V
Vico
Guest
History behind it:
In 1889 Fr. Toth’s bishop sent him to America to minister to Ruthenian Greek Catholics in Minneapolis, MN.
1884 - 1889 = 5 years from first priest to the schism, many priests did not schism.
1890 Letter that permanent priests in the USA must be celibate. *
1902 Apostolic Visitator Canon Hodobay arrives (May 8)
The Ruthenians that immigrated knew that they did not have jurisdiction of their own. **
And they knew in 1890 that they had to avoid scandal of married priests. *
- According to Sacred Oriental Congregation, Prot. No. 572-30, Rome, July 23, 1934:
But your Excellency knows well how, under the appearance of vast questions, there lies prevalently that much more restricted question, which has its origin in the regulation of article XII of the Decree Cum Data Fuerit of March 1,1929, and by which was again decreed what had already been prescribed since 1890; that is to say, “that Greek Ruthenian priests who desire to betake themselves to the United States of America and to remain there must be celibates.”
And, moreover, when the Holy See recognized the peculiarities of the Greek Ruthenian Church and guaranteed them, it intended principally - as is evident from the Decree of Union of 1596, during the Pontificate of Clement VII, and of the Brief of Paul V of 1615 - to recognize and guarantee the ritual traditions of the Ruthenians.
As regards their particular canonical discipline, the Holy See could not have affirmed its integral application at all times and in all places without taking into account the different exigencies and circumstances. Thus one can well understand how a married clergy, permitted in those places where the Greek Ruthenian Rite originated and constitutes a predominant element, could hardly be advisable in places where the same Rite has been imported and finds an environment and mentality altogether different.
You can read that here: stlouis.byzcath.org/links.htm
** From the first Catholic bishop in the United States in 1789 until 1908, all the Catholic Churches there fell under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith as missionary territory. Then from 1908 to 1917, only the Eastern Catholic Churches remained under the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, until the Congregation for the Oriental Churches was established in 1917.
:byzsoc: