Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church

Last updated
Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church
St.JohntheBaptistByzantineCatholicCathedral.jpg
Classification Eastern Catholic
Theology Catholic theology
Polity Episcopal
Structure Metropolitanate
Pope Francis
Primate William C. Skurla
Associations Dicastery for the Eastern Churches
Region
Liturgy Byzantine Rite
Headquarters Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, Munhall, Pennsylvania
Origin1646
Merger of Union of Uzhhorod
Congregations664
Members417,795 [2]
Ministers 549
Primary schools 1 in the United States
Other name(s)Byzantine Catholic Church (US only)
Official website archpitt.org

The Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, [lower-alpha 1] also known as the Byzantine Catholic Church in the United States, is a sui iuris (autonomous) Eastern Catholic church based in Eastern Europe and North America. As a particular church of the Catholic Church, it is in full communion with the Holy See. It uses the Byzantine Rite for its liturgies, laws, and cultural identity.

Contents

Name

While not directly associated with the former Ruthenian Uniate Church, the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church also derives its name from the Rusyn and Ruthenian Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe and their communion with Rome. [3] While Ruthenian Catholics are not the only Eastern Catholics to utilize the Byzantine Rite in the United States, the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church refers to itself as the "Byzantine Catholic Church" within the US. [4]

History

The Ruthenian Church originally developed among the Rusyn people who lived in Carpathian Ruthenia. [5] Christianity and the Byzantine Rite was brought to the Slavic peoples in the 9th century as a result of the missionary outreach of Saints Cyril and Methodius.

Following the Great Schism of 1054, the Ruthenian Church retained its Orthodox ties [6] [7] until the Union of Uzhhorod.

Union of Uzhhorod

The present structure of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church traces its origins to the 1646 Union of Uzhhorod, when Eastern Orthodox clergy were received into communion with the Holy See of Rome. Sixty three Ruthenian clergy were received into the Catholic Church; in 1664 a union reached at Munkács (today Mukachevo, Ukraine) brought additional communities into the Catholic communion. [7] [8]

Initially, the Union only included lands owned or administered by the noble Drugeth family; essentially, most of the modern-day Presov Region and part of Zakarpattia Oblast: Abov County, Gömör County, Sáros County, Szepes County, Torna County, northern Zemplén County, parts of Ung County, and the city of Uzhhorod itself.

The resulting dioceses retained their Byzantine patrimony and liturgical traditions, and their bishops were elected by a council composed of Basilian monks and eparchial clergy. In this part of central and eastern Europe, the Carpathian Mountains straddle the borders of the present-day states of Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Ukraine. Today, the church is multi-ethnic. Members of the metropolitan province of Pittsburgh are predominantly English-speaking. Most are descendants of Rusyns – including sub-groups like the Boikos, Hutsuls and Lemkos – but the descendants of other nationalities are also present such as Slovaks, Hungarians and Croats as well as those of non-Slavic and non-Eastern European ancestry. The modern Eparchy of Mukacheve in Ukraine is mostly Ukrainian-speaking but remains part of the greater Ruthenian Church.

After almost a thousand years of Hungarian rule the region became, in part, incorporated in Czechoslovakia after World War I. Annexation to the Soviet Union after the war led to persecution of the Ruthenian Catholic Church. [9] Since the collapse of Communism the Ruthenian Catholic Church in Eastern Europe has seen a resurgence in numbers of faithful and priests. [10]

United States

Metropolitan Judson Procyk (1931-2001) holds the cross for veneration after Vespers at a monastery pilgrimage in California in 1996 Metropolitan Judson White Klobuk 1996.jpg
Metropolitan Judson Procyk (1931–2001) holds the cross for veneration after Vespers at a monastery pilgrimage in California in 1996

In the 19th and 20th centuries, various Byzantine Catholics from Austria-Hungary arrived in the United States, particularly in coal mining towns. [6] Members of the predominant Latin Church Catholic hierarchy were sometimes disturbed by what they saw as the innovation, for the United States, of a married Catholic clergy. At their persistent request, the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith applied, on 1 May 1897, to the United States [11] rules already set out in a letter of 2 May 1890 to François-Marie-Benjamin Richard, the Latin Archbishop of Paris. [12] These rules stated that only celibates and widowed priests coming without their children should be permitted in the United States.

