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Christ is in our Midst!

Everyone is invited to come check out our new parish website. It has a lot of great stuff, including a great discussion of the Nativity Fast and Period of the Epiphanies. It also has a virtual tour of the Divine Liturgy (I'm holding the candle in the Little Entrance).

There are also pictures of my daughter's baptism (I'm chanting the Epistle).

www.byzantinecatholic.org [byzantinecatholic.org]

Justin

Justin -
I'm curious: Archdiocese? Jesuits? These words say "Latin Rite" to me. Is this Byzantine Catholic parish under the jurisdiction of a Latin Rite bishop? If so, then your parish is truly an example of the Church breathing with both lungs!!!

We're a parish of the Russian Catholic Church, which has no hierarchy because there are so few of us (four in the U.S. and a scattering of parishes in foreign countries). Therefore, we are under the jurisdiction of the local Latin ordinary, served by bi-ritual Jesuits. It's a less than ideal situation.

Justin

Justin,

I LOVE the new site! Very nicely done.

Anthony

Thanks Anthony,

I'll forward the praise to the guy who designed it--he's familiar with your parish evangelisation guide. In fact, that was part of the reason he thought to renovate the site.

Justin

What a kick! I think that I was visiting the day that the pictures were taken during the liturgy.

Two questions for jbosl about this very nice site:

Your deacon goes unmentioned both on listing of staff and parishioners. An oversight?

More that 300 million Eastern Catholics?
To support this count, you would need more inclusive definition that appears in your list of Eastern Catholics.

I think THIS count inadvertently includes all of the Eastern Churches: Eastern Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Catholics, AND Oriental Orthodox.

Or, the Russian Catholic faithful are positively thinking that re-unification between the East and the West is a done deal!

Very nice website, though!

AmdG

I'm surprised that they didn't put you under the jurisdiction of a Byzantine bishop... But it seems like a nice opportunity to spread awareness of the Eastern Catholics among RC's.

JUstin,

I once heard that the Russian Catholics might place themselves under the Omophor of the Melkite Eparch in the US. Was this ever considered?

I have FOND memories of the Russian Catholic Center when Father Steven was priest there!

DJS:

Fr. Dn. Gerald Sondergaard has retired since these pictures were taken; he now resides in Albuquerque and serves at Mother of Perpetual Help (Ruthenian) Byz Cath Church.

As regards numbers, you're asking the wrong guy!

Justin

Brian (my brother's name!),

There is still some talk. Our sister parish in El Segundo, CA, St. Andrew's, has been given over to Melkite administration. Canonically, any Church without a hierarchy must be under the Latin ordinary without Vatican approval, however in LA Cardinal Mahoney has given the parish to the Melkites for routine adminstration. There is some talk that we would do the same, but there are some internal affairs to iron out before then.

Justin

Yes, Fr Deacon Gerry is serving at OLPH, Albuquerque, NM. This occured recently (within the last few months). I understand his twin is an Orthodox(?) priest in the same town?

Yes--his brother, Fr. George is an archpriest in the OCA. They are identical twins!

Justin

Slava Isusu Chrystu!

wow! i have been visiting the old site for spiritual nourishment and resources but with the new it has uplifted my spirit more...

thanks be to God for the one made the site and those who take care of it!

what do you mean by Jesuits - are the greek priests Jesuits? or just under the Jesuits care...

i remember e-mailing the old site but did not got a reponse: i'm from the Philippines and virtually no greek-catholic presence here.

but a about 2 years ago, friend informed me of a different kind of foriegner-visiting priest in their Jesuit university...i told her that she encountered a greek-catholic priest but i had to explain to her the Eastern Catholic Churches because it is very rare for Pilipinos to know of the other lung of our church. would you know about this visit? could you direct me to the priest or anybody?

thanks! once again the site is wonderful!
God bless!
eumir

St. Andrew's in El Segundo is a bit unique. Archimandrite Alexei Smith, its Pastor and a native son of the parish, attended St. Gregory's, the US Melkite Diocesan Seminary, and was ordained for his Church by Archbishop Joseph Tawil, Eparch of Newton (Melkites), of blessed memory. St. Andrew's is both a parish of the Byzantine Russian Orthodox Church in Communion with Rome and a mission (St. Paul's) of the Melkite Eparchy of Newton and Father Alexei is bi-ecclesial. Thus, the singular situation of a parish subject to the Latin Ordinary, but under the omophorion of a Byzantine Eparch.

(Ironically, the modern-day re-awakening of Byzantine Catholicism among the Russians traces to a Russian Orthodox priest, Nicholas Tolstoy of blessed memory, who was incardinated into the Melkite Church in 1893 when he entered into communion with Rome.)

At this point in history, that the Byzantine Russians are without a hierarchy may be less a function of numbers of faithful than it is of politics.

There were two canonical jurisdictions, Moscow, erected 1917, and Harbin (China), erected 1928. Blessed Leonid Feodorov, appointed in 1917 as the first Apostolic Exarch of Moscow for Russian Byzantines, entered into rest in 1935, having spent more than half of the intervening years imprisoned; his successor, Blessed Kliment Sheptytsky, reposed in 1951, while imprisoned.

The Servant of God Father Archimandrite Fabijan Abrantovich, M.I.C., was named to the Apostolic Exarchate of Harbin for Russian Byzantines and All Oriental Rite Catholics in China in 1928, although he was never elevated to episcopal status. Archimandrite Fabijan was arrested in 1948, when the jurisdiction was suppressed, and executed at some date thereafter. Emigres expelled or fleeing from Harbin were principally responsible for establishment of the El Segundo parish.

Both exarchial jurisdictions are extant, but sede vacante. As neither See was singularly designated as precedential, each is, theoretically, a Church sui iuris, although it is likely that the Moscow hierarch would be so designated, when and if the Sees are canonically re-erected.

Alexander Evreinov, of blessed memory, was elevated to the episcopacy in 1936 to serve as an ordaining bishop for the Church. He was succeeded in 1958 by Bishop Andrei Katkov, M.I.C., the Church's last hierarch, who reposed in 1996, memory eternal. No successor to Bishop Katkov has yet been named.

The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) has a long history of service to the Eastern Churches. Most Eastern Catholic Jesuits are ordained specifically to the Church which they serve (the current General of the Society was ordained to the priesthood for the Armenian Catholic Church). Others, ordained to the Latin Church, who later choose to serve in an Eastern Church, receive appropriate bi-ecclesial faculties. (All those ordained to Eastern Churches receive bi-ecclesial faculties in the Latin Church, as membership in the Society requires that.)

The Jesuits have been an important factor in the survival of the Byzantine Russians, both in the US and in the Church's homeland. They have served 3 of the 4 existing US Russian parishes (and a former parish, now suppressed) at various periods in their histories. A cause for beatification is in place for Father Walter Ciszek, SJ, of blessed memory, who spent many years in Soviet prisons.

Many years,

Neil