The Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix

Just as the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants found a new home on the West Coast in the early 1950s, so too did many American Greek Catholics. Fathers Eugene Bereczky and Anthony Kubek both retired to the San Luis Obispo area, along with some of their relatives. Father Bereczky established a chapel where the two priests offered liturgical services for this small Fr. Anthony Kubekcluster of faithful of family members, other migrants, and interested friends.

A significant difference in the new outreaches that began after 1956 was the cooperation of the local Latin hierarchy: there were no longer condemnations of the Eastern Catholic clergy and their liturgical life from pulpits or in diocesan newspapers. Indeed, Latin bishops now welcomed the opening of Byzantine Catholic churches, a huge change from the problems of the 1890s.

California

By 1956, letters were coming from laity in the Los Angeles area to the eparchy’s office in Pittsburgh begging for a priest. This inspired the Most Reverend Nicholas Elko, bishop of the Exarchate of Pittsburgh to send a missionary out west. Father Eugene Chromoga left Pittsburgh aboard the transcontinental train, arriving at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles with two families' names and their phone numbers. The first number was disconnected, but the second family was available, and they came down to the station to welcome the first Byzantine Catholic priest to found a parish in the western states. He met with members of the Rohal, Gruchala, Onurfrak, and Sovich families in 1956, and worship began in a Roman Catholic chapel on November 18th. On October 1st, 1957, the feast of the Holy Protection, property was purchased on Sepulveda Boulevard in Van Nuys. Appropriately, the mission was dedicated using the historic title of Protection of the Mother of God (Pokrova), known as Saint Mary's. Liturgies were held at the Church of Our Lady of Zapopan, until Bishop Elko came out to dedicate the rectory and chapel on April 13th, 1958, elevating the mission to a parish in Van Nuys.

Fr Chromoga at Saint Mary's in Van Nuys, 1963At this point, Father William Levkulic joined Chromoga as his assistant, and worship began in San Diego, at the Discalced Carmelite Nuns' monastery, and also in the steel town of Fontana, where Saint Nicholas Church opened with Levkulic as the pastor. After the deaths of Fathers Bereczky and Kubek, Chromoga and later successors would travel north to San Luis Obispo to minister to those families.

The Van Nuys church and hall were blessed by the Most Reverence James Cardinal McIntyre, the Archbishop of Los Angeles, and dedicated by Bishop Elko in 1961. Saint Mary Church was built in a Spanish-Moorish style, without an iconostasis but with two icon frescoes of Our Lord and Our Lady on either side of the wide arch of the sanctuary. This was mandated by Elko, who saw the iconostasis as old-fashioned.

In San Diego, Levkulic served the mission of Holy Angels from Fontana.  Within weeks there were eighteen families; after three months there were 54 households. The Holy Angels mission became a parish in 1960, under Father Paul Fetch. The Carmelite Monastery served as the worship space, with a house doing double duty as rectory and catechetical center. Fontana's mission began in 1958 with Levkulic offering service at Saint Joseph's Roman Catholic church. A large property was purchased in December, and the house converted into a chapel and rectory with a social hall in the garage. Within five years a complex had been built of a church and social hall with ample parking. The parish was dedicated to Saint Nicholas in 1963 by Bishop Elko.

Alaska

In 1957, the Oriental Congregation asked Bishop Elko to try opening a Byzantine Catholic mission in Alaska. The Russian Orthodox Church had been established there since 1794, successfully ministering to Russian colonists and Native Americans. The Congregation had attempted to bring some Orthodox into union with Rome through Jesuit priests, but this failed. Elko sent two priests: Father Demetrius Darin was a native Alaskan Orthodox from Kodiak, who had converted and was sent to Juneau. Father Robert Bayusik went up to Anchorage in 1958. 

The Juneau missionary returned to the "Lower Forty-eight" due to a lack of success, but Father Bayusik stayed on in Anchorage, ministering to six Byzantine Catholic families and a number of local Orthodox, who had no parish in the city. Property was purchased in 1958, and a former military mess hall was bought and moved to the site in March, 1959. This became the complex of Saint Nicholas church and rectory, blessed by Bishop Elko that September. Saint Nicholas became the mother parish of Saint Innocent Russian Orthodox Cathedral and Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church, but some Orthodox families remained with the parish.St. Nicholas of Myra in Anchorage, AK

Canonical Reorganization

In 1963, the Exarchate of Pittsburgh was elevated and re-established as the Eparchy of Munhall. Territory to the east of Pittsburgh, including the entire eastern seaboard, was split off and given to the newly formed Eparchy of Passaic, NJ. Meanwhile Pittsburgh covered the rest of the country, with a gap from the Midwest to the fledgling parishes in Alaska and California. In 1964, the Good Friday earthquake of March 25th left Anchorage badly shaken, but the parish undamaged. Bishop Elko decided to close the Alaska parish as there had been few conversions from the Orthodox residents. Membership was down to only six families, but Father Michael Artim arrived not knowing the bishop's intention.  

