The Slovak Catholic Federation
Daniel F. Tanzone

The Slovak immigrant community in the United States was nearing the peak of its existence in 1911. Parishes were still being organized and adjustments to the American experience of Church were adapted. The need for parochial schools in Slovak parishes became apparent. Slovak Americans longed for religious communities of men and women who would evangelize in the best traditions of or Cyrilo-Methodian heritage of Faith. While the primary concern was the needs of the Slovak Catholics in the United States, a unifying organization was necessary to promote works which would assist the Church in Slovakia.

            By 1911, the major Slovak Catholic fraternal societies had already been established and over three hundred Roman Catholic parishes were flourishing in the United States. The need to unify on behalf of pastoral service was uppermost in the minds o the clergy and laity alike. Their pioneering efforts gave birth to a wonderful organization which was unique in that the clergy and laity collaborated in promoting the work of the Church. Such cooperation and harmony had always been a trait of Slovaks prefiguring the Second Vatican Council of the Church.

            On February 22, 1911, thirty-eight Slovak priests and more than two hundred of the laity under the direction of the Reverend Jozef Murgas gathered in Sacred Heart Church in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to organize the Slovak Catholic Federation, which would serve as a unifying bond among Slovak Catholics and their institutions here in America. Also present at the founding were two members of the American hierarchy, namely the Most Reverend Michael J. Hoban, Bishop of Scranton, and the Most Reverend Jozef M. Koudelka, then auxiliary bishop of Cleveland who was later name bishop of Superior. Bishop Koudelka, a Czech, who had been active in pastoral ministry among the Slovaks in the United States. The Reverend John Porubsky, a prolific writer and pastor of Saints Cyril and Methodius Parish in Binghamton, New York, was elected the first president. The Federation was incorporated on December 30, 1912 when His Honor, Judge S.J. Strauss of the Court of Common Please of Luzerne County in Pennsylvania, approved the Charter.

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© 2007 Dr. Jayne Klenner-Moore for the Slovak Catholic Federation