By Sean Salai, S.J. - America Magazine

Bishop Milan Lach, S.J., is the fifth Byzantine Catholic ordinary of the Ruthenian Eparchy of Parma, covering several Midwestern U.S. states. Enthroned as bishop on June 30 at his cathedral in Ohio, the 44-year-old Jesuit (an ethnic Ruthenian from Slovakia) is now the youngest Catholic bishop in North America.

Born 1973 in then-Czechoslovakia, Bishop Lach was ordained a priest in 2001. Before Pope Francis sent him to the United States to replace retired Bishop John Kudrick, he served as an auxiliary bishop of Byzantine Catholics in Presov, Slovakia.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

By Perry West

(CNA) - Centralia, Pennsylvania, is on fire … literally: a coal fire has been raging underneath the town for more than 50 years, but a century-old church still stands, drawing hundreds of Catholics for an annual Marian pilgrimage.

“The town is essentially gone, for all intents and purposes dead, but the Church is what gives life,” said Father John Fields, communications director and vice-chancellor for the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia.

“Jesus Christ gives life to the whole location,” he told CNA.

On August 26, four bishops and more than 500 pilgrims gathered to celebrate the Feast of Assumption of Mary, known in the Eastern rites as the Dormition of the Theotokos.

Pilgrims came from nearby and as far away as Texas and Florida for the third annual pilgrimage at the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church in Centralia, a nearly deserted town where a fire still burns up to 300 feet underground.  

Laura Ieraci | Aug 28, 2018 | CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

MERRILLVILLE, Indiana - The priest who was attacked by an unknown assailant in the sacristy of St. Michael Byzantine Catholic Parish in Merrillville Aug. 20 was admitted to the hospital two days later, where he continues to recover from the assault and resulting trauma.

Bishop Milan Lach of the Byzantine Ruthenian Eparchy of Parma in Ohio shared an update on Father Basil Hutsko in a letter read at all weekend services throughout the eparchy Aug. 25-26.

Lach read the letter personally to members of the northwest Indiana parish after the evening Divine Liturgy, Aug. 25.

Hutsko, 64, was assaulted as he prepared to celebrate morning Divine Liturgy. The assailant came up behind him, threw him to the ground and beat his head against the sacristy floor. The priest lost consciousness and never saw his assailant

By Catholic News Service • Posted August 21, 2018

MERRILLVILLE, Ind. (CNS) — A Byzantine Catholic priest was attacked Aug. 20 in the altar servers’ sacristy of his church in Merrillville, near Gary in the northwestern part of the state.

The priest, Father Basil Hutsko, suffered a concussion in the attack at St. Michael Church, and was scheduled to undergo further tests to determine the extent of his injuries.

The attacker, who was still at large, jumped Father Hutsko from behind, according to Father Thomas Loya, director of the Respect Life Office for the Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic Eparchy of Parma, Ohio, and a member of the eparchy’s presbyteral council.

In a Facebook posting after the attack, Father Loya said, “The attacker choked him and slammed his head to the ground. Father Basil lost consciousness. Before going unconscious, Father Basil heard the attacker say, ‘This is for all the kids!'” — a reference to clergy sex abuse scandals that have resurfaced in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

Father Hutsko, who is in his 60s, is not suspected of any abuse, Father Loya told Catholic News Service in an Aug. 21 telephone interview.

Press Release from Diocese of Phoneix:

WASHINGTON — Pope Francis has appointed the Most Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted as the Apostolic Administrator Sede Plena of the Holy Protection of Mary Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix. Bishop Olmsted will also retain his current Office as Bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix.

The announcement was publicized in Washington on August 1, 2018 by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Bishop Olmsted has served as the fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix since December 20, 2003.

WASHINGTON (USCCB)—Pope Francis has appointed the Most Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted, as the Apostolic Administrator Sede Plena of the Holy Protection of Mary Byzantine Catholic eparchy of Phoenix. Bishop Olmsted will also retain his current Office as Bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix.

The announcement was publicized in Washington on August 1, 2018 by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Bishop Olmsted has served as the fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix since December 20, 2003.

Prior to his arrival in Phoenix, Bishop Olmsted served as Bishop of Wichita, Kansas from 2001-2003, after being ordained Coadjutor Bishop on April 20, 1999. Before serving in Wichita, he served as the Rector and President of the Pontifical College Josephinum, a Catholic Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. Since 1974, Bishop Olmsted has been a member of the Jesus Caritas ­fraternity of priests. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Lincoln, Neb., July 2, 1973.