Fr. Michael Artim, 1963He revitalized the parish, reduced the debt, put in an iconostas, bought more land around the church, and membership soared. Father Artim, a trained pharmacist, worked at a local drugstore in order to spare the parish having to pay his salary, and would remain in this isolated parish for two decades. The church became especially noted for its large copper onion dome, illuminated from within and which lights up Arctic Avenue during the long dark winter months. He undertook serious missionary work, flying out to the Aleutian Islands and all the way up to Point Barrow on the Arctic Ocean in order to serve the scattered faithful. He would serve there until stricken by heart disease in 1985, a zealous missionary.

In 1966, ten years of praying and letter-writing resulted in the foundation of a mission in Phoenix, Arizona. Priests would come from California to serve the fledgling community. In 1968 the congregation purchased a former Antiochian Orthodox Church and established Saint Stephen's Church in honor of Bishop Stephen Kocisko. Father Paul Bovankovich was assigned as pastor. His parents Father John and Pani Cecelia moved to Arizona; they were one of the last married priestly couples of that era. Father John would not only serve as pastor for a time, but he and his wife would travel to New Mexico and southern Arizona as missionaries. Their efforts combined with the dedicated laity to lay the foundations for the parishes in Albuquerque and Tucson.  

New Expansion Under the Eparchy of Parma

On February 21st, 1969, Saint Paul VI issued Quando Quidem Christus which elevated Munhall to the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh, with His Grace Stephen Kociscko as the new Metropolitan Archbishop. Passaic was given to His Grace Bishop Michael Dudick, and the Midwest and West were placed under the new Eparchy of Parma, Ohio, with His Grace Emil Mihalik as the first shepherd. Archbishop Kocisko was enthroned in Pittsburgh by the Apostolic Delegate on June 11th. The population of the Metropolia was estimated at 325,000. Parma had about 85,000 faithful from Ohio to Alaska. The western parishes were organized into their own deanery.

Bishop Emil Mihalik, 1969The improved relationship between the Roman Catholic hierarchy and the Byzantine bishops resulted in much more cooperation. His Excellency James Davis, Archbishop of Santa Fe invited Mihalik to come and establish a parish in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1974. The bishop of Sacramento had $20,000 in unused funds for Slovak refugees after the war. He donated it for the construction of a Byzantine Catholic church in that city. The bishop of Reno, Nevada, asked Mihalik to undertake the founding of a parish for up to 130 households in Las Vegas.

New Territory, New Eparchy  

Parma had established a deanery for the western states, which initially simply consisted of southern California. Annunciation Mission opened in Anaheim, California in 1969, using the chapel at Saint Catherine Military Academy for Sunday worship. Saint Macrina was founded in San Mateo, California, in 1969. This parish closed in 1985, but re-opened the next year as Saint Basil the Great in Los Gatos.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Albuquerque, NMThroughout the 1970s though, new churches were being established. Saint Philip the Apostle opened in Sacramento in 1971. Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Albuquerque was founded in 1974, as a result of enthusiastic work by a group of engineers recruited from Pennsylvania and Ohio by Sandia Laboratories. Holy Protection of the Mother of God in Denver was founded by a mix of original families from the parishes lost to the Orthodox in the 1920s, such as the Leskos, who had continued to meet for prayer and socials, and more recent arrivals. The Greek Catholic Union held its first western-states convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. This led directly to the founding of St Gabriel the Archangel as a mission under Phoenix in 1976-77, receiving its first resident pastor in 1982. Saint Melany was opened in Tucson, Arizona, in 1977, with a church of its own in 1982.

The continued growth, and great distance from Ohio, showed that the Byzantine Catholics in the West needed a bishop who would be close at hand. Mihalik submitted a request to the Congregation for Eastern Churches that a new eparchy be founded. The Eparchy of Van Nuys was founded on December 3rd, 1981 to incorporate all of Parma's western parishes and missions, including Alaska. The cathedral would be the oldest parish, Saint Mary of the Holy Protection. The Most Reverend Thomas Dolinay, auxiliary bishop for Passaic, was named the first bishop. He was from a priestly family which still had connections in Hungary, but he was born in Pennsylvania. Dolinay had served as editor of the Passaic Eparchy's newspaper, and he founded a new journal for Van Nuys. He was enthroned in a special service offered in Saint Cyril of Jerusalem Church in Encino, California on March 9th, 1982. His Emminence Timothy Cardinal Manning of Los Angeles preached, with Metropolitan Kocisko as the main celebrant. Launching the Eparchy in a Latin rite church with the cardinal-archbishop as the homilist was a far cry from the discrimination endured ninety years previously at the hands of the Latin hierarchy. The Liturgy was attended by numerous bishops and clergy from the Latin Church, the Metropolia, and other Eastern Catholic Churches with a presence in the western states.

Bishop Thomas DolinayThe diocese would show rapid growth, although its stated population of 17,000 faithful was wildly inflated and based on a possible membership, not who was registered in the parishes and missions at the time, which was only 3,000 souls. Features that are considered common today were "firsts" under Dolinay's administration: mandatory publication of financial reports by both eparchy and parishes; Clergy Weeks to unite the widely-scattered priests; workshops on evangelization, administration, and communications. 