The dissatisfaction of many Ruthenian Catholics had already given rise to some groups placing themselves under the jurisdiction of what is today the Orthodox Church in America (at that time a mission of the Russian Orthodox Church). The leader of this movement was the widowed Ruthenian Catholic priest Alexis Toth, whose mistreatment by Archbishop John Ireland of Saint Paul, Minnesota, led to Toth's transfer to Eastern Orthodoxy. He brought with him many Ruthenian Catholics, around 20,000 by the time of his death with many who followed afterward, and was canonized a saint by the Orthodox Church in America in 1996.[ citation needed ]

The situation with Alexis Toth and the Latin Catholic bishops highlighted the need for American Eastern Catholics to have their own bishop. Pope Pius X appointed the Ukrainian bishop Soter Ortynsky in 1907 as bishop for all Slavic Eastern Catholics of the Byzantine rite in America. For this period the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholics were united to the Ukrainian Greek Catholics in the same eparchy. Ethnic tensions flared due to cultural differences (mostly of a political nature) between Ukrainians who came from Austrian-ruled Galicia and the Rusyns and other Byzantine Catholics who came from the Kingdom of Hungary.

This caused Rome to split the groups after Ortynsky's death, creating two ecclesiastical administrations for Eastern-rite Catholics in the United States, divided along nationality lines: one Ukrainian and the other Carpatho-Rusyn. Each was headed not by a bishop, but by an administrator: Father Peter Poniatyshyn for the Ukrainians and Father Gabriel Martyak for the Carpatho-Rusyns. [13] [14] Later The Rusyn priest Basil Takach was appointed and ordained in Rome on his way to America as the new eparchy's bishop. Bishop Takach is considered the first bishop of Ruthenian Catholics in America, and his appointment as the official founding of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh.

Clerical celibacy of American Eastern Catholics was restated with special reference to the Byzantine/Ruthenian Church by the 1 March 1929 decree Cum data fuerit, which was renewed for a further 10 years in 1939. Due to this and other similar factors, 37 Ruthenian parishes transferred themselves into the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch in 1938, creating the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese.

Relations with the Latin Church Catholic hierarchy have improved, especially since the Second Vatican Council, at which the Ruthenian Church influenced decisions regarding using the vernacular (i.e. the language of the people) in the liturgy. [15] In its decree Orientalium Ecclesiarum , the Second Vatican Council declared:

The Catholic Church holds in high esteem the institutions, liturgical rites, ecclesiastical traditions and the established standards of the Christian life of the Eastern Churches, for in them, distinguished as they are for their venerable antiquity, there remains conspicuous the tradition that has been handed down from the Apostles through the Fathers and that forms part of the divinely revealed and undivided heritage of the universal Church. [16]

The Second Vatican Council urged the Eastern Rite Churches to eliminate liturgical Latinization and to strengthen their Eastern Christian identity. In June 1999 the Council of Hierarchs of the Byzantine Metropolitan Church Sui Iuris of Pittsburgh USA promulgated the norms of particular law to govern itself. In January 2007, the Revised Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and the Revised Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great were promulgated. In December 2013, the Pope approved the request of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches that appropriate Eastern Church authorities be granted the faculty to allow pastoral service of Eastern married clergy also outside the traditional Eastern territory.

Membership within the Ruthenian Catholic Church, like the other sui iuris churches, is not limited to those who trace their heritage to the ethnic groups affiliated with the church. [17]

Structure

As of 2016, the membership of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church was estimated at some 419,500 faithful, with seven bishops, 664 parishes, 557 priests, 76 deacons, and 192 men and women religious. [18] The Church is not organised as a single synod. This is mainly because some of the priests and faithful of the Eparchy of Mukacheve desire that it should be part of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. [19]

The canonical territory of the metropolis includes the whole of the United States of America and Canada. It was erected as a metropolis (archdiocese) by Pope Paul VI in 1969. The apostolic exarchate in Canada serves Slovak Greek Catholics.

Saints

See also

People

Notes

  1. Rusyn: Русиньска ґрекокатолицька церьков; Latin: Ecclesia Graeco-Catholica Ruthenica.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruthenians</span> European ethnic group

Ruthenian and Ruthene are exonyms of Latin origin, formerly used in Eastern and Central Europe as common ethnonyms for East Slavs, particularly during the late medieval and early modern periods. The Latin term Rutheni was used in medieval sources to describe all Eastern Slavs of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as an exonym for people of the former Kievan Rus', thus including ancestors of the modern Belarusians, Rusyns and Ukrainians. The use of Ruthenian and related exonyms continued through the early modern period, developing several distinctive meanings, both in terms of their regional scopes and additional religious connotations.

