English

Charitable Catholic Initiatives in Slovakia

 

The Social Sub-Commission of the Theological Commission of the Slovak Bishop conference  

is an advisory body of the Slovak Bishop conference   and the chairman of the Sub-Commission Mons. Peter Rusnák, Eparch of Bratislava. Sub-Commission sees as its own mission the service to helpers, networking and synergy. The Social Sub-Commission seeks to bring together Catholic helping structures and institutions, encouraging mutual cooperation and agenda as it is brought together within the Dicastery for Integral Human Development.

The Social Sub-Commission

  • Encourages and supports initiatives of Catholic institutions committed to respecting the dignity of every human person and affirming the values of justice and peace, and to helping people in need
  • makes the Church's public service visible in civil society and in its own environment
  • networks, informs each other, coordinates aid initiatives within the limits of the possibilities and competences od the Sub-Commission
  • supports, accompanies and educates those helping
  • seeks to sensitise the faithful to the needs of the needy and to direct their efforts to help to existing helping institutions
  • encourages the development of volunteering in these institutions
  • communicates with civil society and public institutions

 

Charitable Catholic initiatives

  • Slovak Catholic Charity
  • Orders
  • Communities, movements and associations
  • Roma pastoral care

 

 

Slovak Catholic Charity (SKCH)

Currently, SKCH consists of 10 diocesan and archdiocesan charities and the SKCH Secretariat. There are approximately 1 500 employees working in SKCH. Annually, it provides assistance to more than 22,000 people in need in 345 charitable institutions - helping the elderly, terminally ill, people with physical or mental disabilities, children, mothers with children and homeless people.

www.charita.sk

Annual report

 

Members of the Slovak Catholic Charity

Archdiocesan Charity Košice
Bratislava Archdiocesan Charity
Diocesan Charity Banská Bystrica
Diocesan Charity Nitra
Diocesan Charity Rožňava
Diocesan Charity Žilina
Greek Catholic Eparchial Charity Košice
Greek Catholic Charity Prešov
Spiš Catholic Charity
Trnava Archdiocesan Charity

Catholic Charity of the Military Ordinariate of the Armed Forces and Armed Corps of the Slovak Republic 

Its activity is aimed at providing assistance to convicts after serving their sentences (also during their sentences) who are without any social and family security and who show interest and cooperation in such assistance (service).
Charity OS and OZ SR

 

Orders

Conference of Major Religious Superiors in Slovakia - Institutions in the field of social services and health care

 

Women's religious orders

 

Alžbetka n.o. (in Spišská Nová Ves)
Congregation of the Sisters of the Divine Redeemer
Our facilities are the Centre for Children and Families, the Private Kindergarten Alžbetka, the Facility for the Elderly Dom sv. Jozefa, Raslavice, Social Services Facility Vykupiteľ, Nesvady. Over the years, specific activities have been profiled, ranging from helping the youngest to the oldest generation, especially those in need of help.
www.alzbetka-no.sk

Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy ambulatory clinic (in Michalovce)
Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians
Dott. Lívia Kvašná, PhD., Salesian, clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, focuses on diagnosis and psychotherapeutic help for children diagnosed with ADHD and their families. Since 2012 she has been working at the Psychiatric Hospital in Michalovce.
Livia Kvasna

Centre for Children and Family Dominika (in Rožňava)
Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians
In addition to administering the Dominika Centre for Children and Families, the sisters teach religious education, lead leisure activities for children and youth, coordinate the local Salesian Centre of the ASC collaborators, and work in diocesan charity.
www.dominika-no.sk

St. Joseph's Home (in Turzovka)
Slovak Vicariate of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Cyril and Methodius
The Centre for Children and Families is a facility established for the purpose of implementing measures temporarily replacing a child's natural family environment or a substitute family environment.
 www.domsvjozefa.sk

