Bishop Lach keen on Parma's 'big potential'

Bishop Lach keen on Parma’s ‘big potential’
 
By Laura Ieraci
 
PARMA, Ohio — The Eparchy of Parma seemed to be at the center of the Byzantine Catholic Church July 21, when thousands of people logged onto the eparchy’s Facebook page to watch the live stream of the Divine Liturgy of welcome for Bishop Milan Lach.
By day’s end, Facebook reported 19,000 views of the liturgy that inaugurated Bishop Lach’s appointment as apostolic administrator of Parma. Much of the online interest came from Bishop Lach’s native Slovakia, where he served as a Jesuit priest and then as auxiliary bishop of the Archeparchy of Presov.
Bishop Peter Rusnak of Bratislava, Slovakia, and some Slovak priests were in Parma July 21 to concelebrate the afternoon welcome liturgy, celebrated by Archbishop William C. Skurla of Pittsburgh.
Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, Bishop Emeritus John Kudrick of Parma, Bishop John Pazak of Phoenix, and Romanian Catholic Bishop John Michael Botean of St. George in Canton, Ohio, also concelebrated.
The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Parma was full, with more than 300 people, including more than 70 clergy and religious.
Archbishop Skurla noted in his homily that the Byzantine Catholic Church in the United States was established by European bishops, priests and faithful.
“With excitement and enthusiasm… they started from nothing,” he said. “They built churches that we continue to use today.”
He urged the faithful to “be gentle” with Bishop Lach as he adjusts to life in the United States. “Also, allow him to look at all the many problems that you have, and with faith and hard work you can overcome all of those,” he said.
“We pray that his time here is fruitful,” Archbishop Skurla said of Bishop Lach, adding a prayer that the pope will name an ordinary bishop for Parma in good time.
Prior to the end of the liturgy, Bishop Lach thanked Archbishops Pierre and Skurla for their support, Bishop Kudrick for having led the eparchy for 14 years, the clergy, religious and faithful for their attendance, and the 25-person choir, led by Deacon Timothy Woods.
At the reception that followed in the parish hall, dozens of faithful stood in line to shake hands with Bishop Lach, speak with him briefly, and take photos.
In an interview with Horizons after the liturgy, Archbishop Skurla described Bishop Lach’s appointment as the pope’s decision to “share a little bit of the Jesuit charism with Parma,” to “reconnect with the Slovak churches in Europe and also to have someone who would be able to go back to the meetings in Europe.
“It’s a good plan,” he said.
This appointment also gives “a little connection” for the Slovak priests serving in the United States and for the new immigrants from Slovakia, he said.
Slovakia is a “very spiritual country,” and this appointment could help to share this richness and bring about “a revitalization” of the eparchy, he said.
Bishop Kudrick told Horizons he was “so pleased” with the appointment of Bishop Lach.
“We’re leaving a good eparchy in good hands, with a lot of hope, a lot of life, and a lot of vibrancy,” he continued.
He said he expects Bishop Lach to add “his own genius and flavor to ministry here.”
“I think that the international element is going to be a very healthy and helpful thing,” he said.
“He is very much in tune with our American church already, and yet he knows the shortcomings that we may have. I think he is going to give us the right kind of leadership,” he said. “My big hope is that everyone will cooperate with him and allow him to be the leader of the eparchy.”
Bishop Rusnak told Horizons the Slovak church is “losing one young, ambitious, kind and wise bishop” in the person of Bishop Lach.
“On the other hand, I think it is an honor and also a distinction for the Slovak Byzantine Catholic Church that the Holy Father has appointed one from our church” for Parma, he said.
The United States is not an easy country in which to do pastoral work, the bishop said, and he hopes Bishop Lach will minister in the country with humility “in order to show the Monkowski of the Orthodox Church of America was one of three Orthodox priests to attend the welcome liturgy. The pastor of Sts. Cyril and Methodius Orthodox Church in Lorain, Ohio, said he perceived Bishop Lach to be “very personable, down-to-earth and prayerful. He made us feel very welcome and appreciated.”
“He will fit in very well,” Father Monkowski added. “Cleveland is a very ethnic city. This is a good match.”
Bishop Lach celebrated his first Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist as apostolic administrator July 23.
He preached the homily and urged the faithful to be witnesses to the risen Christ in their daily lives.