Fr Joseph Stanichar, 1968Father Joseph Stanichar, a Byzantine Catholic priest from New York who was serving as an Air Force chaplain in the Pacific Northwest, established Saints Cyril and Methodius in Spokane (1979), Saint John Chrysostom in Seattle (1981), and later Saint George (1989) in Olympia, all in Washington state. A mission was opened in Portland, Oregon, under the patronage of Saint Irene the Martyr in 1988.

The eparchy was heavily reliant on bi-ritual clergy to staff parishes and assist the Byzantine clergy. These Roman Catholic priests studied the Liturgies, participated in spiritual life of the Byzantine Catholic Church, and petitioned the eparchy and their own bishop for permission to assist. The permission was given only so as to provide support to the parishes and missions. Permission was never given to a priest to simply do this out of a personal interest. Deacons from Latin parishes also assisted in the eparchy's parishes. With the serious decline in American vocations, bi-ritual clergy filled a serious need in this eparchy and the rest of the Metropolia.

A particular feature of growth in the Western states is that of a high rate of converts and reverts to the Catholic Faith, with every parish being ethnically diverse. People also had to be prepared to make sacrifices to keep small faith communities flourishing, requiring long commutes for worship and strong financial support.  

Fr. George Vida and (future Bishop of Parma) Robert Pipta

In 1985 Msgr. George Vida accepted the call from Bishop Dolinay to assist with the Byzantine Catholic Community in California, and in February 1987 Msgr. George was appointed pastor of Annunciation Byzantine Catholic Church in Anaheim, at the time when Sunday Liturgies were held at the chapel of St. Catherine’s Military Academy. Fr. George worked with his parishioners to search for a location for a new Church complex, and in 1988 the parish purchased the current location at 995 N West St. in Anaheim. 

Fr. Francis Vivona, 2013In 1993, a particularly interesting milestone was reached in Las Vegas. The first Italo-Greek Catholic Parish to open in the United States since 1940, Our Lady of Wisdom was founded under the omophorion of the eparchy in 1993 by Fr. Francis Vivona. Increased housing costs in Anchorage, Alaska, pushed more parishioners into the valleys outside the city. This resulted in the foundation of a mission in Wasilla in 2001, taking over an unused Catholic chapel.

Phoenix Opens for Business 1994

The Northridge earthquake struck the San Fernando Valley of metropolitan Los Angeles early on January 17th, 1994, while most people were still at home. It was one of the more violent quakes to hit Los Angeles. At least 60 people were killed, and the quake had the highest ground acceleration ever recorded in a North American city. California State University at Northridge was directly across from the bishop's residence, and parts of the collapsed parking garage landed in Bishop Kuzma's driveway. Damage was extensive for the eparchy: the earthquake wrecked the Van Nuys pastoral center, and damaged buildings at the cathedral complex, including the church itself. Files and religious items could only be removed from the pastoral center in brief visits supervised by safety officials, and the building was a total loss.

Damaged parking structure across from Bishop George's residence, 1994Ironically, Bishop George had been pondering a move out of Van Nuys to a city that would provide better air connections for the clergy and better facilities for the eparchy. As he remarked, instead of God giving him a nudge in the right direction, "He used a sledgehammer to get our attention." Kuzma and the consultors met to consider moving to either to Las Vegas or Phoenix. Phoenix was chosen because of the size of available buildings at the complex at the parish that would provide immediate office and living space, and the availability of convenient air travel for the clergy of the far-flung eparchy. Saint Mary's church in Van Nuys became the proto-cathedral, and Saint Stephen's Church would eventually be elevated to cathedral status.  

After a decade of parochial growth, Kuzma retired in 2000 and was followed by His Emminence William Charles Skurla, future Metropolitan Archbishop, in 2002; he had served in Tucson for several years. The eparchy then contained 3,016 registered parishioners worshipping in nineteen parishes and missions. Growth continued in his administration, with annual clergy weeks and retreats along with parish programs.  

Bishop Gerald DinoSkurla was transferred to Passaic in 2007, following Bishop Pataki. He was succeeded by His Grace Gerald Dino. During Dino's administration, the diocese's permanent move to Phoenix was settled, with a name change. The Holy Protection of Mary Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix was canonically founded on December 18th, 2009. Once again, the ancient title of the mother eparchy of Mukachevo was used in America. The eparchy continued to grow, with new vocations to the priesthood and diaconate, and the founding of Duchovny Dom. Dino was succeeded by the Most Reverend John Pazak, CSSR, in 2016. The Most Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted, the Latin bishop of Phoenix, was named the apostolic administrator sede plena in 2018. Pazak retired in 2021.

Enthronement of Bishop Artur Bubnevych, 2024On January 23rd, 2023, Pope Francis named the Most Rev. Kurt Burnette apostolic administrator sede vacante and on November 8, 2024 Most Rev. Artur Bubnevych was appointed as the Eparchy's sixth bishop. 

God grant Bishop Artur many years!