www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News New Toronto Bishop

Christ is Risen! May 3, 2003

Dear Rt. Rev. and Rev. Fathers/Deacons:

On Saturday, May 3rd, 2003, the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, has appointed the Rev. Fr. Stephen Victor Chmilar as Bishop of the Eparchy of Toronto, and my successor. The day of his Episcopal consecration and installation as Eparch will be announced shortly.

I sincerely welcome our Eparch-Elect Stephen, and wish him God�s blessings and guidance in leading our great eparchy, and appeal to all clergy, religious and lay people to receive him with respect and sincere love, and to cooperate with him for the growth and prosperity of our eparchy our Church and our people.

To our new Bishop-Elect Stephen on behalf of our eparchy, I exclaim: *****

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you.


+ Cornelius J. Pasichny, OSBM


Well there it is folks.
I am going to refrain from saying much as I know this information has its ways of getting around but I think you all get my basic sentiments. My question to Rome would be what do you know about the needs of the community?
Bishop Cornelius was a kind man and never caused any trouble. I am afraid that it won't be so easy this time around. As my father says "thank God for the bishop you have 'cause the next one could be a lot worse."

man what a downer for the day.

XB

ilya

And we should be surprised by this?

OrthodoxEast

Ilya,

I don't know the situation up there, but what is wrong with this new Episcopal canidate?

What is to become of Vladyka Cornelius? Is he retiring or being assigned some where else?

Maybe because I am from the Chicago Eparchy and we were without a Bishop for a few years, I feel that a new Eparch is a good thing.

How will this new Eparch hinder the growth of the Toronto Eparchy? I am very confused why you wouldn't be at least supportive, even if Rome may not know your Eparchial needs.

-uc

I know nothing of the personalities involved. But the previous bishop is simply retiring (he is 76).

Christ is Risen!

Dear David, you have a very informative and interesting site. I would suggest you eventually break out the Eastern Catholic bishops separately. Also I noticed some historic exarchs such as St. Leonid Federov for the Russian Catholics and Mikhail Mirov for the Bulgarian Catholics were not included nor were some Ukrainian Catholic bishops deceased for some time such as St. Andrey Sheptytsky. Just wondering.

I noticed you are also a Kansan. Did you know there are Greek Catholic parishes in Independence and St. Joseph MO?

Subdeacon Randolph, a sinner

Dear Friends:

The new Eparch-elect, Rev. Fr. Stephen Victor Chmilar, is currently the paster at St. Mary's church on Cawthra Ave. in Mississauga, Ontario.

I have never met him and according to popular reaction, his elevation comes as somewhat of a surprise.

Bishop Cornelius has reached the age of retirment according to canon norms and as such offered his resignation.

But it has been known for some time that the Bishop is in poor health and had asked for retirment.

A change of this nature is alway difficult and can be slightly traumatic.

May God Bless the new Eparch and all God's people in Toronto and Eastern Canada.

defreitas

Diak,
Yes, the Eastern Church parts of my site clearly need more work. Currently I barely have time to do required updates (appointments & deaths) - but that will be changing in another week or so.
At the moment historical data is generally limited to those that were alive in 1950 or later. The exception is north america, where the data is pretty much complete.
As time and other resources permit, I'll continue adding historical information.
I'm in the Kansas City area but I'm Roman Rite. I've been able to attend a couple of other rites, but I am not interested in switching. (I originally found my way to this board when I was just adding the Eastern side of things to my web site and I needed some help with terminology, etc.).

I wasn't suggesting switching. Just wanted to let you know there were some other Catholic ritual traditions in your area.

+ XPICTOC BOCKPECE +

Here is the address of the Vatican's information on Fr. Stephen Chmilar:

http://www.vatican.va/news_services/bulletin/news/13268.php?index=13268&lang=en

It is in Italian, so if you want it in English just pop it into Altavista or Google.

Daniil

Just because he's a Basilian may not be a complete loss, as it seems Bishop Cornelius was able to work with the eparchy. When I was at a pontifical Vespers at St. Elias back in 1999 at which Bishop Cornelius was fully vested in the church, he seemed to be very respectful of those who wished to keep Orthodoxy in communion with Rome. Let us pray this spirit continues with Bishop Stephen.

Daniil - has the bad ju-ju from the Danylak snafu been put to rest or is it still present? I think for dealing with the baggage of that alone Bishop Cornelius is a very good man. I had heard also that Bishop Isidore was not in good health, either. Mnohaya Lita to the God-loving Bishops Cornelius and Isidore!

Dear All:

This is probably off the topic, but is it "correct or "proper" for the the 75 year-old mandatory retirement age for bishops to apply to Eastern Bishops? Just wondering.

Yours,

kl

No, that is something else we borrowed from the Latins (or had it imposed on us as the case may be). I think that should be left to the Synod on a case by case basis. If the bishop wants to continue to serve, and has good health, why not let him?

Dear Friends,

XB! BB!

Fr. Chmilar was formerly a Basilian, but is one no longer - he left that Order.

I understand that he is also the nephew of Vladyka Cornelius.

What I don't understand is why His Holiness is involved in the episcopal appointments process when we have our own "Patriarchal" Synod in Lviv.

Here we are talking about recognition of Patriarchal status for our Church when it would indeed seem we've made NO progress in terms of simple internal church administration, like the appointment of bishops . . .

Some people here have said that I am too pessimistic about things when it comes to our Church. Some say I should be more idealistic.

Can you then help me out with this one?

Or is DavidB completely right when it comes to the fiction of our "patriarchal" whatever?

Alex

Dear Diak:

So, in other words, the 75 mandatory retirement age is yet another example of our Syond not having the backbone to tell Rome to shove off. Zhal'.

Yours,

kl

Dear All,

I've just read on www.ugcc.org.ua [ugcc.org.ua] that Toronto's new eparch was selected by the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church in July 2001.

I can't imagine it taking nearly two years to receive Rome's blessing - if his appointment was that contentious then I assume he would never have been chosen. As usual, there's probably more to this story that we won't hear (unless someone here has some really good connections, even better than Alex's )

But, I still don't like the announcement coming from Rome first (the date on the www.ugcc.org.ua [ugcc.org.ua] article is 05.05.03) and waiting for the Pope's blessing and approval. Any duly-appointed UGCC bishop is in communion with our Patriarch , who is in communion with the See of Peter. What more is canonically needed? Personally I'm getting fed up with a lot of things to do with our relations with the "Catholic" Church. If the UAOC won't unite with the UOC-KP, maybe the UGCC should, and soon! Just imagine...

Andrij