www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization Troubled Times in the American Ruthenian Diaspora

One week ago our parish and our priest's home was broken into. Fr. Mihalco escaped without harm out of a bathroom window after the police arrived. The perpertrator was captured in the house. This was the last straw for our priest and he stated that he would request a transfer.

It is not the last straw from his parishoners or from Houston, but it seemed his annoyance was with those back east. Why? I'll try to relate the story as accurately as I can recall it.

Fr. Mihalco was asked to take the church in Houston while his father was very ill. When he requested to stay close to his family he was lectured on the importance of being obedient to his bishop. He came to Houston, for which those of us here are gratefull. Soon after, his father died.

One year ago, as you may recall, the most costly tropical storm in US history struck Houston. Was the church damaged? Were parishoners killed or homeless? Did the church have any needs or could the church use help to help those who were? No one knew, because no one asked. Actually, the founder of the parish did. Pittsburg did call when its "tithe" (or whatever that's called) was late. The call came from the treasurer, who seemed unconcerned about the damage from Tropical Storm Allison.

This is one example of many. I don't know what it's going to take to make people outside of PA, OH, CA, and IL think of other people. We've been screaming to deaf ears. Almost every time I post something on this forum it is related to this problem.

Our parish is mostly non-Ruthenian and we have been ignored. Tulsa and Oklahoma City are mostly non-Ruthenian and have been ignored. Is it our ethnic identity? Is it our location? Is there some reason why Byzantine Catholics just don't care about the people in Oklahoma and Texas?

Personally, I hope Fr. Mihalco gets his transfer, not because he's not a good priest and not because it is what he wants, but because he can carry our message to those of you outside the diaspora: ignore us long enough and there won't be anything left here to ignore. But then, from what I've seen, not many would care.

Cizinec,

My prayers and apologies go out to you. I think the problem is distance. Out of sight, out of mind. I don't think being Ruthenian or not makes a difference. My guess would be most parishoners here in PA/OH/NJ don't even now we have parishes in Texas and Oklahoma. To be honest I never understood why Texas and Oklahoma weren't given to Van Nuys when it was erected.

Which leads me to another point, and I will admit I do not know all the canonical implications. Petition to be removed from the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh and placed in the Eparchy of Van Nuys. Not only are you closer to the Chancery (which for all intents and purposes is run from Phoenix) but you would then be grouped with parishes just like yourselves, facing simialr problems. The problems of Pittsburgh, with its aging population, people moving away, too many parishes, are completely different from those of the parsihes out West.

Considering the breakdown of parishes (70 in Western PA, 12 in Eastern Ohio, 2 in West Virginia, 2 in Texas) and missions (2 in Oklahoma, 1 in Texas, 1 in Tennessee and 1 in Louisiana) it is not difficult to see why Texas and the misions are overlooked. That is not excusing the treatment but simply offering an explanation for it.

By being in Van Nuys you are in the numerically smallest diocese in the US and would benefit from being close to Eparchial administration which only has 18 other parishes to deal with and yet have 18 other parishes with similar situations, demographics and problems.

In Christ,
Lance

[ 06-08-2002: Message edited by: Lance ]

Cizinec,

Believe it or not, I was trapped in Houston when Tropical Storm Allison hit. It was a nightmare. The next morning, after the storm had passed, my wife and I stepped outside of the house where we were staying... to find that the road had literally VANISHED, being washed away by the storm. Because the airport was flooded we were stuck in Houston for another three days.

I actually visited your parish the day before the storm hit, and was graciously welcomed by Father Mihalco. I could tell from speaking with him that he missed living in the northeast, closer to his family. I hope that his transfer is speedily approved, as it is hard for a person to live without any family in driving distance.

I wholeheartedly second Lance's recommendation. Seriously research the possibility of your parish being incorporated into the Van Nuys eparchy. Your problems in Texas are very, very different from what we are dealing with here in Pittsburgh. The other parishes in the Van Nuys eparchy are in the same situation that your parish is in, and that eparchy would be a better match. Since it is such a small eparchy, your parish would be more likely to get the attention that it needs to flourish.

Propose this possibility to other members of your parish, and then contact the chancery of the Van Nuys Eparchy (which is actually in Phoenix) and the Pittsburgh chancery. Please keep us informed of the results.

