c. 1998 Religion News Service

CLEVELAND _ The Byzantine-Ruthenian Catholic Church in the United States has moved a step closer to admitting married men to the priesthood.

The small Eastern Rite Catholic church, with roots in the western Ukrainian region known as Ruthenia, has about 167,000 U.S. members While the church has always ordained married men in Eastern Europe, it abandoned the practice in Canada and the United States in 1929 at the insistence of the Vatican and U.S. Roman Catholic bishops.

Last month, however, the American bishops of the Byzantine-Ruthenian church met in Pittsburgh and declared”the special restrictive norms imposed by the Apostolic See (since 1929) are no longer in force.”

But in a follow-up letter to priests, Archbishop Judson M. Procyk delayed implementation, saying the Vatican’s Congregation for Eastern Rite Churches _ the Roman Catholic agency that oversees Eastern Rite churches _ has asked for more time “to evaluate, review and consider” 59 new Byzantine-Ruthenian canon laws, including the one removing the obstacle to married clergy here.

Eastern Rite churches are those denominations that maintain an Eastern Orthodox form of worship but who have remained loyal to the pope.

The Rev. Michael Jude Wytish, communications director of the Byzantine-Ruthenian Church, said Thursday (Sept. 3) the new laws will be implemented eventually.

“We are really striving to return to our authentic Eastern tradition that has really been watered down in the United States,” Wytish said. For example, Byzantine-Ruthenians have restored their custom of performing all three sacraments of initiation together: baptism, confirmation and communion as an infant enters the church, a standard practice among Eastern churches but not in Roman Catholicism.

And, at the same time, leaders in the Byzantine-Ruthenian tradition acknowledge they are grappling with an acute shortage of priests _ a shortage that is common across Catholicism but that has worsened for smaller churches such as those Eastern Rite bodies with fewer men from which to recruit potential priests.

The restoration of Eastern tradition in Eastern Rite Catholic churches is one of the mandates of the Second Vatican Council, said the Rev. Ralph E. Wiatrowski, chancellor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland.

“The Vatican Council directed the church to rediscover the roots and gifts of the different rites of the church, which historically were overwhelmed by the Latin `Roman’ church,'”Wiatrowski said.

He said the Eastern Rite churches argue persuasively that since the Latin church has made exceptions for married clergy in the United States _ mainly former Episcopal priests who have become Catholic _ it is time to allow the Eastern Rite churches in North America to ordain married men.

Wiatrowski, an expert in canon law, said he agreed with the Eastern Rite argument.

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