Carpathian Ruthenia is a historical region on the border between Central and Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast, with smaller parts in eastern Slovakia and the Lemko Region in Poland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rusyns</span> Ethnic group that speaks an Eastern Slavic language

Rusyns, also known as Carpatho-Rusyns, or Rusnaks, are an East Slavic ethnic group from the Eastern Carpathians in Central Europe. They speak Rusyn, an East Slavic language variety, treated variously as either a distinct language or a dialect of the Ukrainian language. As traditional adherents of Eastern Christianity, the majority of Rusyns are Eastern Catholics, though a minority of Rusyns practice Eastern Orthodoxy. Rusyns primarily self-identify as a distinct Slavic people and they are recognized as such in Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Slovakia, where they have official minority status. Alternatively, some identify more closely with their country of residence, while others are a branch of the Ukrainian people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metropolis of Pittsburgh (Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church)</span> Metropolitan province for Byzantine Rite Catholics in the North America

The Metropolis of Pittsburgh is a sui juris metropolitan see of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church that is located in the United States of America and Canada. The Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church is one of 23 sui juris Eastern Catholic particular churches in the Catholic Church that is in full communion with the Holy See. The metropolis uses the Byzantine Rite in its liturgies. It was erected as a metropolis (archdiocese) by Pope Paul VI in 1969. The metropolis has jurisdiction over those communities that originated from the regions of Carpathian Ruthenia, Slovakia, Hungary and the former Yugoslavia. Worshipers come from several Byzantine Catholic groups: Rusyn Americans, Slovak Americans, Hungarian Americans, and Croatian Americans. In 2022, governance of the Exarchate of Saints Cyril and Methodius of Toronto in Canada passed to the metropolis of Pittsburgh from the Slovak Greek Catholic Church.

The American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of North America (ACROD) is a diocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with 78 parishes in the United States and Canada. Though the diocese is directly responsible to the Patriarchate, it is under the spiritual supervision of the Primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. The diocese was led by Metropolitan Nicholas Smisko of Amissos (1936–2011). The current leader is the Metropolitan of Nyssa, Gregory Tatsis, who was consecrated on November 27, 2012.

Monsignor Basil Shereghy was a leading Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church priest and professor, as well as a cultural activist for Rusyns in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theodore Romzha</span> Rusyn Greek Catholic bishop

Theodore George Romzha was the bishop of the Ruthenian Catholic Eparchy of Mukacheve from 1944 to 1947. Assassinated by the NKVD, he was beatified as a martyr by Pope John Paul II on 27 June 2001.

Rusyn Americans are citizens of the United States of America, with ancestors who were Rusyns, from Carpathian Ruthenia, or neighboring areas of Central Europe. However, some Rusyn Americans, also or instead identify as Ukrainian Americans, Russian Americans, or even Slovak Americans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carpatho-Rusyn Society</span>

The Carpatho-Rusyn Society is a non-profit cultural organization located in the United States dedicated to promoting Carpatho-Rusyn culture and history. It was established in Pittsburgh in 1994 and is the largest exclusively Carpatho-Rusyn organization in North America with over 3,000 members.

Basil Takach was the first bishop of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh, the American branch of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church.

Daniel Eugene Ivancho was the second bishop of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh, the American branch of the Ruthenian Catholic Church.

Nicholas Thomas Elko was an American Ruthenian Greek Catholic and the third bishop of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh. At the age of 46 he became the first American-born bishop of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church. He later served as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, a Latin Church archdiocese.

Stephen John Kocisko was the first Metropolitan Archbishop of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh, the American branch of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh</span> Eastern Catholic archeparchy in the United States

The Archeparchy of Pittsburgh is an archeparchy of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church that is located in the southern part of the United States of America. It is part of the Metropolis of Pittsburgh. The geographical remit of the archeparchy includes the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. The incumbent archeparch is the Most Reverend William C. Skurla. The episcopal seat is situated in the city of Pittsburgh.

