Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Byzantine Catholic? A Byzantine Catholic is a person who is canonically enrolled in the Byzantine Metropolitan Church sui iuris of Pittsburgh through conversion to the Church, baptism into the Church, or transferring from another Catholic particular Church.

What is the Byzantine Metropolitan Church sui iuris of Pittsburgh?

Sui iuris means "of their own law," or self-governing. Our Church has its own canon law, particular law, geographic boundaries, and hierarchy. It uses a rite which has its own liturgical, theological, spiritual, and disciplinary heritage. Our Church's patrimony is in the East. Our Metropolitan, and through him our entire Church, is in communion with the Pope of Rome.

Governing documents for our Church are the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, the Particular Law for the Byzantine Metropolitan Church sui iuris of Pittsburgh, and our Typicon. Our Church is headed by a Metropolitan. A Metropolitan ranks just below a patriarch and above an archbishop. The authority of Metropolitans to rule within their jurisdictions dates back at least as far as the Council of Nicaea I, which designated churchmen to this rank in 325 AD. Our Metropolitan resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The Byzantine Metropolitan Church sui iuris of Pittsburgh is one of the 23 churches which comprise the Catholic Communion of Churches.

What is the Catholic Communion of Churches?

The Catholic Communion of Churches are those 23 different autonomous groups of Christian people, each with their own hierarchy, who have agreed through unions and treaties that they share the same essential faith and therefore allow intercommunion between their Churches. Six of those Churches are patriarchal and have full and immediate jurisdiction within their Churches, including governance, theology, discipline, and more. The other Churches have varying degrees of independence depending on the circumstances at the time of their entrance into the Catholic Communion.

How does a person become Byzantine Catholic?

There are a number of ways a person can join the the Byzantine Church including through baptism, conversion, or canonical transfer. All Catholics are 'ascribed' to one of the 23 sui iuris Churches, meaning they are written in the registers of that particular Church. Here are the ways a person can be canonically enrolled in the Byzantine Church.

All non-Catholics who convert to the Catholic faith may choose to enter any of the 23 Churches, including the Byzantine Church. All Eastern and Oriental Orthodox who enter the Catholic Communion of Churches are automatically ascribed to the corresponding Eastern or Oriental Catholic church, no matter which Catholic Church they are received or communed in. All baptized children under the age of 14 whose parents enter the Byzantine Church are also ascribed to the Byzantine Church with them. In the case of only one parent transferring enrollment between Catholic churches, while the other Catholic parent does not canonically change Churches, the parents may choose which of the two Catholic Churches the children will be ascribed to.

All children who are born or adopted into a Catholic marriage where the father is a Byzantine Catholic and the parents do not decide otherwise previous to the baptism of the children are baptized into the Byzantine Church, no matter which physical Church the children are baptized in or which church the family regularly worships in. In the case of a marriage of two Catholics of different Church affiliations, the parents may choose to baptize the child into the Catholic Church of either parent. Without an explicit agreement to the contrary, or in the case of a disagreement, the children are baptized into the Church of the father. Upon their baptisms, the children follow the canonical enrollment of the Catholic parent if only one parent is Catholic.

All baptized children under the age of 14 who are adopted into a Catholic marriage where the father is a Byzantine Catholic and the parents do not decide otherwise previous to the adoption of the children are ascribed to the Byzantine Church upon their adoption. In the case of a marriage of two Catholics of different Church affiliations, the parents may choose to ascribe the children to the Catholic Church of either parent. Without an explicit agreement to the contrary, or in the case of a disagreement, the children are ascribed to the Catholic Church of the father. When only one parent is Catholic, the children are ascribed to the church of the Catholic parent.

All children under the age of 14 who are born or adopted to an unmarried mother who is a Byzantine Catholic are baptized into or ascribed to the Byzantine Church, no matter which physical Church they were baptized in or which Church the mother regularly worships in.

All Catholic women who marry Byzantine Catholics may choose at the time of their wedding or at any point during the marriage to transfer to the Church of their husbands.

Any man ascribed to the Latin Church who marries a Byzantine woman may chose to transfer to the Church of his wife upon his wedding. Without an explicit decision to do so, and the priest's notation upon the marriage, he would remain enrolled in his original Church sui iuris.

All women who are Byzantine Catholics who decide to transfer to the Catholic Church of their husbands' affiliation may decide to return to the Byzantine Church at the time of the dissolution of the marriage through death or civil divorce.

All Byzantine Catholic children whose church of canonical enrollment was automatically changed by their parents' change of canonical enrollment to another particular church may choose to return to the Byzantine Church upon or after their 14th birthday. Any Catholic who feels his or her spiritual well-being is best served by the Byzantine Church may petition his or her current Catholic bishop and the Byzantine bishop for a change of canonical enrollment.

