Ruthenian Catholic Church
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The Ruthenian Catholic Church is a sui iuris (i.e., autonomous) Catholic Church (see particular Church), which uses the Divine Liturgy of the Byzantine Eastern Rite. Its roots are among the Rusyns who lived in the region called Carpathian Ruthenia, in and around the Carpathian Mountains. This is the area where the borders of present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine meet.
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History
Ruthenian Catholics are descended from those to whom Saints Cyril and Methodius brought Christianity and the Byzantine Rite in their missionary outreach to the Slavic peoples in the ninth century.[1].
The inhabitants of the region, whom the invasion of the Magyars in the 10th century forced to take refuge in the mountains, were on the Eastern side of the East-West Schism. However, on 26 April 1646, in the church of the Castle of Uzhhorod, 63 Byzantine-rite priests of the Eparchy of Mukacheve, led by the Basilian monk Parfenii Petrovyc, agreed to what came to be known as the Union of Uzhhorod, whose terms stipulated that the Church that was thus entering into full communion with the See of Rome would retain its Byzantine rite and liturgical traditions, its bishops would be elected by a council composed of Basilian monks and eparchial clergy, and the election would be confirmed by the Pope.[2]
The region became, in part, incorporated in Czechoslovakia after World War I,[3] and some Ruthenian Catholics "decided to become Orthodox."[4] Annexation to the Soviet Union after World War II led to persecution of the Ruthenian Catholic Church.[5] However, since the collapse of Communism the Ruthenian Catholic Church in Eastern Europe has seen a resurgence in numbers of faithful and priests.[1]
Relations with Latin-Rite Catholics in the United States
In the 19th and 20th centuries, various Byzantine-Rite Catholics arrived in the United States of America, particularly in mining towns.[6] The predominant Latin-Rite Catholic hierarchy did not always receive them well, being disturbed in particular at what they saw as the innovation, for the United States, of a married Catholic clergy. At their request, the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith applied on 1 May 1897 to the United States[2] rules already set out in a letter of 2 May 1890 to the Archbishop of Paris,[3]. These rules stated that only celibates or widowed priests coming without their children should be permitted in the United States. This rule was restated with special reference to Catholics of Ruthenian Rite by the 1 March 1929 decree Cum data fuerit, which was renewed for a further ten years in 1939. Dissatisfaction by many Ruthenian Catholics in the United States gave rise to the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese. (See also Bishop John Ireland).
Relations with Latin-Rite Catholics have improved, especially since the Second Vatican Council, at which the Ruthenian Church influenced decisions regarding language in the liturgy.[7] (Unlike the former custom in the Latin Church, the Ruthenian Church always celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Church Slavonic language, an ancient Slavic language.) The Council also reiterated: "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."[4]
The Ruthenian Catholic Church today
The Ruthenian Church now consists of the Metropolia of Pittsburgh — comprising the Byzantine-Rite Archeparchy of Pittsburgh[5] (originally established in 1924) with its three suffragan eparchies of Parma[6] (1969), Passaic[7] (1963) and Van Nuys (1981) — the Eparchy of Mukacheve in Ukraine (dating from 1771 and immediately subject to the Holy See), and the Apostolic Exarchate of the Czech Republic (founded in 1996).
One problem preventing organization of the Ruthenian Catholic Church under a single synod is the desire of some of the priests and faithful of the Eparchy of Mukacheve that it should be part of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.[8]
Ruthenian parishes stress acceptance of the Pope and of the Catholic Church and its teachings (with an Eastern expression).[8] Those in the United States of America are not limited to immigrants from Eastern Europe and willingly accept at their services people not of Ruthenian descent.
References
- ^ Encyclopedia of Ukraine
- ^ Collectanea No. 1966
- ^ Acta Sanctae Sedis, vol. 1891/92, p.390
- ^ Decree on the Catholic Eastern Churches, 1
- ^ Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh
- ^ Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma
- ^ Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic
- ^ Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo
See also
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
External links
- Byzantine Catholic Church in America
- Cathedral of St. Mary (Byzantine-Ruthenian Church)
- Orientales Omnes Ecclesias: Encyclical of Pope Pius XII
- Orientalium Ecclesiarum: Second Vatican Council
- Directory of Byzantine-Ruthenian Parishes
- Our Identity
- Ruthenian Church
- Ruthenian Liturgical Resources
- St. Elias Church
- What Is the Byzantine-Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church?
- Who are we?
- Catholic Dioceses in the World - By Rite - Ruthenian Church
Categories
Eastern Rite Catholicism | Carpathian Ruthenia | Ruthenia