The
Ruthenian Catholic Church is a
sui iuris (i.e., self-governing)
Eastern Catholic Church (see
particular Church), which uses the
Divine Liturgy of the Constantinopolitan
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. The Ruthenian Catholic Church is in full communion with the
Bishop of Rome who is spiritual leader of the 23 sui iuris particular churches which compose the
Catholic Church.
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.
The inhabitants of the region were forced to take refuge in the mountains by the invasion of the
Magyars in the 10th century. With the 1646 A.D.
Union of Ungvár, the Ruthenian Church reunited with the rest of the Catholic Church but was to retain its Byzantine rite and liturgical traditions, its bishops would be elected by a council composed of
Basilian monks and
eparchial clergy.
The region became, in part, incorporated in
Czechoslovakia after
World War I. Annexation to the
Soviet Union after
World War II led to persecution of the Ruthenian Catholic Church. However, 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 in the United States
In the 19th and 20th centuries, various Byzantine-Rite Catholics arrived in the
United States, particularly in
coal mining towns. 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 rules already set out in a letter of
2 May 1890 to
François-Marie-Benjamin Richard, the
Archbishop of Paris. 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 the Ruthenian Church 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
Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in America and
American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese. (See also
Archbishop John Ireland, Saint
Alexis Toth).
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. (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.) In its decree
Orientalium Ecclesiarum the Second Vatican Council 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."
The Ruthenian Catholic Church today
The Ruthenian Church now consists of the
Metropolia of Pittsburgh — comprising the
Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh (originally established in 1924) with its three suffragan eparchies of
Parma, (1969)
Passaic, (1963) and
Van Nuys (1981) — the Eparchy of
Munkács 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 Mukachevo that it should be part of the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
Ruthenian
parishes stress unity with the
Pope and the whole Catholic Church albeit with an Eastern expression. The
Second Vatican Council directed this Church to remove much of the "Latinization" in an attempt to return to its Eastern Christian identity. This directive has been met with some success. In June 1999 the Council of Hierarchs of the Byzantine Metropolitan Church Sui Iuris of Pittsburgh U.S.A. promulgated the norms of particular law to govern itself. In January 2007 the Council of Hierarchs promulgated revised versions of the Divine Liturgies of St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil the Great.
Members of the Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic Church of the United States of America are not limited to immigrants from Eastern Europe or their descendants.
See also
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