The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-03-26

z as to make nationality and church 1 E one and inseparabIe. Until their coming, this branch of E the Christian church, which occupies so interesting and distinctive g. posi- ton, had been unheard of in the 2 United States, and now, when it has s more than two hundred churches Z with 550,0O0 members, it's position is - still known and understood by but ! few, so quietly and unostentatiously ! has its work been done.
 The Greek Catholic church is first of all object lesson on the fact that Rome, inf1exibIe as she seems, can compromise and has compro- < mised. The Great Schism in 1O54 & split the Christian world into two ( parts, one of which looked to Con stantinople as it's head, the other to Rome, hence the terms Eastern Church and Western Church; or from x the language of the liturgy at that Z tin@ the Greek rite and the Latin $ rite. As a matter of usage, the ! term Orthodox has come to be ap- piled to the Eastern church, Catholic to the Western.
 Each has always been certain of the correctness of it's own position and < fhas sought to evangelize the other. [. The Greek Catholic church is the 7 result of the only considerable suc- cess in this line which has ever been achieved by either. It was brought about by a compromise offered by q Pope Clement VIII to the Orthodox ( dioceses of Galicia at the end of the 18th century, This compromise may be summarized broadly as having made the church Roman in doctrine but left it Eastern in practice. The E very name Greek Catholic indicates the combination of sources.
 The terms of the compromise re- Quired acknowledgements of the su- premacy of the Pope and acceptance of the filioque clause in the creed, but permitted the retention of the Eastern arrangement of the church with the great screen in front of the altar; the three barred cross, the lowest bar oblique; the use of Ieaven- ed bread in the mass; the com z munion in both kinds to the 1aity; the liturgy in the language Of the people; the administration of conffr- nation by the priest immediately af- ter baptism; the Eastern calendar; and the married clergy. On these terms the union took place, hence the term United Greek Catholics, or < Uniates.
 The Ukrainians of Galicia were the first people to accept these terms, and they were soon followed by their kinsmen on the other side of the Carpathians, Russians of Hungary. The movement thus started has had some success in almost every Ortho- dox country, so that there are now Greek Catholic Rumanians, CrOa- I tians, Lithuanians, Syrians, Copts, Ar -fTnenians, Italians, and Greeks. Its strongest hold, however, is stil ] among the race who were the first k to adopt it, and who are variousIy i known, according to location of to po- 2 iltfcal nomenclature as Little Rus sians, Ruthenfans T7Issinians, JTkrain- 1ans, or UhrO-Rusins.
 Greek Catholic emigration to the United States began on both sides of the Carpathians in 1879, and was di- rected to that unsuitable field of em- ployment, the Pennsylvania coa mines. In 1884 a group of these i'm migrants in Shenandoah Pa. had. be come strong enough numerically anC financially to form a. church organ, ization and to send for a priest o- their own race and faith. But theil joy in the achievement was soo1 submerged in dismay at the conflic q in which they unexpectedly found @ themselves. For this priest ha( brought with him his wife, and tn, Roman Catholic clergy of the dio cese, acting sincerely, but withou understanding, fell upon him and hi followers with a storm of denuncia ton.
 The stranger priest was not onl, deeply shocked at this reception but utterly bewildered, as nothing il his past experience gave him an clue to what the fuss was about. Al exchange of letters between tn bishop of the local diocese and tn archbishop of Lemberg, now ocean a cardinal, established his regularit and good standing as a priest, and h was able to enter ppon his wor without further opposition. The con troversy had however, a very un happy effect upon the people, t whom it seemed a part of the sam persecution which they had know on political grounds in the old coun try, and they said to each other, 'FW came here expecting to find freedom but here, too, there is persecution"
 This first priest, Rev. Ivan VoIar ski, was a good organizer, and 1886 he and his parishioners con pleted the building of a little fran church the first Greek .CathoI church in America. In the next fiT years, he organized churches Hazelton, Wilkes Barre, Scranto and Jersey City, besides visiting an administering to many small an # scattered communities. Finding h parishioners without reading matte he sent to Galicia for Russian typ and in 1886 commenced the public; ton of a small newspaper, which l magnanimously called America"
 In 1889 an assistant was sent hir shortly afterwards another was neec ed, and since 1890 the great increa. in Ruthenian immigration has, bee accompanied by an equally rap
 growth in the iInm igration church.
 At first these churches were und4 the Roman Catholic bishops, but tn arrangement was very difficult f
 both parties. To the Ukrainian, t Roman church was inseparabIy ass
 ciated with the hated Polish domin
 ton, even in this country the R
 man Catholic bishops being oftt spoken of as the Polish bishops;
 the Uhro-Rusin, the Roman churc carried the curse of agyar donin
 ton; while the Dish cps themselv
 found their difficulties greatly
 hanced by the intrusion of this ne