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CHICAGO — At the beginning of the basic text of Jesuit spiritual life, “The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola,” the founder of the Society of Jesus states unequivocally that the goal of life is to be indifferent to all things, except to the will of God.
St. Ignatius writes: “For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things as much as we are able, so that we do not necessarily want health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, a long rather than a short life, and so in all the rest, so that we ultimately desire and choose only what is most conducive for us to the end for which God created us.”
At the start of his term as administrator of Parma, Bishop Milan Lach, SJ, reflected this perspective in view of serving the church in the United States. In his first interview with Horizons, published July 9, 2017, he emphasized his intention to seek the will of God.
“I have faith that it is the Lord who wants me to be there. I don’t know the plans God has in store for me. I am seeking — this is the primary thing for me — the will of God,” he said.
Since the Divine Liturgy that inaugurated his ministry in Parma, celebrated at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, July 21, 2017, Bishop Lach has been on the move, seeking God’s will in building up the Body of Christ in the eparchy.
In the past 11 months, Bishop Lach visited every parish in Ohio and every region of the eparchy, some more than once, participated in three pilgrimages, including one abroad, and made two overseas trips for his pastoral obligations with the Vatican.
His first pilgrimage with the faithful of the eparchy was to the Shrine of Our Lady of Mariapoch in Burton, Ohio, in August, where he celebrated the Divine Liturgy and shared the story of his vocation in his homily and with young people over a campfire.
After a brief trip to Slovakia, he returned to participate at the longest-running Byzantine Catholic pilgrimage in the United States, organized in honor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help at Mount Saint Macrina in Uniontown, Pennsylvania.
He flew to Europe in the fall, this time to accompany 32 pilgrims on the Horizons-sponsored Byzantine Catholic pilgrimage to Fatima, Portugal, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of the Mother of God there.
Upon his return to the United States, he organized visits to each of the regions of the eparchy. In November and December, he visited parishes in the Chicagoland area of the Midwest region — St. Mary, St. Nicholas and Annunciation parishes. He presided at the St. Nicholas Banquet and wedding jubilarian celebration in Munster, Indiana. He also visited St. John Parish in Minneapolis, Minnesota, one of the metropolia’s most historic churches, along with the fledgling prayer community in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, served by St. John’s pastor, Father Cyril Farmer.
Later that month, he visited St. Nicholas Parish in Clinton Township, Michigan, and presided at its three-day Festival of Prayer with the eparchial icon of Our Lady of Mariapoch.
He celebrated Christmas services at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. In the new year, he visited St. Basil Parish in Sterling Heights, Michigan, for their feast day celebrations. He joined the thousands of protestors in defense of the unborn at the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., Jan. 18-19. There, he marched with young Byzantine Catholics, calling for an end to abortion in the United States.
In February, he returned to Chicagoland to give a Lenten retreat on the Prayer of St. Ephrem to more than 100 participants. During this period, he also visited St. Michael Parish in Merrillville, Indiana, and held meetings with Bishop Benedict Aleksiychuk of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church of Chicago, and Bishop Donald Hying of Gary, Indiana.
Apart from his active parish visitation schedule, where he preached and sanctified the faithful through the celebration of the liturgy, he built up the eparchial church by strengthening the presbyterate with the ordination of Father John Russell in October.
At the end of January, he gathered the priests of the eparchy for a day of spiritual reflection and planning at the cathedral. In his support for vocations, he has visited the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Pittsburgh and, at events across the eparchy, he has been distributing prayer cards urging the faithful to pray the prayer for vocations printed on it.
He affirmed the importance of the monastic vocation at the tonsure of Sister Petra Gafford for Christ the Bridegroom Monastery in February.
In addition to attending the regular meetings of bishops, both the Eastern Catholic bishops and the plenaries of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, he has sought the collaboration of bishops in neighboring dioceses in reconstituting the chancery offices and appointing Father Martin Celuch of the Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, as the new judicial vicar, and Father Gary Yanus of the Diocese of Cleveland as the new chancellor.
He appointed Father Marek Visnovsky, pastor of St. Mary Parish in Cleveland, as the new protosyncellus, director of vocations and syncellus for clergy, and Father Thomas J. Loya, pastor of Annunciation Parish, as protopresbyter of the Midwest region and vicar for missions and development.
In view of growing the western reaches of the eparchy, he named Father Michael Lee the administrator and full-time priest of St. Luke Parish in Sugar Creek, Missouri.
He consecrated the altar of the newly renovated St. Mary Parish in Cleveland, the first church consecration in Parma in almost 20 years.
Concerned with the spiritual life of the faithful, Bishop Lach issued a Pastoral Letter at the start of Lent on the sacrament of confession. In it, he urged priests to set regular confession times at their parishes and he encouraged the faithful to receive the sacrament often. He also established a common, daily prayer time for chancery staff.
He has demonstrated his solicitude for young people by participating at the boys and girls camps in Burton in June and at the Byzanteen Youth Rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, in July, and establishing a new youth commission for the eparchy.
His schedule shows no signs of slowing down. This August, he will ordain seminarian Nathan Adams to the subdiaconate at the annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Mariapoch, Aug. 18, and attend the Marian pilgrimage at St. Mary Parish in Marblehead, Ohio.
In September, he will participate once again in the annual pilgrimage in Uniontown and lead another pilgrimage to Europe, this time to the areas where the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church was founded, flourished, oppressed and then resurrected. In October, he will preside at another eparchial Marian pilgrimage in the Midwest region.
Having visited St. Athanasius the Great Parish in Indianapolis in June, he has four faith communities yet to visit: St. Michael and St. George parishes, both in Michigan, and the Iowa City and Omaha outreaches.
Caption: Bishop Milan Lach, SJ, addresses the congregation at the end of the Divine Liturgy during which he was enthroned as the fifth bishop of the Eparchy of Parma. (Photo: Reen Nemeth)
As published in Horizons, July 8, 2017.
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