Obituary: Basil Schott / Archbishop of Byzantine Catholic church in Pittsburgh
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Metropolitan Basil Schott, the Byzantine Catholic archbishop of Pittsburgh, mobilized the Eastern Catholic bishops in the United States for more unified leadership, but never forgot that their goal was to save souls.
Metropolitan Basil, 70, died of cancer at 3:45 a.m. Thursday in UPMC Passavant. He had led the Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh since 2002.
"He was a very spiritual man, whose prayer life affected the whole church in the United States. That will be the greatest loss to us," said Bishop John Kudrick of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma, Ohio. (Eparchy is the Eastern Catholic term for diocese.)
With 60,000 members from Erie to El Paso, Texas, his flock was less than one-tenth that of the Latin Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh. But he outranked his Latin colleagues.
He led the only self-governing Eastern Church in the United States. Eastern Catholic Churches, with roots in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, are in full communion with the pope, but closely resemble Orthodox churches.
Metropolitan Basil mobilized his brother Eastern bishops to be an effective voice within the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
"He really brought us together. There had been an organization for many years, but he was instrumental in our being recognized as a group within the bishops' conference," Bishop Kudrick said.
He helped the Eastern bishops address difficult internal issues, Bishop Kudrick said. Some hadn't conducted the annual sexual abuse audits required by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops because they were prohibitively expensive for their tiny eparchies.
Metropolitan Basil insisted that they must conduct the audits. But he negotiated with the bishops' conference to allow cost-saving measures, such as sharing an abuse-prevention coordinator.
His success wasn't due to bureaucratic prowess. "As an administrator he did a very good job. But it was his personality that drew people in," Bishop Kudrick said.
The native of Freeland, Luzerne County, entered the Byzantine Franciscan novitiate at 19 and was ordained in 1965.
First Published June 11, 2010 12:00 am
