Bishops mark 100th anniversary of first Byzantine bishop in U.S.

Published: 2007-10-01

PHILADELPHIA (CNS) -- Ukrainian and Latin-rite Catholic bishops from around the world celebrated the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first Byzantine bishop in the United States, an event coinciding with the first worldwide Eastern Catholic synod in the United States. When Bishop Stephen Soter Ortynsky arrived in America to lead those "who had come to the shores of the United States (from Eastern Europe) looking for freedom and for a better life," his task was twofold, said Cardinal Lubomyr Husar of Kiev-Halych, Ukraine. First, Bishop Ortynsky had to establish and organize ecclesial life to help the immigrants spiritually, the cardinal said during his Sept. 30 homily at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Philadelphia. Then "he had to explain to his brother bishops of the Latin rite ... who were these immigrants," the cardinal said. The Eastern Catholics had a different culture and liturgical tradition and were "so different that it seemed impossible to integrate them into the American life," said Cardinal Husar.

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