Blessed Theodore Romhza

Glory to Jesus Christ! It seems that the long standing prohibition on the ordination of married men to the Eastern Catholic priesthood in the diaspora is finally, officially, coming to an end. The prohibition came about because of two separate papal letters, Ea Semper and  Cum data Fuerit . These two documents caused much turmoil in the Byzantine Catholic Church in America and lead to many Byzantine Catholics returning to the Orthodox Communion of Churches. Since Vatican II, the Eastern Catholic Churches have been working to restore, in the diaspora, the tradition of married clerics. Married Eastern Catholics priests have been slowly growing in the United States but officially the ban was still in place. With the upcoming publication of   Acta Apostolicæ Sedis,  vol. CVI, no. 6, June 6, 2014,  a terrible wrong will be officially off the books and the Apostolic Tradition of the Eastern Catholic Churches to have both a married and celibate priesthood will be restored worldwide.

Glory to Jesus Christ! I love you, O Lord, my strength; You are my stronghold and my refuge (Psalm 18:2-3)  Welcome to the Blessed Theodore Romzha blog. I've wanted to create a blog dedicated to Blessed Theodore for some time now.  My hope for this blog is to post news about the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church in America and the Eparchy of Mukačevo and other Eastern Catholic themes. I decided to launch this new blog today because today is the feast of Blessed Theodore. A little about the Patron of this blog: Blessed Theodore was the bishop of the Eparchy of Mukacevo. He studied at the Pontifical Russian College in Rome and was ordained a celibate priest on Christmas Day 1936. He was chosen bishop by the Holy See and consecrated in 1944 at the young age of thirty three. Blessed Theodore became bishop during a troubled time. The Soviet Union invaded and occupied Ukraine towards the end of World War II. After the war it became clear that the Red Army would not be leav