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Byzantine Catholic archdiocese marks 75th anniversary
Monday, October 04, 1999 By Ann Rodgers-Melnick, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
It was a tribute to Byzantine artistry that the normally bland hall of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center was transformed yesterday into a cathedral for the 75th anniversary of the Byzantine Catholic Archdiocese of Pittsburgh.
Four life-sized triptychs of Christ the teacher, Mary and Jesus, John the Baptist and St. Nicholas formed an icon screen, while ornate perfidia -- round icons mounted on processional poles -- and an elaborate candelabra adorned the altar. With 2,700 seats, there was standing room only for the largest Byzantine Catholic celebration that most of those present had ever attended.
"There's a lot of excitement, with all the bishops and archbishops," said Margie Budd, 47, who had come on a bus chartered by Byzantine Catholics from Boardman, Ohio.
Mary McDonnell had driven nearly six hours from Annandale, Va., to attend. It was partly because her husband has been a deacon since his retirement 10 years ago. But beyond that, the Eastern church tradition "is something ingrained in your heart," she said.
The Byzantine archdiocese isn't merely a local diocese but rather the seat of the only self-governing Eastern Catholic Church in the United States. Eastern Catholics follow the traditions of Orthodoxy, but give their allegiance to the pope. There are about 236,000 Byzantine Catholics in four U.S. dioceses.
Yesterday's celebration was attended by all of the Byzantine bishops, many of Pennsylvania's Latin-rite bishops, including Bishop Donald Wuerl of Pittsburgh, and several Eastern Catholic bishops from Ukraine, Croatia and the Slovak Republic.
Pittsburgh Archbishop Judson Procyk gave a special greeting to the local Orthodox bishops who attended, including Bishop Kyrill of the Orthodox Church of America and Metropolitan Nicholas of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of Johnstown.
The Johnstown diocese was formed decades ago for Byzantine Catholics who converted to Orthodoxy after Rome forbade Eastern Catholic bishops in the United States to ordain married men.
Nicholas' presence was a sign of ecumenical reconciliation. After years of ecclesiastical diplomacy by Procyk, last week the Vatican restored the Byzantine bishops' ability to ordain married priests.
In his homily, Procyk called on the faithful to enter "the new Christian millennium as an American Byzantine Catholic Church." He urged them to view their church not as an ethnic enclave, but as a community of Christians with a great treasure to offer everyone who needs Jesus.
"We reject the notion of a Byzantine-Ruthenian diaspora in the United States. We are a multiethnic church," Procyk said.
"Christ, his gospel and his church cannot be confined or restricted by ethnicity."
The purpose of tradition is not to preserve any particular culture, but to express the Christian message in ways that people in a given culture can understand, he said.
While European traditions are beautiful and should be treasured, "we must express the faith in a new way, in the culture in which we live and the language which we speak," Procyk said.
Most of the service was chanted in English, with occasional familiar passages in Greek or Old Slavonic.
There was evidence of young people willing and able to carry that tradition well into the next millennium. Dean Poloka, 28, came from Abridge because "I take my religion and my culture seriously," he said.
The celebration of Byzantine Catholic history will continue into 2000, with an exhibit at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center in the Strip District. It will include the altar of the first bishop of Pittsburgh, icons, vestments and various liturgical items.
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