The Catholic Church has a population of approximately 243,000 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 ethnic Albanians, with a few Croats.
However, as stated by BishopDodë Gjergji, the Kosovan prelate of the Diocese of Prizren-Pristina, in an interview with RTV Dukagjini on December 12, 2020, “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]
In 535, emperor Justinian I created the Archbishopric of Justiniana Prima, centered in the emperor's birth-city of Justiniana Prima, near modern Lebane in Serbia. The archbishopric had ecclesiastical jurisdiction over all provinces of the Diocese of Dacia.[citation needed] By the beginning of the 7th century, Byzantine provincial and ecclesiastical order in the region was destroyed by invading Avars and Slavs. After the Great Schism between the east and the west, 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 by Stefan Nemanja, thus introducing Serbian Orthodoxy to local Vlachs, Bulgarians and Catholic Albanians. Albanians in Kosovo are reported by Stefan Uroš I, as well as Albanian toponyms in the Drenica valley and Dukagjin plains (1246-1255) and in Rugovo (1292).[5] Most of these Albanians were Roman Catholic.[6]
When Stefan Dečanski founded the Visoki Dečani monastery in 1327, he referred to "villages and katuns of Vlachs and Albanians" in the area of White 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]
A chrysobull issued by Serbian Tsar Stefan 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 migrated north to work in the mines of Novo Brdo, and Ragusan documents from the early 14th century report 150 Catholic Albanian household heads residing in Novo Brdo with their families, living alongside Saxon miners and Ragusan merchants.[9][10][11] These documents also note Albanian communities in Trepça and Prizren.[10] 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.[12]
Pope John XXII tried to turn catholic Albanians against Serbian rule, but this didn't succeed.[13] In 1332, an anonymous Dominican priest called for help to liberate "catholic Latins and Albanians who detest Slavic rule" from the Kingdom of Rascia(Serbia).[14] Under the rule Tsar Stefan Dušan, all Catholic belivers were persecuted, including those Albanians of the Catholic faith.[15][16][17] 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,[18] Prizren in 21 of June 1455[19] and Zvečan in 1455,[20] thus ending 157 years of Serbian rule in Kosovo.[21]
During the Kosovo war, vandalization of Kosovo Albanian Catholic churches occurred.[22] The Catholic Church of St Anthony located in Gjakovë had major damage done by Yugoslav Serb soldiers.[23] In Pristina, Yugoslav Serb officers ejected nuns and a priest from the Catholic church of St. Anthony and installed aircraft radar in the steeple.[22]
Modern period
An important Catholic charity organization is Caritas 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.[24][25]
One of the oldest Catholic churches in Kosovo is the Catholic church of Vinarc, in Mitrovica.[26][27] It is disputed by Serbian Orthodox Church.[28]
^Stavrianos, Leften Stavros (2000). The Balkans since 1453. London: Hurst. ISBN1-85065-550-2. OCLC59436364. 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.
^ abIseni, Bashkim (2008). La question nationale en Europe du Sud-Est : genèse, émergence et développement de l'indentité nationale albanaise au Kosovo et en Macédoine (in French). Bern: P. Lang. ISBN978-3-03911-320-0. OCLC269329200.
^Guy Brunet (2004). Minorities. Peter Lang. p. 147.
^ abMalcolm, Noel (1998). Kosovo: A short history. Macmillian. p. 54. ISBN9780810874831. "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)
^Wilkinson, Henry Robert (1955). "Jugoslav Kosmet: The evolution of a frontier province and its landscape". Transactions and Papers (Institute of British Geographers) (21): 171–193. doi:10.2307/621279. JSTOR621279. 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.
^Миљан, М. Гогић (2018). УНИВЕРЗИТЕТ У БЕОГРАДУ ФИЛОЗОФСКИ ФАКУЛТЕТ Миљан М. Гогић ПОЛИТИЧКО И ДРУШТВЕНО УРЕЂЕЊЕ КОТОРА У ДРУГОЈ ПОЛОВИНИ XII И XIII ВИЈЕКУ (докторска дисертација) Београд, 2018 (PDF) (Милутинови противници, Филип Тарентски и папа Јован XXII, настојали су да против њега окрену албанске великаше. У том правцу наведени папа је јуна 1319. године упутио неколико писама локалним феудалцима, позивајући их да збаце власт српског краља. Судећи по поменима Милутиновог наследника Стефана у тим крајевима, на почетку његове владавине, изгледа да ти планови нијесу дали резултата." (Stefan Milutin's opponents, Philip Tarentsky and Pope John XXII, sought to turn against him the Albanian nobles. To this end, the Pope in June 1319 sent several letters to the local feudal lords, urging them to overthrow the rule of the Serbian king. Judging by the mention of Stefan Milutin's successor Stefan in those parts, at the beginning of his reign, these plans did not seem to have worked.) ed.). Belgrad. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
^Elsie, Robert. Texts and Documents of Albanian History. ...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.
^Alexandru Madgearu; Martin Gordon (2008). The Wars of the Balkan Peninsula: Their Medieval Origins. Scarecrow Press. p. 86.
^Ines Angeli Murzaku (2015). Monasticism in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Republics. Routledge. p. 249.
^Joan Mervyn Hussey (1966). The Cambridge Medieval History: The Byzantine Empire V. 2. Cambridge University Press. p. 540.
^Setton, Kenneth M.; Hazard, Harry W.; Zacour, Norman P. (1 June 1990). A History of the Crusades: The Impact of the Crusades on Europe. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 267. ISBN978-0-299-10744-4. The Ottoman conquest of Novo Brdo, a center of silver production, took place on June 27, 1441; see JireSek, Geschichte der Serben, II, 178.
^Urošević, Atanasije (20 April 1957). Bulletin de l'Academie Serbe des Sciences. Section des Sciences Sociales. Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti. p. 34.
^ abSchwartz, Stephen (2000). Kosovo: Background to a War. London: Anthem Press. p. 161. ISBN9781898855569.Schwartz 2000, p. 161. " Albanian Catholic churches were also vandalized. Riedlmayer learned that Serb officers had installed anti-aircraft radar in the steeple of St. Anthony's Catholic church in Pristina, after ejecting the priest and nuns; NATO bombing of the radar, and therefore the church and surrounding houses, would have been labelled an atrocity."
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