The Ruthenian hierarchy in the United States was born “of the desire that faithful not be deprived of the pastoral assistance and proximity of the Church, said Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches: “each one of them is not a foreigner or immigrant, but a child to look after and love.” “To continue to live the vocation and the identity of the Ruthenian Byzantine Church in the United States means, therefore, to continue to think and to show proximity with your children today, to continue to be missionaries,” he added.
The Cardinal said this on Sunday, June 23, 2019, when visiting the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Arch-Eparchy of Pittsburgh, in the United States, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its elevation, reported “Vatican News.” The Ruthenian Church of Pittsburgh was born in the course of time following the massive emigration of Trans-Carpathian regions and of Eastern Europe.
Cardinal Sandri presided over a Mass — the Divine Liturgy — with Metropolitan Skurla and other Ruthenian Bishops of the United States, as well as with an Anglican Bishop and a representative of the Evangelical community. It was the last stage of the trip of the Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches to the United States, which lasted from June 14 to June 24.
“Let us cultivate our memory, let us rediscover our roots, in the rediscovered freedom in Europe and in the ever-preserved freedom in the United States, but no less threatened by the wind that wishes to impose visions of life and of respect of human dignity. Let us think of the collaboration that can exist between the Churches that keep the same tradition from one side or the other of the Atlantic,” invited the Cardinal.
To do so, it’s necessary “to cultivate all the stages necessary to live communion” so that “the witness before the world and among other Christian Confessions” is “significant,” he explained.
