Archbishop Procyk, 70, had been a member of the board of governors of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference since he was made a bishop in 1995.
Born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Archbishop Procyk attended St. Procopius College in Illinois and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. He studied at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Byzantine Catholic Seminary in Pittsburgh and was ordained on May 19, 1957.
As archbishop he restored the practice of conferring the three sacraments of initiation — baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist — at the same time, and had taken great care to be faithful to the Byzantine tradition in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy.
The Byzantine Archdiocese of Pittsburgh includes Byzantine Ruthenian-rite Catholics in 11 states. Within those boundaries are 85 parishes and more than 70,000 Ruthenian-rite Catholics.
