Prague, Nov 11 (CTK) – A Hungarian parish will be established in the St Henry (Jindrich) Church in the centre of Prague next month, it ensues from the forthcoming schedule of Prague Archbishop Cardinal Dominik Duka, who is to attend a mass on this occasion on December 17.
The Hungarian parish will complement other foreign-speaking parishes operating in Prague, including the German and Polish ones.
There is also a Slovak parish, based in the same church, St Henry, where up to 400 people attend Slovak-language services on Sundays.
Hungarians are a traditional ethnic minority in the 10.5-million Czech Republic. A total of 8,920 inhabitants claimed Hungarian ethnicity in the latest Czech census in 2011, but members of the minority themselves estimate its strength at 20,000.
Last year, Prague’s community of German-speaking Catholics was promoted to a Parish.
Another group to have its own parish are the Polish Catholics, of whom some 300 live in Prague.
The Slovak Catholics’ group is even larger, and they prefer church services celebrated in their mother tongue, despite its closeness to the Czech language.
English-speaking Catholics meet in the St Thomas (Tomas) Church elsewhere in the city’s historical centre.
There are also French, Spanish, Italian and Vietnamese Catholic communities, as well as those of Albanians, Armenians and Copts.
Over 40 foreign priests operate within the Prague diocese.
At the beginning of 2017, the local community of Catholics who are deaf or with heavily impaired hearing was promoted to a parish.