House of the Immaculate Heart of Mary - Community Centre and Low-Threshold Social Service for Children and Families (in Lomnička)
Congregation of the School Sisters of St. Francis, Slovak Province
In the House of the Immaculate Heart of Mary there is a social service facility - community centre, which employs eight workers for its activities. The Community Centre provides its services to adults and children. They provide social counselling, leisure activities for children and low-threshold activities.
dnspm.kc@gmail.com

House of Our Lady, Mother of Consolation - night shelter for women (in Žilina)
Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation
The work and ministry of the sisters is in a shelter for women in need, volunteering, service in the Diocesan Charity, teaching in the Gymnasium, pastoral work in the prison, pastoral work with youth.
www.sestryutechy.sk

St. Joseph's House - Social Services Facility (for own sisters in Prešov)
Congregatio Jesu, Slovak Province
In the facility is carried out the apostolate of prayer, care for the elderly and sick sisters also from other order communities, cooperation with the laity.
https://www.congregatiojesu.com/komunity/slovensko/

House of St. Cosmas and Damian (in Prešov)
Congregation of the Servant Sisters of the Immaculate Virgin Mary
The House provides help for the needy in a specialized facility, in a social services home and in a nursing facility. The facility is family-type with a small capacity. Its aim is to create dignified conditions for the provision of quality professional care for seriously ill people, mostly elderly, with a year-round residential form of provision.
www.domkad.eu

St. Dominic's Home (in Petrovany)
Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of Blessed Imelda
The facility provides social services with year-round residential service in a facility for the elderly, in a specialized facility and through a nursing service. The aim of St. Dominic's Home is to offer sick and elderly people services that include care for the soul, spirit and body.
www.domovsvdominika.sk

Hospice of the Sisters of Mercy (in Trenčín)
Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent of Satu Mare
The Hospice of the Sisters of Mercy provides people with chronic, incurable and advanced illness with specialized palliative care, inpatient or outpatient. The care also includes the patient's family and loved ones. The hospice's vision is to create an environment that breathes home for patients, where each dying person will suffer as little as possible and experience acceptance and loving care.
www.hospictn.sk

MAGIS civic association (in Prešov)
Congregatio Jesu, Slovak Province
The civic association is dedicated to families in need, victims of domestic violence and victims suffering from the effects of the Covid 19 pandemic.
www.congregatiojesu.com

Civic Association Slnečnica Slovakia - ADOS Slnečnica, Home Care Service, Mobile Hospice of St. Catherine Labouré, Medical Equipment Rental, Transport Service for Disabled Persons with Personal Assistance (in Bratislava)
Society of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul
The sisters work in Civic Association Slnečnica Slovensko, where they provide professional guarantee and, together with lay employees, provide professional nursing and hospice care to sick and dying patients, as well as nursing care for the elderly. One of the community nuns provides health care to homeless people within the Depaul Slovakia organisation.
www.hospic-slnecnica.sk

St. Elizabeth Cancer Institue Hospital, Ltd. (Bratislava)
St. Elizabeth's Religious Order
The history of Slovak oncology is closely related to the history of St. Elizabeth's Hospital, which was established by nuns in the middle of the 18th century in Bratislava. In the early 1990s the hospital was returned to the nuns.  There are 7 bed wards with a capacity of 203 beds, 25 bedless wards, 74 specialist outpatient clinics and the St. Elizabeth's Pharmacy, serving the needs of the Institute and the public.
www.ousa.sk

 

Male religious orders

DOMA u Kapucínov (AT HOME at the Capuchins), n. o. (in Bratislava)
Slovak Province of the Order of Friars Minor of the Capuchins/Capuchins in Slovakia
DOMA u Kapucínov is a space where we offer help to all who find themselves in need. These are families and individuals, people who have fallen into financial difficulties, lost their jobs, have been orphaned, have fallen seriously ill, and are at our fingertips, so to speak: people in Bratislava and its surroundings.
www.domaukapucinov.sk

