www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West RC Clergy with "Byzantine Faculties"

Would anyone have reliable statistics on the numbers of Roman Catholic clergy (priests and deacons, including "permanent" deacons) in the United States (and Canada, if available) who:

(a) have "facilities" to offer the Divine Liturgy, administer/celebrate other Sacraments/Mysteries, preach, in Eastern Catholic parishes;

(b) regularly exercise these faculties;

(c) have actual pastoral responsibility for a parish or other group of Eastern Catholics (e.g., missions, convents, campus ministries)?

If such statistics are available, are they broken down by ecclesiastical jurisdiction (Byzantine, Ukrainian, Romanian, Melkite, Belarussian, Russian, Armenian, Chaldean, Maronite, Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankara, Ethiopean/Geez, etc.)?

At the root of my question is a wish to know how much the various Eastern Catholic Churches in North America depend on/benefit from the ministry of clergy from the Church of Rome, and what impact/influence this has on the life of these Churches.

As a start, you may want to read these previous discussions on bi-ritual priests:

https://www.byzcath.org/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/262041/1

Amado

Thank you. This is a start, but seems to provide only a partial and somewhat out-of-date picture. I am hoping that someone has access to a more comprehensive analysis. Inasmuch as the Van Nuys posts mention "fully incardinated" clergy, they raise the further question of the age of these men and the reasons for their leaving their original RC dioceses.

I only have figures for the Archeparchy:

77 parishes and 5 missions

Served by 52 priests and 17 deacons.

22 priests have 2 parishes, 3 have 3, 1 has 4.

Of the 52 priests, 8 are biritual, 4 from Latin Dioceses, 4 from Religious Orders.

Of the biritual priests, 3 have 2 parishes, 2 have 1 parish, 3 have 1 mission.

Fr. Deacon Lance

There was a recent advertisement in Our Sunday Visitor from the Eparchy of Van Nuys openly advertising for priests, as the ad said, "Latin or Eastern". I had never seen an ad openly soliciting clergy for any Eastern Catholic Eparchy before this one.

I wonder what the median age of the priests is.

God grant that the seminary open its doors wide.

Any one else scratching their heads at this one?

It may help in understanding the data as they come in, if someone could explain the canonical technicalities involved here:

Is there a difference between the status of a a Roman "Rite" priest who is "fully incardinated" in an EC eparchy, as was said of some priests in the Van Nuys BC Eparchy, and a priest who is not? Does being "fully incardinated" mean that the priest has accomplished a formal "transfer of canonical jurisdiction" (change of rite) or does it merely mean that, though remaining RC, he is subject to the full authority of the BC bishop while exercising his bi-ritual faculties? Are any of the bi-ritual priests in the BC Archeparchy "fully incardinated" there?

A not-unrelated question that arises in light of this information would be how the various EC eparchies deal canonically with the situation of a priest of one EC Church "sui juris" who is called upon to minister (occasionally or on a continuing basis) to a community of another EC Church. Whether this would involve or require "full incardination" I leave to the experts.

Heck. Send them here. Almost a year without a priest.

I am wondering what they are advertising... Its it "To be a Priest" type advertising. Or is it... "If you are a priest, we need you" type of advertising...

Diak, do you have a scanner? I don't have a subscription to that paper anymore...

John

In the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh we have a Melkite Priest who was accepted for ministry in the Archdiocese. It is my understanding that he reports to Archbishop Basil and the ordinary of the jurisdiction that he is from.

You may only be incardinated into one diocese or eparchy.

Incardination relates to the formal attachment to the bishop/eparch and his line of authority, stemming from the pope or patriarch.

You may serve, with permission, in a diocese or eparchy without incardination. When you become incardinated you make a decision to belong formally to a new bishop and his jurisdiction; he making a formal decision to become your shepherd.

It doesn't imply a change or rite, but perhaps the article you quote intended this anyway (perhaps to save a wordy explanation).

Don't we have enough seminarians?

There never has been and never will be "enough"... No such thing exists when it comes to workers in the vinyard.

ETWN Jesuit Fr. Mitch Pacwa is RC with BC faculties.