Stephen Varzaly was a leading priest, journalist, and cultural activist for Rusyns in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union of Uzhhorod</span>

The Union of Uzhhorod, was a decision by 63 Ruthenian priests of the Orthodox Eparchy of Mukachevo to join the Catholic Church made on April 24, 1646. Until rediscovery of its founding document in 2016, academics had debated the actual date of union, whether a document had been signed, and even whether the Union of Uzhhorod had even transpired at all.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greek Catholic Eparchy of Križevci</span> Greek Catholic eparchy in the Balkans

The Eparchy of Križevci is a Greek Catholic Church of Croatia and Serbia eparchy of the Catholic Church in Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its current eparch is Milan Stipić. The cathedra is in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, in the episcopal see of Križevci, Croatia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo</span> Greek Catholic eparchy in Ukraine

The Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo is an eparchy (diocese) of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church that was erected by the Pope Clement XIV in 1771. The geographic remit of the eparchy includes the south-western parts of Ukraine that are roughly within Zakarpatska Oblast. As an Eastern Catholic Church, it is in full communion with the Catholic Church. The eparchy is exempt, which means that it does have a metropolitan bishop but is directly subject to the Holy See. It is supervised by the Roman Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, a Roman Curia dicastery acting on behalf of the Pope. Its parishes observe the Byzantine Rite which is also celebrated by the majority of Orthodox Christians, and as provided for in the original terms of the Union of Uzhhorod. The episcopal seat is the Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in the city of Uzhhorod.

Prostopinije is a type of monodic church chant, closely related to other East Slavic chants such as Galician Samoilka, Kievan Chant and Znamenny chant. Prostopinije is used in the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church, Slovak Greek Catholic Church, Hungarian Greek Catholic Church, and by the Carpatho-Russian Orthodox.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exarchate of Saints Cyril and Methodius of Toronto</span> Eastern Catholic ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Canada

The Exarchate of Saints Cyril and Methodius of Toronto is a ecclesiastical territory or exarchate that serves the Slovak Greek Catholic Church — a sui juris or self governing Eastern Catholic Church. Its geographical remit includes the whole territory of Canada. In 2022, Pope Francis transferred the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the exarchate from the Slovak Greek Catholic Church to the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church. It became part of the ecclesiastical Metropolis of Pittsburgh. This changed the territory's status from an eparchy to an exarchate at the same time.

References

  1. Brockhaus, Hannah (19 July 2021). "Pope Francis to visit Slovakia during important anniversary year for Ruthenian Catholics". Catholic News Agency . Retrieved 15 November 2021.
  2. "Eastern Catholic Churches Worldwide 2017" (PDF). Catholic Near East Welfare Association. 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  3. Andrew Jackson Shipman (1913). "Ruthenians"  . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  4. Senz, Paul (1 May 2019). "Get to know the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church". Our Sunday Visitor . Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  5. Kinder, Cole (March 6, 2022). "The Myth of the "Crusader Putin"". Corrispondenza Romana. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  6. 1 2 Paul Robert Magocsi. "Carpatho-Rusyn Americans".
  7. 1 2 "The Ruthenian Catholic Church". Catholic Near East Welfare Association. Archived from the original on August 6, 2007. Retrieved April 20, 2010.
  8. Pope John Paul II (April 18, 1996). "The 350th anniversary of the Union of Uzhorod". EWTN . Retrieved April 20, 2010.
  9. "Ruthenian Church". Eastern Catholic Pastoral Association of Southern California. Archived from the original on October 16, 2018. Retrieved April 20, 2010.
  10. "Uzhhorod Union of 1646". Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.
  11. "Collectanea". n. 1966.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  12. "Acta Sanctae Sedis" (PDF). 24. S. Congr. de Propaganda Fide. 1891–92: 390–391.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  13. PAUL R. MAGOCSI. "Our People: Carpatho-Rusyns and Their Descendants in North America" (PDF). p. 36. Retrieved 2023-11-07.
  14. "The Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh" . Retrieved 2023-11-07.
  15. KEVIN R. YURKUS. "The Other Catholics: A Short Guide to the Eastern Catholic Churches". Archived from the original on 2013-07-13. Retrieved 2014-05-30.
  16. Catholic Church (Second Vatican Council) (November 21, 1964). "Decree on the Catholic Eastern Churches". Holy See.
  17. The Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh. "Reverend Phillip J. Linden Jr. SSJ". The Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh. Archived from the original on 2021-01-28. Retrieved 2019-06-26.
  18. Ronald Roberson. "The Eastern Catholic Churches Statistics". Catholic Near East Welfare Association.
  19. Paul Robert Magocsi, Ivan Pop. "Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo".

Further reading

General Information:

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