Program re Fr Walter Ciszek on EWTN now.

According to their schedule it will repeat today at 6:30 PM Eastern Time

Thanks for the "heads up" post!

We regularly pray for Servant of God Fr. Walter Ciszek in our parish community, so I was delighted to see this program is being aired.

Yet, he is of course described in the program notes as a Roman Catholic priest. I know he was trained as a Jesuit, but was he not an Eastern Catholic priest? I know his cause was submitted by +Bishop Dudick of the Eparchy of Passaic, and the Byzantine Chapel at the University of Scranton is named in his honor and memory. If I remember his history correctly, he first entered Russia with the permission of Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky.

BTW - I'd recommend his book, With God in Russia, to all. His journey in faith was extraordinary!

Quite welcome.



and He Leadeth Me

Servant of God Walter Ciszek was indeed trained at the Russicum and ordinated Byzantine as you note, like perhaps the most well known to most people these days of the Jesuit Russicum grads ordinated Byzantine, Archimandrite Robert F Taft, S.J., thanks be to God still alive and active for the faith.

I was in a hurry to post that so people might catch the program while it was on, so I just did a quick cut and paste from the EWTN website... then went to bed.

Reminder the program repeats this afternoon 6:30PM Eastern/3:30PM Pacific time

ON NOW! 5:30 pm central time

It shows the clip of people throwing their ancient icons into the bonfire.

Official Site of the Father Walter Cisze...J. Ciszek, S.J.

As Joe noted, the Servant of God, Father Walter, was ordained to the service of the Russian Greek-Catholic Church. In fact, if memory serves me correctly, he was the first American-born Jesuit graduate of the Russicum to be ordained to the Jesuit's 'Oriental Province'.

Bishop Michael, of blessed memory, did indeed initiate the Cause for Father Walter's canonization under the auspices of the Eparchy of Passaic. The Cause was subsequently transferred to the Latin Diocese of Allentown.

This decision was perhaps made because of the canonical fiction that Russian Catholics, being sine episcopi, must be subject to the local Latin Ordinary (although his status as a priest of the Society could have allowed for the matter to be promoted by the Jesuits). Alternatively, it may have been done because Father Walter was born within the geographic confines of the Diocese of Allentown.

In either case, no one can fault the Latin Diocese for its handling of Father Walter's Cause. Bishop Thomas Welsh, of blessed memory, actively led the effort and, after retiring from the See, headed up the Prayer League itself until his repose. As well, his successors, Bishops Cullen and Barres, have both been very supportive.

Servant of God, Father Walter, pray for us!

Many years,

Neil