God Bless,
Anthony

The clergy shortage is not helping the situation, either. In Tulsa there is a good bi-ritual priest assisting the Ruthenian mission, but he has full-time Latin faculties and obligations as well as helping out the Maronites (tri-ritual?), so the amount of time available to help build up the mission is limited at best, Liturgy early Saturday evenings, limited feast day liturgies, etc. I do not know the situation in Oklahoma City but it is likely similar.

But at least there is something. When I was growing up in Tulsa I would attend the Greek Orthodox parish in addition to my family's RC parish as there was nothing else there at the time. But I keep thinking, what's worse, nothing at all or a mission whose growth is stunted because of the lack of clergy? At least two of the Tulsa people are now Orthodox exactly because of that point. At the Antiochian parish they can have Vespers every week, Orthros on feast days, full feast day services, a priest whose only function is to serve at that particular parish, etc.

Our Ukrainian Catholic parishes in Houston and Dallas, on the other hand, are growing and have younger (relatively speaking) married Ukrainian priests. I am working with a diaconal candidate from the Dallas parish who will be entering the same program I just finished. But that is not to say we Ukrainian Catholics are not without our problems such as language difficulties, etc...

It's a tough situation and there are far more questions than answers...
Pray, pray, pray. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners.
Subdeacon Randolph, a sinner

Thanks for your responses, prayers and ideas. We feel a long way away from HQ, but perhaps we're not as far as we feel.

As a member of the mission in Tennessee, I feel that I must correct Lance's comment that "... it is easy to see why Texas and the missions are overlooked."

Due to health reasons, our mission's bi-ritual priest has been unable to care for either us or his Latin parish for almost 8 months. This has obviously been a difficult situation for us, but we have received extraordinary support from Pittsburgh during this time. On behalf of Holy Resurrection Mission, I would like to thank Frs. Kudrick, Wesdock, Bogda, Deskevich, and Innokenti for their multiple journeys to the Byzantine backwaters of East Tennessee. Knowing the concern they had for us made if far easier for us to continue the difficult task of trying to keep a mission going on a diet of reader's services during this time.

We found out yesterday that our "regular" priest will once again be able to resume serving our needs in July. While we are overjoyed that our prayers for his recovery are being answered, we still hope that the fine priests who served us during the past months will someday be able to visit with us under less trying circumstances.

-- Ed Klages

I too am sorry to hear about the recent events at your Houston church. My business sends me to Houston every year for 2-3 weeks. Depending on traffic, it would take me between 45 minutes to an hour to get there. I have always enjoyed attending Liturgy with you. Your church has always been welcoming and I share my experiences with those here in the north. You are not forgotten...those "visitors" you welcome so warmly come from all over and will tell of their experiences. Keep the faith...it will all work out.

Dear Friends,

It just occurred to me that there might be an American cultural issue with respect to the situation in a state like Texas.

Is it a problem to be promoting an "Eastern" Church in a western-style state?

And what image suggests itself when one talks about the Way of the "Pilgrim?"

I had to bring that up . . .

Alex

Sorry if this takes the thread to another level, but as I was reading the opening post, I couldn't help but think of our parish here in Harrisburg.

Fr. Mike put out a call for men to help with the altar. He did so because during the summer, the altar boys are generally away with their families or in other ways unavailable to come. Good Luturgy is harder to do with a lack of sufficient numbers of alter servers.

I was the only one who responded.

We have a new Respect Life Committee. For almost a year now we have been asking and begging people to come join us. We have a lot of plans and things we want to do to enter the fray and fight for the lives of the innocent unborn.

Not a single response.

On Sunday morning before Liturgy, I listened to approximately 5 minutes of quite well deserved rant from Fr. Mike regarding the self-centeredness and I-could-care-less attutude of the parishoners. I was broken hearted listening to him. A priest should be a treasure to the people of the parish. I wonder how many others are treated like DIRT!!

We are soon going to lose a fine priest because he is simply burned out from too much to do and no one to care about helping out around here. Oh, we do have a very dedicated core of people who run ECF, usher, sing in the choir, and do other chores. But it is usually these same people who, when they hear of a need, step forward and take one more job on their already filled plates.

I watch Fr. Mike and I have seen in the last two years since I started attending our parish, that he smiles a lot less than when I first met him. He is tired a lot and his health, as I said, is not good. Even the strongest and most faithful mule, when overburdened for too long a time, will collapse.

