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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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Vintage Books Now Available
A treasure trove of classic Greek-Catholic prayer books in Church Slavonic (Latin characters) has recently been discovered and Eastern Christian Publications has been invited to sell these “collector items.” The books are in mint condition (brand new still in original cases) and include:
Duchovni Pisni (Slavonic Hymns), Stefan Papp, Presov, 1969, Hymns with music, 200 pages. $40.00 – advance sale $30.00.
Maly Izbornik (A Small Collection Prayers), Nikolai Choma, Uzhorod, 1924, Prayerbook for the faithful, 416 pages. $60 – advance sale $50.00.
Velikij Izbornik (A Large Collection of Prayers), Bishop Paul Gojdich, Presov, 1937, Prayerbook for the clergy, 750 pages. $90 – advance sale $80.00.
Advance orders will ship October 1st. Order now; limited supply.
Context: This edition of the Maly Izbornik is the exact same book that my Grandma Figel bought for $3.00 in the 1920’s. She left it with my father when she died, and who left it to me on his passing. It is well worn since she used it daily, and every week at Sunday Liturgy in church for 70+ years. I considered scanning and making it available as a reprint for the 100th anniversary next year, but now I don’t need to! The Velikij Izbornik was used for Saturday Evening Vespers at St Mary’s in New York City as late the early 1980’s. The Duchovni Pisni was compiled after the Prague Spring of 1968 for the people of Slovakia to restore the hymns of Mukachevo, the mother church.
See more information and sample pages on the ECP website. Place your advance orders here:
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As the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church concludes its Holy Synod, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk expresses his gratitude for Pope Francis' closeness to the people of Ukraine and reflects on the Church's pastoral care of people wounded in war.
vaticannews.va - By Sr. Nina Benedikta Krapić, VMZ
The bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) concluded their annual Holy Synod on Thursday, which took place in Rome and included an audience with Pope Francis.
The UGCC Synod focused on the Church's pastoral care for people wounded in Russia's war in Ukraine.
On the sidelines of a press conference, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, spoke to Vatican News about the work of the Synod and about the support shown by the Pope for Ukraine.
Q: From the audience you had with Pope Francis, what is the most important for you?
The Holy Father is with us, and we manifested our Catholicity, our full and visible communion with the successor of Peter. And with that communion, with that good news, we are coming back home.
I admired the humility of Pope Francis. He was well aware of his own faults, his own not very clear expressions. And he corrected himself. To be able to correct yourself in the presence of your brother bishops - that is a sign of deep humility.
And among other things, he wished to listen to us, not only to myself, to the head of the Church, but he gave a possibility, an open floor, for each one of 45 bishops to speak out in behalf of the simple, wounded, disappointed people of Ukraine.
And this mutual dialogue, a capability to listen to, ministry of listening, was something which for us, wounded by the war, was a healing moment.
Q: What are your expectations from the visit of Cardinal Zuppi to China?
I have expectations, and wish that the visit will be a baby step toward an authentic, just and secure peace.
Q: The focus of the Synod was on the pastoral care for wounded people. What is exactly that you hope to do?
First of all, we are emphasizing on the formation of priests, religious and bishops as well, because we have to change our methods.
We have to understand better what is going on with the psychological and emotional part of the human being, but also spiritual one, to be more empathic with the people and to be more helpful to them. Because if you would simply say to a wounded soldier without legs in the hospital, I do understand you, you would be wrong.
And I think that the pastoral care of wounded people is a big challenge, especially for the pastoral activity of the Church.
Q: Your country is in the state of war. What is happening in Ukraine with the Church, and with lay people and consecrated people on the other hand?
Many things, but first of all in such a dramatic circumstances all of us Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Jews, Muslims, we learn how to discern what is the most important things for you right now today.
And I learned that for me most important things, which is a source of my personal resilience, is faith.
To be faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ, to believe in the grace of the Holy Spirit, to sanctify the holy name of the Holy Trinity among the atrocities of war. That is the source of the resilience and resistance of the people of Ukraine.
Link to story at vaticannews.va.
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ugcc.ua - On Sunday, September 3, the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC in 2023 began in Rome, with the central theme “Pastoral Support for Victims of War.” The Hierarchical Divine Liturgy in St. Sophia Basilica, concelebrated by UGCC bishops from around the world, was presided over by His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Father and Head of the UGCC. The prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Catholic Churches, Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, arrived to greet the synodal fathers.
The first sign of hope is that the synodal work is the moment of the descent of the Holy Spirit: “Whenever the Church or the people have undergone some rough moments in their history (in modern times, we would describe these as moments of crisis), the Church has convened local synods or even Ecumenical Councils. For such an assembly of the apostles of our time, our bishops, is a special moment of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Church and the people.”
His Beatitude Sviatoslav regretted saying that today, many people would live happier and more peaceful lives if Ukraine, its people, state, and our Church did not exist. He recalled an Argentine saying: “I am a pebble in the shoe,” and noted that the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is such a “pebble in the shoe for those who would like to get on with their earthly things, despite God’s call to the Heavenly Kingdom as it really is.”
