Archeparchy of Philadelphia

About

The Archeparchy of Philadelphia is part of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The Metropolitan Archeparchy of Philadelphia includes the District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, and Eastern Retirement to the eastern border of areas such as Potter, Clinton, Center, Mifflin, Huntingdon, and Fulton. Thus, the total area is about 230,829 km², and the population is about 31,405,568 people.

The Archbishop of Philadelphia is the Metropolitan for the Ukrainian eparchies in the United States: the eparchy of Stamford (Connecticut, USA), the eparchy of Chicago (Illinois, USA), and the eparchy of Parma (Ohio, USA). According to the Criminal Code. 133–138 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, he is a metropolitan outside the territory of the Supreme Archeparchy.

The bishops of the Metropolitan Province of Philadelphia for Ukrainians have jurisdiction over their faithful in their eparchies and exist without the interference of the bishops of any co-territorial (Western or Eastern) Catholic self-governing Church.

As to persons under their authority, their jurisdiction extends to:

1. all those who trace their ancestry to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people wherever they may have been born;
2. those who joined the Ukrainian Church as children or adults by baptism;
3. members of other Catholic churches who joined their Ukrainian spouses by canon law (111–112 CIC and CCEO, cc. 29–38).
4. members of other Catholic churches who as children or adults joined the Ukrainian Church by the pertinent canonical norms;
5. non-Catholic Christians who joined the Ukrainian Church by conversion by the pertinent canonical norms.

Parishes:

According to statistics from 2016, the Archeparchy of Philadelphia has 13,051 faithful, for whom 58 priests perform their pastoral ministry, where 55 are eparchial, 3 hieromonks, and 7 deacons. There are also consecrated persons in the archeparchy: 3 monks and 44 nuns. The pastoral leadership is concentrated in 64 parishes.

It is important to mention that since 2008 a Christian newspaper Way has been published. The Archeparchy of Philadelphia also has its theological seminary of St. Josaphat at the Catholic University of America in Washington (USA).

Location

Materials

Bishops

On February 18, 2019, His Eminence Bishop Borys Gudziak was nominated Archbishop and Metropolitan of Philadelphia. The enthronement ceremony took place on June 4, 2019, with the participation of the Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church His Beatitude Sviatoslav. The Auxiliary Bishop of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia is His Eminence Bishop Andrew Rabius, who until now has served as Apostolic Administrator.

The Cathedral of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, USA).

History

Catholics of the Byzantine ritual tradition in the Austro-Hungarian Empire were known in church terminology as Ruthenians. Large numbers of them began to immigrate to the United States in the late 1870s. A priest of their own arrived in 1884 and blessed their first church building in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania that same year. These Catholics were placed under the jurisdiction of the Latin ordinaries of the places of residence by the Apostolic Letter of Leo XIII Orientalium Dignitas (1895). In 1907 Bishop Soter Stephen Ortynsky was appointed their ecclesiastical superior, but he had to procure actual jurisdiction as vicar general from the Latin ordinary of each community where his faithful had settled. In 1913 Bishop Ortynsky was accorded full ordinary jurisdiction and independence from the Latin ordinaries (Cum Episcopo, Aug. 17, 1914), under the vigilance of the apostolic delegate in Washington, DC.

On August 17, 1914, the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith issued a decree governing the Greek Catholic Church in America for the next 10 years, entitled Cum Episcopo.

Bishop Ortynsky died prematurely on March 24, 1916. World War I had severed communications with the eparchy of origin in Austro-Hungary.

The Holy See did not then appoint another bishop but ordered the Apostolic Delegate to assign two priests as temporary administrators, one for the faithful who came from the ecclesiastical province of Lviv-Halych (Galicia and Bukovina), and another for those whose origin was in some part of the kingdoms then called Hungary and Croatia. This division implied the permission for either group of the faithful to detach themselves from an existing parish and found one of their own, defined either according to the criterion of regional origin or of language, which was to be decided by the majority of the faithful in each parish. Smaller groups chose sometimes not to separate themselves and to stay with the majority in the local parish.

This division became permanent when in 1924 a bishop was appointed for each group. On May 20, 1924, Bishop Konstantin Bogachevsky was appointed bishop (later Apostolic Exarch) in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, USA) for the faithful who came from the Lviv-Galician province.

The Philadelphia Exarchate then numbered 144 churches, 102 priests, and 237,500 faithful. On July 20, 1956, Pope Pius XII established the Apostolic Exarchate of Stamford, Connecticut, USA, subordinating parishes in New York State and New England, and appointed Ambrose Senishin, the former titular bishop, as the first titular bishop. There are 193 priests left in the Philadelphia Exarchate, serving 122 parishes (excluding missions and chapels) and 220,000 faithful. On July 12, 1958, the same Pope founded the province of Philadelphia, which consisted of the Philadelphia Archeparchy of Ukrainians and the eparchy of Stamford (Connecticut, USA). On July 14, 1961, Pope John XXIII separated the western part of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia, which included all the states of the United States on the west of the western border of Ohio and west of Missouri and Mississippi, and founded the Ukrainian Eparchy of St. Nicholas in Chicago. On December 12, 1961, during the canonical founding of the eparchy Bishop Yaroslav Gabro was appointed its first bishop. In 1961, the Archeparchy of Philadelphia had 97 parishes (excluding 22 chapels and missions), 141 priests, and 161,000 faithful.

In 1971, Auxiliary Bishops Basil Harry Losten and John Stock were appointed; in 1977, after the death of Ambrose Senyshyn, Bishop Joseph Schmondiuk became the Metropolitan of Philadelphia (died 1978).

In 1979 Myroslav Lyubachivsky became Metropolitan; After he was elected Archbishop-Coadjutor of the Supreme Archbishop of Lviv, the Synod of Bishops nominated Stepan Sulyk as Metropolitan of Philadelphia, who was approved by Pope John Paul II on December 22, 1980. Robert Moskal became an auxiliary bishop in 1982. At that time the Philadelphia Archeparchy consisted of 111 parishes, 128 priests, and 167,500 faithful.

On December 5, 1983, Pope John Paul II founded the eparchy of St. Josaphat in Parma (Ohio, USA), which included Ohio, Kentucky, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North and South Carolina, West Virginia, and West Pennsylvania. On February 29, 1984, during the canonical establishment of the eparchy, Bishop Robert Moskal was appointed its first eparch.

On November 29, 2000, Stepan Sulyk resigned and Stepan Soroka was elected the next metropolitan.

On April 16, 2018, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop Stepan Soroka from the government of the Archbishop and Metropolitan of Philadelphia and appointed Bishop Andrew Rabia, the current Auxiliary Bishop of the Philadelphia Archeparchy, Apostolic Administrator of the vacant seat.

And on February 18, 2019, the Apostolic Capital announced the approval by Pope Francis of the decision of the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church to appoint His Eminence Bishop Borys Gudziak Archbishop and Metropolitan of Philadelphia. The enthronement took place on June 4, 2019, in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Philadelphia.

Shrines

In addition to the cathedral, the Archeparchy of Philadelphia is filled with several shrines. First of all, it is worth mentioning the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family located in Washington (USA). Also, the church of St. Archangel Michael in Shenandoah (Pennsylvania, USA). As well as the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, located in Centralia (Pennsylvania, USA).

Contacts

Address: 810 North Franklin Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123, USA

Phone: +1 (215) 627-01-43
Fax: +1 (215) 627-03-77

Email: [email protected]

Website: ukrcatholic.org