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 geographical roots are in the region called Carpathian Ruthenia, in and around the Carpathian Mountains. Saints Cyril[link] and Methodius[link] visited the region in the 9th century and transmitted the Catholic faith in the Byzantine Rite.[link]

Geography and faith

The geography of this area, sometimes called Ruthenia, had a profound effect upon the faith of the region. The invasion of the Magyars in the 10th century forced the inhabitants to take refuge in the mountains, and resulted later in greater reach of the Latin Rite at the expense of the Byzantine rite,[link] but various rites lived side-by-side.[link] Portions of the region became Czechoslovakia after World War I,[link] and some Ruthenian Catholics "decided to become Orthodox."[link] Subsequent annexation to the Soviet Union after World War II involved persecution of the Ruthenian Catholic Church.[link] Since the collapse of Communism the Ruthenian Catholic Church in Eastern Europe has seen a resurgence in numbers of faithful and priests.

Relations with Latin-Rite Catholics, especially in the United States of America

In the 19th and 20th centuries, various Byzantine-Rite Catholics arrived in the United States of America, particularly in mining towns.[link] The predominant Latin-Rite Catholic hierarchy did not always receive them well. For example, at their request Pope Pius XI issued a decree "forbidding the service of married Greek Catholic priests in the United States, requiring them to return to Europe."[link] While misunderstandings between Eastern- and Latin-rite hierarchies did thus occur (see Bishop John Ireland), the Holy See maintains that it has always held an open hand toward "the orientals [who] need have no fear at all of being compelled to abandon their lawful rites and customs if unity of faith and government is restored" (Pope Pius XII, [Orientales omnes Ecclesias, §2], in which he quotes Pope Leo XIII's Apostolic Letter Orientalium dignitas, of 30 November1894). Over the centuries following the East-West Schism, segments of the Orthodox Churches sought reunion with the Holy See; in the case of the Ruthenians, Pope Pius XII commemorated the 350th anniversary of their return in the quoted 1945encyclical: "[W]e have the happiness of seeing not a few of our sons from those countries; these, since they have recognized the Chair of Peter as the center of Catholic unity, persevere with the greatest tenacity in defending and strengthening this same unity" (§3).

Relations with Latin-Rite Catholics have improved further, especially since the Second Vatican Council, at which the Ruthenian Church influenced decisions regarding language in the liturgy.[link] (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" ([Decree on the Catholic Eastern Churches, §1]).

The Ruthenian Catholic Church today

The Ruthenian Church now consists of the Metropolia of Pittsburgh — comprising the Byzantine-Rite Archeparchy of Pittsburgh (originally established in 1924) with its three suffragan eparchies of Parma (1969), Passaic (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).

Ruthenian parishes stress acceptance of the Pope and of the Catholic Church and its teachings (with an Eastern expression).[link] 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.

See also

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]

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