This information is offered only as an overview of the canon laws. Several of the circumstances depend on the particular situation of the family and the timing of the decision. Please consult with your priest or a canon lawyer through the eparchy's chancery office before a baptism, adoption, chrismation, conversion, marriage, divorce, or change of canonical enrollment if you have any questions or intend to be ascribed to the Byzantine Church.

What is the Byzantine Rite?

The Byzantine Rite is used by all the Eastern Orthodox Churches and by 14 of the Eastern Catholic Churches. It originated in the Patriarchal See of Constantinople (now Istanbul), which had earlier been called Byzantium. It encompasses an entire way of understanding and living out the faith, including a liturgical, theological, spiritual, and disciplinary heritage.

The Byzantine Rite uses four different liturgies: the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (most frequently), the Liturgy of St. Basil (mainly during the Great Fast or Lent), the Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified Gifts (weekdays of the Great Fast), and the Liturgy of St. James (very rarely).

The Byzantine Rite has different recensions within it that reflect the Russian and Greek influences of various areas. The theology, spirituality, chant, architecture, devotions, prayers, practices, worldview, history, and disciplines of the Byzantine Rite are too extensive to cover in this short space; but many of them are addressed throughout this FAQ.

What's the difference between a rite and a Church?

The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches says in Canons 27 and 28 that a Church is a “community of Christian faithful, joined together by a hierarchy, that is recognized as a sui iuris Church,” while a rite is a “liturgical, theological, spiritual, and disciplinary heritage differentiated by the culture and the circumstances of the history of peoples which is expressed by each Church sui iuris in its manner of living the faith.”

In other words, a rite is a way of understanding and living out the faith while a Church is a group of people who use a rite under the guidance of an autonomous hierarchy who have a recognized method of governance. The rite is the way we do it and the Church is who we do it with.

Do people belong to a rite or a Church?

In the Eastern and Oriental Churches, the members belong to the Church. The Church uses a rite. The correct terminology to reflect this fact fell into disuse in the United States in the 1900s due to a number of socio-political issues. While you might still hear remnants of this, the following examples will help you to understand and express the proper relationship between rites and Churches. It is correct to say, "I attend the Byzantine Catholic Church." not "I attend the Byzantine Rite Church."

Why: 14 Churches use the Byzantine Rite. A person attends one of those particular Churches.

It is correct to say, "Did you canonically change Churches?" or "Did you seek a change of canonical enrollment?" not "Did you change rites?"

Why: A person is canonically ascribed to a particular Church and may ask to change that canonical enrollment to another Church. Those Churches might or might not use the same rite.

It is correct to say, "My cousin attends an Anglican Use parish." not "My cousin attends an Anglican Rite Church."

Why: The Anglican usage is neither a rite nor a Church; it is a way of using the Latin rite within the Latin Church.

It is correct to say, "I was raised with the Tridentine liturgy," not "I was raised in the Tridentine Church."

Why: The Tridentine liturgy is a usage of the Latin rite and is not a particular Church.

It is correct to say, "I belong to the Ambrosian Rite," not "I belong to the Latin Church."

Why: In the Latin Church only, members belong to a rite and the different rites belong to the same Church. This is unique to the rites used by the Latin Church.

Is the Byzantine Church the same as the Byzantine Rite?

One potentially confusing point is that some of the churches have the same name as the rites they use. The Byzantine Church uses the Byzantine Rite. The Maronite Church uses the Maronite Rite. The Latin Church predominantly uses the Latin Rite. Unlike the Maronite and Latin churches, where they are the only churches to use their respective rites, the Byzantine Church is not the only church to use the Byzantine Rite. The thirteen other churches which use the Byzantine Rite are the Albanians, the Belorussians, the Bulgarians, the Croatians, the Greeks, the Melkites, the Hungarians, the Italo-Albanians, the Macedonians, the Romanians, the Russians, the Slovaks and the Ukrainians.

What is commonly referred to as the Byzantine Church is actually the Byzantine Metropolitan Church sui iuris of Pittsburgh, which is geographically located in the United States and centered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Some people call it the Ruthenian Church in an attempt to distinguish it from the other Churches. However, the Byzantine Church is not a national Church of Trans-Carpathian Rus, but is a national Church of the United States of America.

When did your Church join the Catholic Communion of Churches?

Our particular Church is very young, even though our patrimony dates back to the apostles. Our roots trace through the Diocese of Mukachevo, which is believed to be the twelfth diocese founded by the missionary evangelists Saints Cyril and Methodius. The Byzantine Metropolitan Church sui iuris of Pittsburgh was established as the Exarchate of Pittsburgh in 1924 in order to care for the needs of immigrants from Eastern Europe, particularly the Trans- Carpathian mountains. The Exarchate expanded to become the Eparchy of Pittsburgh and the Eparchy of Passaic in 1963.

