www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization St. Mary's Church Mountin Road Fallston, MD

All,
I have driven by this church a hundred times, and even stopped in once on a Sunday while driving home from Philly. It is lovely though heavily latinized. I have found a lot of info about the history of the church, but I remain unclear what dioceses or particular church they are affiliated with. Anybody know??

Pax,
Eamon

Fr. Dornic was/is UGCC, so perhaps is the parish?

thanks, that is what I assumed

but it is not on any listing of parishes , go figure

Eamon,

I'm going to go out on a limb but I think it's probably safe to say that the parish is an 'independent'. It's been variously known as St Mary's Assumption Eastern Rite Catholic Church and as Ss Cyril & Methodius & St Mary's Assumption Eastern Rite Catholic Mission Churches.

It is neither a parish of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia nor of the Latin Archdiocese of Baltimore. Father Dornic (whom I would estimate to be close to 80, extrapolating from an age reference in a 2 decade old news article) is not listed in the Catholic Directory for any of several years that I consulted - even going back to 1991, when the mission was apparently founded as part of a planned 'Historic Church Museum'. The entity goes back further than that - probably to 1975, per this webpage [slavicorganization.com].

You can read about the museum concept here [articles.baltimoresun.com].

The church has a rudimentary website, offers classes in 2 or 3 languages and seems to own some senior housing - Lemko Housing [articles.baltimoresun.com], Tatry Housing and St. John's Community.

The 'National Slavic Organization', to which belongs one of the linked sites above, also appears to be a part of this enterprise. The NSO was likely born out of something titled the Slavic American National Convention about which the Ukrainian Weekly wrote back in 1980 [scribd.com]. At that time, Father Dornic was pastor of St Michael's UGCC in Fells Point, MD and administrator of Ss Peter & Paul UGCC in Curtis Bay, MD.

In one article, which I can't presently locate, it mentions that Father Dornic, at the time the church was first opened, intended to bring a bishop from the Czech Republic to dedicate it (Father is a Czech native) - but that fell through for some reason or other. I have to surmise that, even that far back, the church was out on its own, as there was no reference to any local hierarch, The Czech hierarch was unnamed in the piece.

Many years,

Neil

Here is a link to a 1991 Baltimore Sun article giving some background: Church Is Demolished, Moved, Rebuilt -- And Beloved [articles.baltimoresun.com].

As I recall, Fr. Dornic ran afoul of his bishop (UGCC Philadelphia) over the Lemko project; he is, it seems, quite the wheeler-dealer. St. Marks is the extent of the "historic village."

FYI, driving North on I95 just before the Riverside/Belcamp exit (1 or 2 exits after Fallston) St Francis de Sales Chapel (RC), Abingdon Road, Abingdon, is visible from the interstate on the right. It's the original church (a new modern church now stands close-by), now called the Old Stone Chapel, a historic building. We, a mission of Patronage of the Mother of God BCC, Baltimore, have been celebrating the Divine Liturgy in it every Sunday at 5:30 pm. We are not latinized. Coincidentally, a recent, tasteful renovation of the Chapel interior has brought it even more in harmony with our Byzantine liturgy. St. Francis de Sales parish has been a gracious host to us now for at least 20 of our missions 29 years, allowing us to be an Eastern Catholic presence in Harford County, MD, for which we are most grateful.

thanks all,
I recall the one time I went there and it was open, they had a huge picture of Pope John Paul II but it was, as I have stated, quite unclear what church they belonged to.. again, thanks all !

Is that Fr. Ivan Dornic? I didn't know him but I think he came to the USA in the 1950s and was ordained or received as an Orthodox priest by +Bishop Orestes Chornock of ACROD. "Wheeler-dealer" was an understatement. He was assigned to Hawk Run, PA where he split the parish and took himself, the building and some of the parish to the BCC in the 1960 era. The new ACROD parish is literally now next door. My dad had little good to say about him and I'm not surprised he floated from the BCC to and through the UGCC. If I'm wrong, my apologies...

the Priest in question is indeed Ivan Dornic

I thought that Fr. Constantine Auroroff was the one who took Hawk Run "for the other team"?

Fr. D

I think you may be right there, Fr. Dornic did the same somewhere, my memory fails me...

Ok, so, I have an answer to my own question, according to the Ukrainian Eparchy of Philadelphia, Fr. Dornic was ordained a Catholic Priest but is ... as they put it AOL and totally independent , well done Neil.

Fr. Ivan also taught Slovak and the University of Pittsburgh and was the pastor of St. Nicholas' Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church in Monongahela PA in the 1960s. There he led an unsuccessful effort to bring the parish back to Rome.

John,

Indeed Fr. Ivan is noted in the 75th Anniversary book of the Archeparchy of Pittsburg as the priest who founded St. Macrina in Monongahela.

But this is where things get interesting - I believe it was Cardinal Krol of Philadelphia who received Fr. Ivan and the congregation into the Catholic Church, but as an Eastern Congregation.

What was going on at that time for such... interesting actions?

Wasn't this in the time frame of Bishop Nicholas Elko?

Cardinsl Krol was known as a strong conservative voice in the Church. Perhaps this was an attempt to keep an old fashioned congregation outside of Bishop Elko's modernizations?