www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Fr. Alexis Toth

I recently read a book, The American Catholic Experience, in which the author included the exchange between Bishop John Ireland and Fr. Toth. I can't describe the nastiness that Bishop Ireland displyed at Fr. Toth, a brother in Christ. One would think that the amount of suffering and grief that Roman Catholics have had to endure would make them appreciate the suffering and grief that the Eastern Church has gone through. It's no wonder some Byzantines feel hostile toward to Catholics of the West (of which I am one). This was positively shameful. Sometimes the Irish consider themselves to be the most Catholic of anyone
(I can say that because I'm Irish). Shame on us.
Joe Washinski

Father Alexis Toth is known as St. Alexis Toth to many Orthodox in America. The OCA (he turned to the Russian Orthodox for help after his encounters with Bp. Ireland) glorified him a few years ago. While I'm not so sure about the appropriateness of leaving communion with Rome, I understand why and his people did what they did. Bp. Ireland wasn't the only Latin prelate to do what he did. Where I live there was a whole Ukrainian Catholic parish that was ignored and then reviled by the Latin Bp. Since they had no bp. of their own at the time (1911)they turned to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The parish thrives and the cornerstone still says, "St. Mary's Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church." Some say that the Eastern Catholic Churches lost up to 750,000 faithful to Orthodoxy because of the lack of priests, the celibacy issue, and nationalism. I do know of two Byzantine Catholic parishes that have icons of St. Alexis within the altar. Interesting.

[This message has been edited by Batushka (edited 06-11-99).]

I'm not certain of this, but I think that a very significant portion of the OCA is formerly Greek-Catholic -- either came in during Toth's era or early this Century when the celibacy issue was "handled" by Rome. Think of what the Ruthenian and Ukranian Catholic Churches would look like in the USA today had it not been for these pastoral blunders!

Orthodoxophilos

If the Latin bishops had not been so ignorant and rude, and had allowed the Ukrainians to continue their traditions,
there would certainly be a lot more Ukrainian Catholics in the US. The Latin Rite Catholic church had major problems with ethnicity through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Each ethnic group brought with them their prejudices from the Old World, and each ethnic group had to have its own parish.
Many of these old churches are absolutely beautiful (I love St. Stanislas Kosla in the Strip district of Pittsburgh), but the purpose of going to Mass or Divine Liturgy is to worship and love God. The Eastern Churches have more right to worship in their native language because the Latin Rite church used Latin until the 1960s, regardless of the ethnicity. This is a case of ignorance among us in the Latin Rite.
I did attend a Divine Liturgy last weekend, and I plan on attending again.
God bless,
Joe Washinski

The term "Greek-Catholic" was a term used in th e early 20th century for Orthodox. The naming distinctions between "Catholic" and "Orthodox" became much sharper as time progressed. I attend St. Mary's Cathedral. The parish the blessed Fr. Toth founded in Minneapolis. The inscription on the conerstone reads St. Mary's Russian Greek-Catholic church from 1912 (I believe). The parish had been "Orthodox" for quite some time and certainly the main edice has always been.

Ironically enough, Fr. Toth was run out of St. Mary's parish. Fr. Toth and his flock were originally from Slovakia. Following his establishment of St. Mary's as an Orthodox parish under Moscow and an influx of Russian immigrants, the parish was "russified" to the extent that Fr. Toth was not "Russian enough" for the parish and he left for greener pastures. This shameful fact was drilled into us by Metropolitan Theodosius when he came to present the "official" icon of St. Alexis Toth shortly after his beatification, lest St. Mary's get too swelled a collective head.

It's not just Roman Catholic bishops that can be cruel.

Parishes that switched (in whole or part) from the Catholic Church to the Orthodox Church often kept the name "Greek Catholic" in large part for property and legal reasons. Institutions that were founded as Orthodox rarely used the term.