Eparchy of Parma

EUCLID, Ohio — Father Robert Jager remembers a time before 1989. "The whole world just surrendered to the red hordes and sacrificed the Christians behind the Iron Curtain to be forgotten,” he said of the years of communist oppression in Central Europe, where he grew up in the Greek Catholic Church. “However, it was the Byzantine Catholic Church in North America that spoke up for us,” he said. Father Jager recalled serving as an altar boy during communism in present-day Slovakia, then Czechoslovakia. READ MORE.

BRECKSVILLE, Ohio — Two parishes, at either end of the eparchy, hosted special events to promote the message of Our Lady of Fatima from an Eastern Catholic perspective. St. Joseph Parish in Brecksville, Ohio, hosted the pilgrim icon of Our Lady of Fatima Sept. 7. A pilgrim statue has been traveling throughout the world since the early years of the Blue Army, now called the World Apostolate of Fatima. The apostolate, founded to promote the message of peace, repentance and conversion that the Mother of God shared at Fatima, is recognized by the Vatican as a Public Association of the Faithful. READ MORE.

MEDINA, Ohio — What started off as a gloomy morning ended as a gorgeous, sunny day, as 40 golfers enjoyed a fall golf tournament, delicious barbecue, fellowship and fun at the 13th Annual Father John Keblesh Memorial Golf Outing at the Bunker Hill Golf Club Sept. 7, organized by St. Emilian Parish in Brunswick, Ohio, where Father Keblesh had served. READ MORE.

ST. NAZIANZ, Wis. — Father Anthony Romens was tonsured a stavrophore monk for Holy Resurrection Monastery in St. Nazianz Sept. 8. Father Anthony was born in Milwaukee. He was baptized and raised Roman Catholic, but his spiritual search led him to the Romanian Catholic monastery, located about 85 miles north of Milwaukee. “The monastic tonsure (or solemn vows) is essentially a definitive marriage between a monastic’s soul and God,” said Father Anthony. READ MORE.

NEW YORK — The first national Byzantine Catholic Young Adult Convocation was held Aug. 1-4 at St. Mary Byzantine Catholic Church in New York. About 50 young adults and 20 clergy attended the event, organized by the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic and its young adult ministry, Theosis in Action. Some traveled from as far away as Michigan and Indiana. Bishop Kurt Burnette of Passaic opened the weekend with Vespers and set the theme: “Together we are called to discipleship, transfigured through a new life in Christ, sent to proclaim the Gospel to the world.” READ MORE.

Everybody knows what it means to be a slave. Everyone has some form of slavery in their lives. It could be smoking, watching too much football, eating too much candy. The Gospel proposes a wonderful solution for our Christian life: how to live, how to proceed, in the United States in our current conditions. Today, the Gospel proposes to us the young man who wants to be perfect (Luke 18:18-30). He tells Jesus that he keeps all of the commandments. READ MORE.