically linked, the church has no unified structure, nor an ecclesiastical province of its own, since the Eparchy of Križevci is suffragan to the Latin ChurchArchdiocese of Zagreb, and the Eparchy of Ruski Krstur is directly subject to the Holy See.
History
The Greek Catholic Church in Croatia has existed since the 16th century and was created by Christians of the Greek-Slavic rite who fled before the Turks from Bosnia and Slavonia and moved to the area of the Military Frontier (Vojna krajina) and the western parts of Croatia. The seat of the Greek Catholic Church in Croatia has been in Križevci since 1777.[5]
In May 1836, the first Ruthenian Greek Catholic parish in the territory of today's Croatia was founded in Petrovci. [6]
After the formation of independent successor states from what had been Yugoslavia, the process of administrative reorganization was initiated. In 2001, a separate Greek Catholic Apostolic Exarchate of Macedonia was formed for Greek Catholics in North Macedonia. It was fully separated from the Eparchy of Križevci and proclaimed as directly subject only to the Holy See.[7]
After those changes, the jurisdiction of the Eparchy of Križevci was confined to Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
In 2013, all Catholics of Byzantine Rite in Montenegro were entrusted to the local Latin bishops, so the jurisdiction of Apostolic Exarchate of Serbia and Montenegro was reduced to Serbia only.[9] The Apostolic Exarchate of Serbia was elevated to the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Ruski Krstur in December 2018.[10]
The Eparchy of Križevci reported for the year 2010 a total of 21,509 faithful (in Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina). At that time, the Apostolic Exarchate for Serbia and Montenegro reported 22,369 faithful.[11]
^Latin: Ecclesia Graeco-Catholica Croatiae et Serbiae; Serbo-Croatian: Grkokatolička crkva u Hrvatskoj i Srbiji, Гркокатоличка црква у Хрватској и Србији