The Rev. Eugene Yackanich has been chosen as the administrator to run the Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh until Pope Benedict XVI names its next archbishop.

"I was surprised and honored," said Father Yackanich, who had gone into the meeting of the archeparchy's College of Consultors with someone else in mind. The meeting was held after Friday's funeral for Metropolitan Basil Schott, who died June 10. Archeparchy is the Eastern Catholic term for archdiocese.

Eastern Catholic churches are self-governing in union with the pope, but with liturgy and customs resembling those of Eastern Orthodoxy. Their process for selecting a new bishop differs from that of Latin Catholic dioceses. The Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh is the only self-governing Eastern Catholic Church headquartered in the United States.

The metropolia -- jurisdiction -- of the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh includes three other eparchies based in Passaic, N.J., Parma, Ohio, and Phoenix.

Those three bishops will submit a short list of possible archbishops to Vatican's Congregation for Oriental Churches, said the Rev. John Petro, rector of SS. Cyril & Methodius Byzantine Catholic Seminary, North Side. Officials at the Congregation for Oriental Churches will vet the candidates and submit one to the pope, who can approve or reject the choice. After the previous archbishop died in 2001, it took more than a year to name a new one.

The administrator's job is to not rock the boat.

"My appointment entails keeping whatever has been going on to this point rolling along, and taking care of important things that may come up," Father Yackanich said.

He hasn't been involved in the governance of the archeparchy prior to this, he said.

He will not be involved in overseeing the other eparchies. Those duties have been temporarily assumed by Bishop William Skurla of Passaic.

Father Yackanich, 70, was born in Trauger, near Latrobe. His father was a Byzantine Catholic priest, which was neither scandalous or unusual. Eastern Catholic churches in Europe and the Middle East have always ordained married men, and they did so in the United States until 1929, when Pope Pius XI forbade the practice in this country.

"Wherever he was transferred, we went with him. So I grew up in a lot of places," Father Yackanich said.

He was ordained in 1965. For the past 17 years Father Yackanich has been pastor of St. Elias Byzantine Catholic Church in Munhall.

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