Home of St. John of God, n. o. (in Bratislava)
Hospitaller Order of St. John of God - Brothers of Mercy
The Home of St. John of God, n.o. in Bratislava lends a helping hand to those who live in material deprivation, often without a sense of home, excluded on the margins of society. At the end of April 2011, the Brothers of Mercy established a non-profit organization and opened a shelter, a low-threshold day centre, an integration centre and a personal hygiene centre in a building on Hattalova Street in Bratislava.
Brothers of Charity - Home of St. John of God(milosrdni.eu)

University Hospital and Polyclinic of the Brothers of Mercy, Ltd. (Bratislava)
Hospitaller Order of St. John of God - Brothers of Mercy
The Brothers of Mercy are the first private hospital in Slovakia (after the change in 1989). The order has existed in Bratislava since 1672. There are similar facilities of the Order in Spišské Podhradie - the House of Social Services for Mentally Handicapped Adults (founded in 1650) and in the hospital in Skalica the Brothers of Mercy worked intensively until 1954.
www.milosrdni.eu

Nursing Care Facility, Facility for the Elderly (in Nitra)
Society of the Divine Word
The Mission House is also home to a Senior Citizens' Facility and a Nursing Facility. In it are in a well-deserved rest Verbites from Slovakia, who worked in Slovakia or in foreign missions.Facility is primarily intended for priests and monks, but its clients are and can be lay people as well. Thus, they support the missions and the religious order with their offerings and prayers.
www.verbisti.sk

 

Societies, movements and associations

Depaul Slovakia (in Bratislava)
is a non-profit organization. We provide public services aimed at helping homeless people. We are there for them every day in the field, in the infirmary, in shelters for the seriously ill and in the largest low-threshold dormitory in Central Europe.
Depaul Slovakia - The street is not home

EFFETA - St. Francis de Sales Centre  (in Nitra)
is a civic association that provides services for children with disabilities and especially for children and adults with hearing impairment and their families, in the field of early intervention, specialized social counseling, rehabilitation centre, interpreter service, special-educational counseling.
www.effeta.sk

Franciscan Secular Order (Ordo Franciscanus Saecularis - OFS)
There are 60 fraternities in Slovakia in the regions of West Slovakia, Central Slovakia, Orava, East Slovakia and one Hungarian speaking regions. There is a total of 823 members after the vows, 226 of which are elderly, only praying - which is also necessary.
Gifra (Franciscan Youth) is a fraternity of young people who feel called by the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus Christ, in the light of the legacy of St. Francis of Assisi.
OFS Catholic Church in Slovakia (kbs.sk)

Catholic Union of Slovakia (KJS)
KJS is an association of believers in Slovakia of the Catholic Action type, founded in 1920.  KJS has 4 regional centres Bratislava, Trnava, Námestovo and Prešov. In Trnava it has been providing care services since 1998. The project "House of Peace" serves women who are expecting a baby and cannot bear it in the environment they are in. All-round help is provided for mothers.
KJS Catholic Church in Slovakia (kbs.sk)

Kolping's Work in Slovakia (KDS)
is an international social-educational association with its base of about 200 members. The national secretariat of the Kolping Work in Slovakia is located in Štiavnické Bane in the Kolping Educational House, the so-called Zahor´s House. The focus of the members and sympathizers is on working with families and their further education.
www.kolping.sk

Community of the Queen of Peace (KKP, in Radošina and Močenok)
The impulse for the establishment of the Community was the need to take in boys, after leaving institutional care, who found themselves on the streets, in shelters, etc. Currently we have 15 boys in Radošina, 38 boys in Močenok, 10 seniors and 40 children in Močenok.
Community of the Queen of Peace (kkp.sk)

Malteser Aid Slovakia
The main task of Malteser Aid Slovakia is to act according to the motto of the Order of Malta, i.e. to serve the suffering and defend the faith.  Malteser Aid creates a space for people who, in accordance with the values of the Order of Malta, have decided to serve and help others.
Order of Malta Slovakia (orderofmalta.sk)   

