Specifically, it states:

• The Eparchy of Prešov, founded as an eparchy of the Ruthenian (Rusyn) Church, was changed in 1963 by the decision of a single Vatican cleric to the present "Slovak Greek Catholic Church sui iuris";
• Since 1968, Rusyn men have not had equal opportunity to be accepted as candidates for priestly formation in the seminary, and thus without enough Rusyn priests to serve Rusyn parishes, Slovak priests assigned to Rusyn parishes have been able to conduct an aggressive campaign of Slovakization;
• Since 1968 there has been no attempt, plan or activity on the part of the Greek Catholic hierarchy to serve Rusyns in their native tongue; neither the eparchy nor the apostolic exarchate of Košice has published a single catechetical guide, prayerbook, liturgical book, Holy Scripture, pastoral letter, periodical, etc., in Rusyn;
• At the Prešov seminary, seminarians never hear sermons in Rusyn nor are they encouraged to prepare for pastoral work among Rusyns, even though most of them immediately after ordination are assigned to serve as priests in Rusyn villages;
• Thousands of Rusyns have left their native villages and moved to various cities throughout Slovakia, yet there is not a single priest who will minister to them in their native langauge, even though in at least 10 cities the number of Rusyn Greek Catholics is large enough that they have an acute need for a Rusyn priest;
• The principles of the Second Vatican Council that peoples should be ministered to in their own language are completely disregarded with respect to Rusyns;
• The "Vicar for Rusyns" who was appointed in 2003 [the priest Peter Hal'ko, OSBM] does not know the Rusyn literary language, is of unclear national orientation, and has been completely passive in his role, which implies that his appointment was a cynical one on the part of the hierarchy, who continue to attempt to manipulate the situation rather than address the problem.

The charter was published in the Rusyn-language newspaper Narodnŷ Novynkŷ with a petition to be signed and returned to the newspaper editorial office. The charter and petition are also published on the website of the Academy of Rusyn Culture in Slovakia in Rusyn, Slovak, and English.

On the above website, the document is followed with a statement of support from "Rusyn intelligentsia of Svidník", who add their own list of demands to the Greek Catholic hierarchy, with reference to Vatican documents, Eastern Catholic canon law, and census statistics demonstrating the need and rights of Rusyns to be ministered to as a major ethnic component of the Greek Catholic Church in Slovakia.

The response of the Eparchy of Prešov was published on 5 February. Predictably, it attempts to rebut -- without specifics -- the claims of Slovakization made in the charter, and claims that the current situation is due to a lack of Rusyn candidates for the priesthood. It fails to offer the Rusyn faithful of the eparchy any examples of how the Church has officially tried to minister to Rusyns on an equal basis with Slovaks.

The publication of the charter was covered by an online Slovak newspaper on 6 February. Comments posted by readers of the article varied from supportive to scolding and denunciatory.

Texts of the charter, in the Rusyn and Slovak originals, follow. A (poor) English translation can be found here.

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