Full status as a Metropolitan Church was granted in 1969 with the designation of the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh, the Eparchy of Passaic, the Eparchy of Parma and, later, the Eparchy of Van Nuys.

What is the difference between a Roman Catholic and a Byzantine Catholic?

The Byzantine Church uses the Byzantine Rite while the Latin Church predominantly uses the Latin Rite. According to Canon 28 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, a rite encompasses an entire "liturgical, theological, spiritual, and disciplinary heritage." There are some obvious differences that most visitors notice quickly, such as the fact that we can ordain married men to the priesthood, we chrismate (confirm) and commune children at the time of their baptism and therefore young children receive the Eucharist, that we use iconography as part of our worship, that our Liturgy is served in the vernacular and has its heritage in Church Slavonic, and so on.

Some of the differences between the traditions are only a matter of terminology. For instance, you might hear someone talking about Matins or Orthros instead of Lauds when referring to the morning prayer service. This difference in terminology alone is not always the case, though. We do have a different theological tradition as well which is reflected in our worship and spirituality. For some, this concept can be difficult to understand as they try to comprehend Eastern practices with Western theological constructs. How can we be in communion with Rome, how can we say we share the same faith, when we don't share the same liturgics, theology, spirituality, or discipline? Pope John Paul II answered that question in "Orientale Lumen" with this:

Since, in fact, we believe that the venerable and ancient tradition of the Eastern Churches is an integral part of the heritage of Christ's Church, the first need for Catholics is to be familiar with that tradition, so as to be nourished by it and to encourage the process of unity in the best way possible for each.

Our Eastern Catholic brothers and sisters are very conscious of being the living bearers of this tradition, together with our Orthodox brothers and sisters. The members of the Catholic Church of the Latin tradition must also be fully acquainted with this treasure and thus feel, with the Pope, a passionate longing that the full manifestation of the Church's catholicity be restored to the Church and to the world, expressed not by a single tradition, and still less by one community in opposition to the other; and that we too may be granted a full taste of the divinely revealed and undivided heritage of the universal Church which is preserved and grows in the life of the Churches of the East as in those of the West.

Do you have devotions such as the public recitation of the rosary, Stations of the Cross, or Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament?

No, we do not have Stations of the Cross, communal rosary services, adoration of the Eucharist, or devotions to the Sacred Heart. These devotions flourished from the spiritual, theological, and historical circumstances of the Western Church.

Some of the spiritual devotions and practices which are commonly found in the Eastern Churches include:

The use of iconography for worship to be in the presence of the holy during prayer

Devotions to particular wonder-working icons and/or relics

An emphasis on praying the liturgical hours of the church

The consumption of Holy Water and blessed bread

Akathist (standing) hymns which are dedicated to various saints, events, or to God

Using a prayer rope to pray the Jesus Prayer

Panachidas, memorial services to pray for the dead

Annointing with oil as a sign of joy on great feasts

Prostrations during prayer

I've seen or heard of Byzantine Churches that do have the above devotions. How do you explain that?

The 1900s in America brought a unique set of socio-political circumstances with them, the effects of which are still being felt by our Church.

Among them was the heresy of Americanism where uniformity was the ideal, the poverty of Eastern European immigrants, the lack of a hierarchal structure for Eastern Catholics in geographically western lands, and the misunderstandings over the theological and disciplinary differences between the Churches which had previously not lived in such close proximity to each other. Because of these various circumstances, there was a push for the Eastern Catholics to have a unified theological and spiritual expression with the West. Sadly, the misunderstandings led to a number of theological, spiritual, and disciplinary guidelines which were outside of the Eastern tradition being introduced to, and in some cases forced on, the Byzantine Church. One highly contentious point was an all-celibate clergy, which was mandated in 1929 with Cum Data Fuerit. These issues led to formal separations among the Byzantine people where parishes and families divided between the Catholic and Orthodox Communions first around 1890 (led by Fr. Alexis Toth of Wilkes-Barre) and again around 1938 (led by Fr. Orestes Chornock). An entire Orthodox jurisdiction was created, the American Carpatho-Rusyn Orthodox Diocese, in order to care for the Eastern Catholics who re-joined the Orthodox Communion over these deviations from their traditions and faith.

Through the years, the remaining Byzantines held onto and cherished their communion with Rome, which they had suffered greatly for. Some of them mistook communion for uniformity and introduced Latin theological constructs and devotions to the Byzantine Church. Some of this was to fill the void that was created by the removal of their Eastern practices, some out of a lack of ecclesiastical structure which meant they were brought up in the faith in Roman Catholic schools and Churches, and some of it was out ignorance of their own traditions and what distinguished them from Roman Catholics. In some places, these changes were externally forced on Byzantine parishes, which were threatened with being shut-down otherwise.