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WASHINGTON (usccb.org) - Pope Francis has appointed Rev. Robert M. Pipta as bishop of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma. Bishop-elect Pipta is a priest of Holy Protection of Mary Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix, and currently serves as rector of Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The appointment was publicized in Washington, D.C. on August 31, 2023, by Monsignor Séamus P. Horgan, chargé d’affaires, ad interim at the apostolic nunciature in Washington, in the temporary absence of Cardinal-designate Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.
Father Pipta was born on April 7, 1967, in Anaheim, California. He studied at the University of California at Irvine (1985-1990) and earned a bachelor’s degree in music. He attended the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1990-1994). He was ordained to the priesthood on April 21, 1994, for the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Van Nuys.
Bishop-elect Pipta’s assignments after ordination include: parochial vicar at St. Stephen Byzantine Catholic Cathedral in Phoenix, Arizona (1994-1997); administrator of St. Garbiel Byzantine Catholic Church in Las Vegas, Nevada (1997-2004); and pastor at Holy Angels Byzantine Catholic Church in San Diego, California (2004-2014). Since 2014, Father Pipta has served as rector of the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Pittsburgh.
Bishop-elect Pipta has held numerous appointments within the eparchy: member of the Intereparchial and Eparchial Music and Liturgy Commissions (1994-present); ecclesiastical notary for the eparchy (1994-1997); a member of the advisory council for the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Saints Cyril and Methodius (1998-2012); vocations director (1994-2014); member of the Eparchial Review Board (2008-2014); and the Eparchial College of Consultors (2008-2014). He has also served as director of an eparchial youth camp, “Eparchial Alive in Christ” (2003-2014).
The Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma of the Ruthenians ministers to 4,309 Byzantine Ruthenian Rite Catholics in the United States.
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Greek Byzantine Catholic Bishop Manuel Nin stresses that Synod means, above all, journeying with Christ and warns against “Christian parliamentarianism.”
Edward Pent - August 24, 2023 - VATICAN CITY — Despite claims to the contrary, the upcoming Synod on Synodality is unlike any synod of the Eastern Churches — it resembles a parliamentary process, and lacks a clear and coherent goal, a Greek Catholic bishop who will participate in the meeting has said.
In an Aug. 3 commentary published on the Greek Catholic Exarchate website, Bishop Manuel Nin, the Greek Byzantine Catholic Church’s apostolic exarch to Greece, expressed several concerns about the synod general assembly, the first session of which will take place Oct. 4-29 and the second in October 2024. The upcoming meeting marks a significant break with previous synod assemblies in that a selected group of lay participants will now be allowed to vote.
Bishop Manuel recognized that this exercise of authority has a “synodal dimension” in that decisions taken at a “fully collective level belong to the synod’s bishops,” but he stressed that if the West understands synodality as where “everyone, lay and clerical, act together in order to arrive at some ecclesiastical, doctrinal, canonical, disciplinary decision, whatever it may be, it becomes clear that such synodality does not exist in the East.”
Synodality in all Christian Churches, both East and West, cannot be a kind of reflection of the modern world whereby the Church becomes like a “modern Western democracy, possibly parliamentary, where everyone can say everything,” he warned. The life of the Church, he said, “has never been a form of democracy in which everyone decides everything by majority rules.”
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vatican.va - 8.08.2023
RESCRIPTUM EX AUDIENTIA SANCTISSIMI
Norms proper to the Exarchate for the Ukrainian Catholic faithful of the Byzantine rite in Italy
The Holy Father Francis, in the audience granted to the undersigned Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, on 23 June 2023, considering that the preservation of one's identity of origin is useful for the preservation and growth of the Catholic faith, has accepted the proposal to provide for whatever may be helpful for the fruitful spiritual care of those belonging to the Apostolic Exarchate for the Ukrainian Catholic faithful of the Byzantine rite residing in Italy, erected on 11 July 2019 by the Bull Christo Salvatori. Therefore, it has decided to adopt the following provisions:
Art. 1 - The Exarchate is a portion of the People of God formed by the faithful ascribed to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church sui iuris, with domicile or quasi-domicile in Italy and governed by the Exarch in the name of the Roman Pontiff.
Art. 2 - The Exarch is a member by right of the Italian Episcopal Conference and, consequently, is bound by the norms that regulate its functioning, and follows its directives.
Art. 3 - The Exarch, in the exercise of his office, must maintain close ties of communion and coordination with the bishops of the Italian dioceses and eparchies in which the Exarchate is present.
Art. 4 - To erect personal parishes, the Exarch shall obtain the opinion of the local bishops concerned and then informs the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches.
Art. 5 - The clerics of the Exarchate must cultivate a bond of unity with the presbytery of the diocese or Eparchy in whose territory they exercise their ministry. In this spirit, they shall foster joint pastoral and charitable initiatives and activities, which may be the subject of special agreements or conventions stipulated between the Exarch and the local bishop.
Article 6 - The clerics of the Exarchate and those of the dioceses or eparchies in whose territory the personal parish of the Exarchate is located shall exercise their ministry in mutual pastoral assistance.
Art. 7 - The pastoral service or presence for study in Italy of priests ascribed to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church sui iuris are regulated by agreements, according to the models established by the Italian Episcopal Conference, between the respective Hierarchs and the Exarch. If they are signed with a diocesan or eparchial bishop, the nihil obstat of the Exarch is required.
Art. 8 - The Exarch, with the permission of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches, may erect new Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
From the Vatican, 28 August 2023
Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti
Prefect
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