Catholic, yes, but not Roman
(Phila. Inquirer, 19 October 2003)
Phila.'s Ukrainian archbishop has his own church to run. Like other religious leaders, he faces worrisome trends.A few miles from Roman Catholic Archbishop Justin Rigali's downtown Philadelphia headquarters, another Catholic archbishop toils in relative obscurity.
Archbishop Stefan Soroka is prelate of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, a position that makes him the titular leader of the nation's 110,000 Ukrainian Catholics.
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From his headquarters in lower North Philadelphia, Soroka is implementing a plan to energize a church in transition.
Local membership is declining - to 67,359, from 72,500 five years ago - and there is a shortage of priests. There are worries about intermarriage and the social mobility that takes young families away from Ukrainian population centers. In the midst of those changes, the church is taking on a new character as congregations evolve from being tight-knit ethnic enclaves of Ukrainians to become homes for a more diverse community of the faithful.
The national church is at a critical stage, said the Rev. Andriy Chirovsky, a founding director and religion professor at the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at St. Paul University in Ottawa, Ontario.
"We can't delude ourselves. We have lost over one-half of our membership since the height in the 1960s," Chirovsky said.
Soroka has taken steps to fight the trends, encouraging parishes to initiate programs that appeal to young people and doing a bit of reorganization that he hopes will energize parishes.
The archdiocese is in the middle of a study that may result in the closing of several parishes and the relocation of another because of population shifts. A team to recruit candidates for vocations has been created. The archdiocese also plans to start a local museum chronicling Ukrainian heritage to raise the profile of the church.
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Soroka said he would continue the Eastern practice of ordaining already-married men, even though the Vatican has officially forbidden it for Eastern Rite churches in North America.
"We are allowed to exercise our right," Soroka said. "Just not on paper."
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The whole article is at
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/7045980.htm