Our Church recently published a new official text of the Divine Liturgy which removes some of these liturgical deviations which were introduced during that time frame, such as the recitation of the filioque or kneeling during the anaphora on Sunday. Devotions not being official or necessary for one's faith, the Church has not and will not forbid their usage. There is a strong push to return to our own devotional practices which better reflect our theology and spirituality, such as the recitation of the liturgical hours, especially evening Vespers. Different parishes are at different stages of this renewal, so there is still a continuum of practices one might find between various Byzantine Catholic parishes. This in no way is a judgment about the popular practices found in some of our Byzantine parishes where parishioners find these devotions to be a nourishment to their spiritual lives.

Are you saying Byzantine Catholics can't say the rosary?

Absolutely not!

Many Eastern Christians, and even non-Catholics, find the rosary to be beneficial to their spiritual life. There is no more a problem with a Byzantine Catholic praying the rosary than there is of a Roman Catholic praying with an icon. One wouldn't expect to walk into a Roman Catholic Church and to find no statues, an icon screen, and the people standing praying an Akathist, any more than one would expect to walk into a Byzantine Church and to find statues, no iconostas, and the people praying the Stations of the Cross. The difference is in the public liturgical cycle as opposed to the private devotions of some members of the Byzantine Church.

Is this the same as the Pre-Vatican II (motu proprio) Mass? Do you offer a Tridentine Mass?

No.

The Liturgy we use is that of St. John Chrysostom on ordinary Sundays, that of St. Basil on certain feast days, and that of the Presanctified Gifts on the weekdays during Lent. They have their origins in the Christian East.

While we have some things in common with the Latin Mass, there are many differences as well. On top of the outward differences, our Church has a different theological and spiritual outlook than the Western Church, different customs, and a different history.

What introductory books can I read to help me better understand the Byzantine Church?

101 Questions and Answers by Fr. Dcn. Edward Faulk

Light from the East by Michael Epdokimov

The Orthodox Liturgy by Hugh Wybrew

Facing East by Frederica Matthewes-Green

The Mystical Language of Icons by Solrunn Nes

Praying With Icons by Jim Forest

A Book of Prayer (Melkite Diocese of Newton)

The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

Baptismal Instructions by St. John Chrysostom

On the Holy Icons by St. Theodore the Studite

On the Holy Images by St. John of Damascus

On Prayer by St. Theophan the Recluse

On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius

On the Divine Liturgy by St. Germanos of Constantinople

A Commentary on the Divine Liturgy by St. Nicholas Cabasilas

What can I expect if I visit for a Sunday Liturgy?

Our Liturgy typically lasts around an hour and fifteen to twenty minutes. In that time, there is much standing and singing. You'll notice people lighting candles and saying prayers. Some will be reverencing the icons. You'll notice the scent of incense. (If you've previously had problems with incense irritating you, it was most likely the poor quality of incense used. Ours is not likely to cause you irritation.) You'll hear the bells attached to the censor. You'll see our iconography, our iconostas, and the priest's vestments. You'll notice that people of all ages, from infant to elderly, worship together at the same Liturgy. You'll hear all our voices rising up in song in praise of the Lord.

These sights and sounds are likely to be new and different. Many visitors prefer to take all this in on their first visit and do not attempt to follow along in the Liturgy book. If you would like, you can stand with one of our Liturgy Guides who can explain the Liturgy to you. The average parishioner dresses in slacks and a nice shirt for the men and a skirt with blouse, dress, or slacks and a dress shirt being average for the women. As we have fasted before receiving the Eucharist, we are happy to have refreshments in the Parish Hall immediately after Divine Liturgy.

What language is spoken during the liturgy?

All of our services are in English.

Some hymns are sung once in English and once in Church Slavonic, a liturgical language similar to Russian. The transliteration is provided in those situations if you would like to sing both verses.

The Byzantine Catholic Church uses the vernacular (the language of the people) whenever possible.

Who may attend Saint Basil's? What type of people attend Saint Basil's?

Anyone and everyone!

Our parish includes people of diverse religious, ethnic, and national backgrounds. All liturgical services are in English, though some of the languages our members can also speak include Russian, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, German, Ukrainian, and French.

Current and past parishioners include those who came from Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, non-Christian, and unchurched backgrounds. Membership has included every skin color, diverse disabilities, the young and old, families, singles, youth, immigrants and non- immigrants, "cradle" and converts.

We welcome you to join us for Sunday or a lifetime!