I have heard it said of camels that if you overburden them, they simply lay down and refuse to budge until you adjust their load. Perhaps we need some more camels in the priesthood. Not in the sense of defying a bishop, but in the sense of letting the parishoners know that the burden is just too heavy.

And IF Fr. Mike resigns or cannot continue because of health reasons (please pray for him, he has lost his voice and no one can find out why), you will hear nothing but whining and complaints from the very same people who wouldn't give even a half an hour a week to help in some small way.

People just never appreciate what they have until they have lost it. Then they are the first and loudest to complain.

Just my .02 worth in a related vein. I hope I was not too far out of line, and accept any rebuke if anyone feels my comments are not appropriate.

Brother Ed

Ed,

Your point is well taken. The situation is the same in many parishes. A small core do everything, the majority do nothing then have the audacity to bitch about the way something is being done or that not enough is being done. Well soon enough there aren't going to be enough priests to go around and I hope the first parishes to go without are those that refuse to lift a finger to help their current priests.

In Christ,
Lance

What is it with the treatment of priests by parishoners? I have encountered the same situation here in the Ukrainian Church in Canada, and it makes me hot with anger sometimes. Back home, in Ukraine, priests are almost always treated like gold, whereas here in the diaspora the opposite seems to happen--they are treated like crap. I don't understand that dynamic, but more than that I bloody well don't like it!

I have seen a very young priest here age enormously in less than a decade under the weight of running a parish. He's paid less than a living wage, less than the bishop has mandated as the bare minimum, works far more hours than is legally allowed in most other professions, and still people have the effrontery to suggest he lives a life of leisure and is fattening himself off their pocket books!

The dynamic is the same: a few do all the work, another few run the council and hold the purse strings, and the majority bitch and complain about the most petulant and superficial of things. When confronted with this behaviour, some of which has been frightfully nasty, I'm inclined to think of something the late Fr. Alexander Schmemann (memory eternal!) said of many of his Russian parishoners, particularly the much-vaunted babas: "they are just barbarians."

How can we change this?

Whoa, hold on there pardner, ol' Ukie cowboy Alex...draw yer kadilo if ya dare...

I was just thinking about the life of Blessed Exarch Leonid Fedorov...he spent most of his pastoral career in prisons or serving very small Russian Catholic parishes in living rooms, borrowed chapels, whatever, for 10-20 faithful at a time...and he was someone who could of had a very successful career as a Russian Orthodox pastor as he was from a good St. Petersburg family. Sometimes it is like jousting windmills...let us remember all of the clergy in our prayers during these difficult times.
Subdeacon Randolph, a sinner

Dear Diak,

I was joking there, pilgrim . . .

And my ancestors were kozaks, which I suppose is like a cowboy.

They rode horses, drank, sang songs and they told their enemies that the territory they were both in wasn't big enough for the two of them.

Alex

I just always figured that our people were so enamored of the Passion of Christ thaat they wanted to be sure their pastor re-lived it constantly.

PRAY FOR YOUR PRIESTS!!!!!

As for a few working - in ANY organization, on average about 10% of the people do 95% of the work. That's fine in a church with 3000 families, but not in our itty bitty parishes. I don't know how to make it change. If we evangelize, we are likely to have the same 10%, but perhaps spread over a few more people?

Sharon


Sharon Mech, SFO
Cantor & sinner
sharon@cmhc.com

This is not an isolated problem.

We have the same thing going on here, but then I guess its because the church I attend is the only Melkite one this far north in New York, Western New York that is.

This parish has been "snubbed" twice by the patriarch. This Church is the newest Church building in the Eparchy of Newton.

This years visit the patriarch made it to Scranton, PA, but told our pastor that we are to far north and away from other parishes, he may pay a visit next year when he visits the Canadian Eparchy.

That being said, there is also the problem with the treatment of the pastor.

He and the deacon are expected to do everything and not to have any sort of private life. There is a member who actually keeps a log of when father is away on personal business. It has gotten so bad that father is very reluctant to tell us when he will be away, unless it is for something offical.

It has gotten so bad that the deacon leaves almost imediatly after the Liturgy, somedays he stays for a bit of socializing but not much. And father is very reluctant to start anything new as he dreads the questioning he will recieve as to why we are doing this and why didn't he discuss it with anyone, when he has....

Father and Father Deacon have sort of stopped doing things now, they leave it up to the parish now. Father shows up to the bible study when he can, but he leaves it to us. Father helps with the bingo and the education of the children but that is it.

It is sad what has happened.


David