National Association of Societies of Christian Charity (NZ SKL)
NZ SKL currently brings together 30 local societies with a total of 200 members. It is a member of the international association AIC. Major projects of the NZ SKL: The national public collection Fight against hunger, the „Nádej“ (Hope) -  Social Services Home in Krupina, „Sv. Lujza“ (St. Luise) in Handlová, the services of a general practitioner's ambulatory care, the operation of a mobile hospice, the provision of counselling services in the social and nursing field, the rental of medical equipment.
NZSKL Catholic Church in Slovakia (kbs.sk)

Civic association GOOD SHEPHERD -KLÁŠTOR POD ZNIEVOM
This is one of the largest facilities in Slovakia providing social services to the poor.  New life is built on three pillars: prayer, work, fellowship. OZ Good Shepherd manages the Men's Shelter - Halfway House, the Facility for the Elderly, the Nursing Home of M. Čulen, the Nursing Care of St. Catherine Laboure, Vrícko Women's Shelter
www.ozdobrypastier.eu
www.bzovikdp.sk

Family of the Immaculate (in Vrícko)
is an association of both sick and healthy people who have chosen to support, help and join each other in praying the Holy Rosary every day at 3 pm. The goal of the Family of the Immaculate
is above all to unite with the suffering Savior and to bear our personal cross with Christ in faith.
It has members all over the world - in Slovakia, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, as well as in the USA, Canada and Australia, in Moravia and the Czech Republic.
www.rodinaneposkvrnenej.sk

Slovak Missionary Movement (SMH in Banská Bystrica)
The main task of the Slovak Missionary Movement is the care and support of Catholic missions,
ensuring social prevention and providing basic and specialized social counseling, organizing various support for persons in need in Slovakia and abroad.
Currently we have about 100 members in 11 clubs all over Slovakia, in Banská Bystrica in 1993 we established a shelter, the first in Slovakia, a Private Leisure Centre and a Community Centre.
www.smh.sk

Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Slovakia
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul focuses on helping underprivileged families, individuals, the homeless, former inmates of orphanages, convicts and the elderly.  Currently, the Society has 22 conferences and manages two social and charitable centres: the House of Hope in Bratislava - a day-care centre for the elderly and housing for girls from orphanages, and the Social Centre Šurany - a shelter for 21 homeless people and supported housing for 10 disabled pensioners - homeless people.
www.vincent.sk

St. Egidio
The Community of Sant'Egidio is a community of people who strive to give a special approach to people on the margins of society. Their greatest poverty is often their loneliness and hopelessness, which is why we try first and foremost to build relationships with them and address their situation individually. We meet homeless people, the sick, the elderly from retirement homes, children from settlements... Today the community operates in Bratislava, Topoľčany, Nitra, Banská Bystrica , Ružomberok and Košice.
SANT´EGIDIO COMMUNITY

V.I.A.C. - Institute for Youth Support and Development (in Orava region)
V.I.A.C.  (MORE) is a civil association whose common effort is to help young people to improve their lives - to bring "life" not only to Orava region: to accompany young people in the formation of personal character, attitudes and personal values, to inspire young people and support them in the development and use of personal potential and talents, to guide young people in the light of the Catholic faith in finding their own path in life.
www.ozviac.sk

Faith and Light
Is a worldwide ecumenical community of people with mental disabilities, their parents and friends. Faith and Light has been in Slovakia since 1988. There are currently 9 officially established communities. Two in Košice, one each in Nitra, Bratislava, Trnava, Nové Zámky, Žilina, Pezinok and Piešt'any.
Faith and Light in Slovakia

 

Roma pastoral care
The Catholic Church, through many, is dedicated to the formation of the Roma as a natural part of the pastoral activities of the Church. Past experience confirms that the renewal of the life of the Roma based on a change of mindset has concrete positive consequences in their personal life and in the society of this minority, but also of the majority society in terms of cultural, educational, social/relational and economic aspects. Under the influence of religious formation, there is a willingness to take responsibility for their actions, to take responsibility for their family, to realise their potential not only in the local Roma community but also in the labour market.
The KBS Council for Roma and Minorities