The Ascription of a Certain Church sui iuris in Czechoslovakia (1918-1983)

The author intends to analyze the discipline of the ascription of a certain Church sui iuris after the promulgation of the Codex Iuris Canonici of 1917 in Czechoslovakia in which many Greek-Catholics, mainly in Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus lived. The norm of the Code prescribed: "If one of the parents belongs to the Latin Rite and the other to the Eastern Rite, their offspring must be baptized according to the father's Rite" (cfr. can. 756 2 CIC 1917). The obfuscation in this matter commenced with the erroneous interpretation of n. 96 of Czechoslovakian civil law (1925) regarding the inter-ecclesial relations. Consequently, all male offspring of Catholics parents of a different Rite had to be ascripted to the father's Rite and all female offspring to the mother's Rite. In fact, the problem discussed in the 1930's and 1940's has been resolved by the suppression of Greek-Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia in 1950 and the abolition of the civil register insofar as religious affiliation was concerned and the rituals of the Czechoslovakian citizens on 27 July 1954.