We, bishops of the Eastern Catholic Churches in the United States, gathered in prayer and dialogue at our annual assembly in St. Louis, express solidarity with our longsuffering brothers and sisters representing different confessions in countries where our communities originate. We are anguished by the passion they are enduring on account of war, persecution, assault against human dignity, and violation of personal and religious liberty.<\/p>\n
We express deep gratitude to Catholics and all Americans of good will for their prayer, advocacy for justice and peace, and humanitarian aid for all those victimized by escalating hostilities and autocratic rule, from India to the Middle East, from Ukraine to the Caucasus.<\/p>\n
We echo Pope Leo XIV in calling the world\u2019s political leaders to begin a \u201cdisarmament of heart, mind, and life.\u201d Like the Pope, we insist that stability and peace can be built \u201conly through a reasonable, authentic, and responsible dialogue.\u201d We appeal to those in power in the United States and globally to protect and defend the innocent and vulnerable and engage in diplomacy to forge just and lasting peace.<\/p>\n
Together with the Holy Father, we beseech all Americans to remain steadfast in both spiritual solicitude with and concrete assistance to all those suffering from warfare, torture, and either political or religious oppression. For the Lord Jesus Himself calls us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and welcome the refugee\u2014especially during Lent.<\/p>\n
What we are witnessing in our home communities could easily bring us to despair: churches bombed; clergy and faithful killed; innocent millions forced from their homes. Houses and apartments, hospitals, schools, and roads are destroyed, entire cities wiped out, children abducted. Hundreds of thousands slain, countless maimed, millions traumatized. Torment, rape, and massacre. The menace of genocide.<\/p>\n
And yet, together with them, we do not lose hope! Instead, we find inspiration in those who are overcoming great hardships. Worlds apart, our suffering brothers and sisters bear witness to us, at great personal cost, the truth of God\u2019s gifts of human dignity and of mutual love amidst desperation. These words of St. Paul could well be said of them: they are \u201cafflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed\u201d (2 Cor 4:8\u20139).<\/p>\n
Indeed, the witness they bear is truly apostolic. They forge our faith and strengthen our common hope. And that hope is not in an abstraction. It rests in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, a Brother, who suffered and died, who has risen from His grave, and who comes to us and meets us. We believe in the Lord who trampled death by His death and gives to us eternal life. \u00a0<\/p>\n
In anticipation of His and the whole world\u2019s Resurrection, we proclaim \u201cChrist is risen! Indeed, He is Risen!\u201d<\/p>\n
Most Rev. William Skurla<\/p>\n
Metropolitan Archbishop of the Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh<\/p>\n
Most Rev. Borys Gudziak<\/p>\n
Metropolitan Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia\u00a0<\/p>\n
Most Rev. Joy Alappatt<\/p>\n
Bishop of the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of St. Thomas<\/p>\n
Most Rev. Benedict Aleksiychuk\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Saint Nicholas in Chicago\u00a0<\/p>\n
Most Rev. Francois Beyrouti<\/p>\n
Bishop of the Melkite Eparchy of Newton<\/p>\n
Most Rev. John Michael Botean<\/p>\n
Bishop of the Romanian Catholic Eparchy of St. George in Canton<\/p>\n
Most Rev. Artur Bubnevych<\/p>\n
Bishop of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix<\/p>\n
Most Rev. Kurt Burnette\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bishop of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic<\/p>\n
Most Rev. Paul Chomnycky<\/p>\n
Bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Stamford<\/p>\n
Most Rev. Bohdan Danylo<\/p>\n
Bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of St. Josaphat in Parma<\/p>\n
Most Rev. Joseph Mar Barnaba Habash<\/p>\n
Bishop of the Syriac Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance<\/p>\n
Most Rev. Gregory Mansour<\/p>\n
Bishop of the Maronite Eparchy of St. Maron in New York<\/p>\n
Most Rev. Mika\u00ebl Antoine Mouradian<\/p>\n
Bishop of the Armenian Eparchy of St Nareg in Glendale<\/p>\n
Most Rev Robert Pipta<\/p>\n
bishop of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma<\/p>\n
Most Rev. Nicholas Samra<\/p>\n
Emeritus Bishop of the Melkite Eparchy of Newton<\/p>\n
Most Rev. Elias Zaidan<\/p>\n
Bishop of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon in Saint Louis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We, bishops of the Eastern Catholic Churches in the United States, gathered in prayer and dialogue at our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-533763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}