CNS STORY: Eastern Catholic clergy mark Year for Priests with days of renewal

PRIESTS-EASTERN Sep-22-2009 (850 words) xxxn

Eastern Catholic clergy mark Year for Priests with days of renewal

By Mark Pattison
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Much of the focus of U.S. commemorations and celebrations for the Year for Priests has been on Latin-rite priests, but priests in the Eastern Catholic Church also are marking the year, many by renewing their priesthood with retreats or days of recollection and also promoting vocations.

The geographic expanses of U.S. Eastern Catholic dioceses, which often encompass several states, can make it difficult for the priests to gather together, so their observances of the special year, which began June 19, may be different than those of their Latin-rite counterparts.

"We're spread out, so we take advantage of the times we can get together as a presbyterate -- and to do common things in our parishes to let people know about vocations," said Chorbishop Richard Saad, who has served 36 of his 37 years in the priesthood at St. Elias Maronite Parish in Birmingham, Ala.

Chorbishop Saad said he was treating the Year for Priests as "kind of like an anniversary -- (to) renew my priesthood, renew my vows. It's an occasion to pass on the torch, hopefully encourage somebody else to work for vocations and to influence somebody else."

A chorbishop -- similar, but not entirely analogous, to a Latin auxiliary bishop -- can confer minor orders but not the diaconate or priesthood.

Father William Loya, pastor of Annunciation Parish in Homer Glen, Ill., part of the Byzantine Eparchy of Parma, Ohio, said he would use the Year for Priests to "make a little more time for myself to do things that are intrinsic to the priestly life, basically the spiritual help," including reading books on the priesthood.

He added that he wanted to spend "a little more time for a retreat or a day of recollection" so he could be more "conscious of the ... magnitude of this vocation."

"In other words, I would like to spend this year on a personal spiritual journey -- a sort of journey into the depth of the priesthood," he said. "It can be done by doing some of the things that feed the priesthood, and my priesthood."

Father Loya, whose 180 households are spread across four states, said priests, regardless of rite, "don't get enough of some or all of those things. This year, it's kind of time to step back. It's my time to step back a bit and take an appreciative look ... doing what is good for my priesthood."

Benedictine Father Cuthbert Jack, administrator for the past seven years at St. Mary's Holy Protection Parish in Homer City, Pa., a Byzantine parish in the Russo-Carpathian jurisdiction, said he was happy just to keep serving his people. Father Jack, who was born a Presbyterian but became a Catholic in 1968, is biritual, meaning he was ordained for the Latin rite but is permitted to celebrate Byzantine liturgies as well.

Because he's serving at St. Mary's Holy Protection, though, he doesn't celebrate many Latin-rite liturgies. "I did a wedding once," he recalled. "I was all thumbs at that."

Father Jack, ordained in 1990, said that ever since he went to an Orthodox church at the bottom of the hill from his seminary, he has had an affinity for Eastern liturgy.

The Eastern Catholic churches and the Orthodox Church have similar devotional and liturgical traditions, but the Eastern churches are in full communion with the pope.

He said his favorite thing about the priesthood is "celebrating the liturgy -- the Byzantine liturgy, of course. The whole rhythm of it, the whole constant interplay between the priest and the deacon and the people, it is a constant dialogue between the three of them. The deacon has a major role in our liturgy and I have a deacon here, so it's really quite nice.

"I love facing east for liturgical prayer," he said.

Chorbishop Saad said the St. Louis-based Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon would use the observance to "emphasize the ordination of all the orders this year (including minor orders and the diaconate), making sure everybody knows about them and mentions it as a way of tying it in with the Year for Priests and work for vacations. ... These are the most teachable times for me."

Father Loya, a priest for 27 years and pastor of his parish for 10, said he was "very happy" about the Year for Priests.

"It was timely and much needed and a great follow-up to the year of St. Paul," he said, referring to the yearlong observance to commemorate the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of the apostle that ended June 28.

When he announced the special year for priests, Pope Benedict said he hoped it would help priests "grow toward the spiritual perfection" they need to be effective ministers and would help the faithful "appreciate more fully the great gift of grace which the priesthood is."

"In light of the challenges that have faced the priesthood in recent years on all kinds of levels, to call the church to pause and focus in on a very appropriate way on the mystery of the priesthood is very providential," Father Loya said.

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