He said the prayer, “Lord, have mercy,” repeated often during the liturgy, is a petition for Jesus to heal those who call upon him from their blindness, just as he healed the blind man in the day’s Gospel.
A welcome luncheon was held in the parish hall after liturgy, where Bishop Lach met with cathedral parishioners, reaching out first to the elderly members of the community.
Later that afternoon, Bishop Lach spoke with Horizons about his impressions of the eparchy since his arrival July 18 and his plans for the weeks ahead.
He said his experience of the people of the eparchy is that they are “good” with an “open heart,” and his desire is to encourage them in their relationship with God.
The bishop said he came to the United States “with the expectation to be with people, to be attentive, to listen, because it’s important more to listen than to make decisions.”
He said while he will have to learn about American culture, “I think that the heart of people is the same everywhere.”
Bishop Lach said he is “open to every proposal” of “how we can make our eparchy and the believers of our eparchy close to God.”
“I believe we have big potential because it does not depend on quantity,” which can be “a big temptation,” he said.
“Officially we are 9,000 (faithful), but maybe, in reality, people who (attend) our churches on Sundays is 3,000 to 5,000. It’s not important. (What is) important is the quality, if we are salt for this world,” he said.
His “main interest” is to be close to the priests of the eparchy, as well as the families of those priests who are married, “with all of their necessities, questions, challenges and so on,” he said.
The bishop said he would like to create “good conditions” for priests “to proclaim the Gospel, to be indeed pastors, shepherds, to be indeed fathers.” Tasks in management and finance, which can be carried out by laypeople, are secondary to the priesthood, he said.
“For priests, it is important to be shepherds,” he said, adding that priests cannot detach from their mission of the Gospel in the same way as a layman can detach from his job.
“You are a priest 24 hours (a day),” he said. “We (priests) are invited to have an open heart for people, not only for believers but also for nonbelievers.”
Bishop Lach said his appointment to Parma has represented a change in his personal life and in his relationship with God.
“I see in my life that God leads me slowly, in the way of the Apostles, in the way of bishops” in order to “proclaim the Gospel to people to have hope, to have peace, to have joys,” he said.
He also sees the high interest in his welcome liturgy on social media, both on the eparchial Facebook page and on a Greek Catholic media website, as potential for growth and collaboration among the wider Byzantine Catholic Church.
“It is the beginning of some kind of connection…between our churches, because we are living in the world of modern technologies and I believe we are invited to use them to proclaim the Gospel,” he said.
He stressed the need for prayers for himself, but also for priests and for “unity between us and between believers.”
Bishop Lach said he intends to visit with priests and parishes of the eparchy in the weeks ahead. In addition, he will be the main speaker and celebrant at the eparchial pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Mariapoch in Burton, Ohio, Aug. 12-13.
He will fly back to Slovakia Aug. 14, and intends to return to Parma at the end of August to attend the annual pilgrimage in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, Labor Day weekend. He will also join the eparchial pilgrimage to Fatima in October.
Bishop Lach is the first European-born bishop appointed to oversee the Eparchy of Parma since its founding in 1969, though he is the second European bishop to be named to the United States this year.
Ukrainian Catholic Bishop Benedict Aleksiychuk, former auxiliary bishop of Lviv, Ukraine, was named ordinary of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Chicago in April. 
However, Archbishop Pierre told Horizons he did not know whether Bishop Lach eventually would be named ordinary bishop of Parma.
“This is the decision of the Holy Father. I cannot say,” he said.
 
Photo caption 1: Bishop Milan Lach (left) stands by the altar next to Bishop Emeritus John Kudrick of Parma during the welcome liturgy July 21. (Photo: David Bratnick)
 
Photo caption 2: (front row, l. to r.): Bishop Peter Rusnak of Bratislava, Slovakia, Bishop Emeritus John Kudrick of Parma, Bishop Lach, Archbishop William C. Skurla of Pittsburgh, and Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States. (Photo: David Bratnick)
 
Photo caption 3: All of the clergy who attended the July 21 welcome liturgy for Bishop Milan Lach pose under blue skies for a photo on the front lawn of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. (Photo: Laura Ieraci)
 
As published in Horizons, July 30, 2017.
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