Folia Canonica 5. (2002)

STUDIES - John D. Faris: Territory and the Eastern Catholic Experience in the United States

TERRITORY AND THE EASTERN CATHOLIC EXPERIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES 53

through the establishment of parishes and hierarchies (either exarchies or eparchies). However—and perhaps most important—this process is to take place only where the spiritual good of thefaithful requires it. The preservation and enlargement of the various Eastern Catholic churches is to take place not for its own sake, but for the spiritual good of the faithful.

This principle was expressed also in the Directory for the Pastoral Ministry of Bishops* and later codified in the Code of Canon Law9 (the 1983 code for the Latin Church) and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches'0 (the 1990 common law of the Eastern Catholic churches).

Pre-Conciliar Situation

Before examining the effects of Vatican II on Eastern Catholics in the United States, it is beneficial to examine the situation of these communities prior to the Council.

Although all the Eastern Catholic churches were represented among the immigrants to the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century, only those who were members of the Ruthenian / Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church were given a hierarchy.8 9 * 11 The first bishop, Soter Ortynksy, was not given ordinary jurisdiction over the faithful of the Ruthenian / Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, but was appointed vicar general in those Latin dioceses wherever his faithful were located.12 In 1924, two bishops were appointed, one for the faithful who came from Galicia (Ukrainian) and another for the faithful who came from Russian Podocarpathia, Hungary and Yugoslavia. Eventually, two metropolia were to evolve: one for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church with the archeparchial see in Philadelphia13 and one for the Ruthenian Church with the archeparchial see in Pittsburgh.14

8 Sacred Congregation for Bishops, Directory on the Pastoral Ministry of Bishops, 22 February 1973, n. 174.

9 83 CIC c. 518.

'°CCEO c. 280 §1.

"Pius X, apostolic letter Ea Semper, 18 VII. 1907, in ASS 41 (1908) 3-12.

I2W. Paska, Sources of Particular Law for the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United States (Canon Law Studies), Washington DC 1975, 46.

13 The Ukrainian hierarchy evolved into the following ecclesial structures: Archeparchy of Philadelphia (1958 [Ordinariate 1913; apostolic exarchate 1924]); Eparchy of Stamford (1958 [exarchate 1956]); Eparchy of Saint Nicholas in Chicago (1961); Eparchy of Saint Josaphat in Parma (1983).

l4The Ruthenian hierarchy evolved into the following ecclesial structures: Archeparchy of Pittsburgh (1977 [apostolic exarchate 1924; eparchy of Pittsburgh 1963; eparchy of Munhall 1969; archeparchy of Pittsburgh of the Byzantines 1977]); Eparchy