For 16 years, Bishop Olmsted lived in Rome, Italy, where he obtained a master's degree in theology and a doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Gregorian University (1981) and worked more than nine years as an official in the Vatican Secretariat of State from 1979 to 1988. During his time in Rome, he was also an assistant spiritual director at the Pontifical North American College.

press.vatican.va - 02.06.2018 - The following is the greeting the Holy Father Francis addressed to the delegation from the Patriarchate of Moscow, whom he received in the study of the Paul VI Hall before the general audience on Wednesday 30 May:

Greeting of the Holy Father

Thank you so much for your visit, and also for this meeting, which helps us so much to live our faith in unity and in the hope to walk together. I am happy to take the road of unity with you: the only road that promises us something certain, because the path of division leads us to war and destruction. And before you I would like to reiterate – in a special way before you, my dear brother, and before all of you – that the Catholic Church will never allow an attitude of division to arise from her people. We will never allow ourselves to do this, I do not want it. In Moscow – in Russia – there is only one Patriarchate: yours. We will not have another one. And when some Catholic faithful, be they laypeople, priests or bishops, raise the banner of Uniatism, which does not work anymore, and is over, then it causes me pain. The Churches that are united in Rome must be respected, but Uniatism as a path of unity is not valid today. Instead it brings me comfort when I find this: the extended hand, the fraternal embrace, thinking together, and journeying. Ecumenism is made by journeying. We walk. Some think – but this is not right – that there must first be doctrinal agreement, on all the points of division, and then the journey. This does not work for ecumenism, because we do not know when agreement will come. I once heard a man of the Church, a man of God, who said: “I know which day a doctrinal agreement will be signed”. They asked him: “When?” – “The day after the coming of the glorious Christ”. We must continue to study theology, to clarify the points, but in the meantime let us walk together, let us not wait for these things to be resolved in order to walk, no. We journey together and also do this, but walking in love, in prayer; as in this example of the relics. Prayer together, for each other, in dialogue. This is so good. The meeting with His Holiness Kirill was very good for me, I found a brother. And now, spiritually, we walk together.

Rome (01.06.2018) - The Holy Father Francis has appointed Bishop of Parma of the Ruthenians (U.S.A.) S.E. Monsignor Milan Lach, S.I., until now Apostolic Administrator, vacant office of the same, transferring it from the head office of Ostracine.

S.E. Mons. Milan Lach, S.I.

S.E. Msgr. Milan Lach, S.I., was born on November 18th 1973 in Kežmarok, in the Archieparchia of Prešov dei Bizantini (Slovakia).

From 1992 to 1995 he attended the Greek-Catholic Theological Faculty of Prešov and in 1995 entered the Jesuit novitiate in Trnava.

After his theological studies at the Theological Faculty of the University of Trnava (1997-2001), he was ordained a priest in 2001 in Košice.

From 2001 to 2003 he worked in the scientific area of ​​the East-West Spirituality Center of Michal Lacko in Košice and later (2009-2011) was Superior of the same Center.

In 2009 he obtained a Doctorate in Eastern Ecclesiastical Sciences at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. At the same time he was a spiritual father at the Pontifical College Russicum and also a spiritual assistant of the Federation of European Scouts in Rome.

Since 2010 he has been a member of the editors of the theological journal "Verba Theologica".

Since 2011 he has been Deputy-Dean of the Theological Faculty of the University of Trnava, for foreign relations and for development.

On 19 April 2013, the Holy Father Francis appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of the Archiepiscop of Prešov of the Byzantines (Slovakia), assigning him the titular seat of Ostracine.

From 2016 to 2017 he was Visitator of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches of the Seminaries and Eastern Colleges in Rome.

On 24 June 2017, the Holy Father Francis appointed him Apostolic Administrator, vacant seat of the Eparchia of Parma dei Ruteni (U.S.A.).

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Phil Battey | Special to the Catholic Herald

May 5, 1968. Protests in France sparked street battles in Paris between students and army troops. Communist units initiated Phase II of the Tet Offensive, attacking 119 targets in South Vietnam, including the capital Saigon. Bobby Goldboro’s Honey was Number 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 record chart. And at Our Lady of the Annunciation Cathedral in West Roxbury, Mass., Bishop Justin Najmy ordained 25-year-old Deacon Joseph Francavilla as a priest in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. As Father Francavilla put on his vestments for the first time as a priest, the congregation chanted again and again:  “Axios” — Greek for “He is worthy.”

“It was a beautiful spring day in Boston, and you don’t get many of those there,” recalled Father Francavilla, who will celebrate his 50th anniversary as a priest next month. “I would spend the next four years assisting at Annunciation Cathedral and then come to Washington as pastor of the newly established Holy Transfiguration Church in McLean.”  He has served at Holy Transfiguration, one of five Eastern Catholic parishes in the Washington area, for the past 47 years.