March 23, 2007

Three priests to begin training in Byzantine rite liturgy

Andy Telli, Tennessee Register

Beginning Saturday, March 31, the Byzantine rite of the Divine Liturgy – the Holy Eucharist – will be celebrated once a month in Nashville, and three priests of the Diocese of Nashville will be trained as bi-ritual priests with the faculties to celebrate Mass in both the Latin and Byzantine rites.

Father Thomas O’Connell, a bi-ritual priest from the Knoxville Diocese, will come to St. Patrick Church in Nashville to celebrate the Divine Liturgy on the last Saturday of the month and to train the three Nashville priests, Fathers David Perkin, Eric Fowlkes and John Sims Baker.

“We’ll learn from the actual experience of being present and concelebrating the Byzantine rite liturgy,” said Father Perkin, vicar general for the Nashville Diocese.

Byzantine Metropolitan Archbishop Basil Schott, O.F.M., the leader of the Byzantine Archeparchy of Pittsburgh, visited Nashville last November to celebrate the Divine Liturgy at Assumption Church. During the visit he discussed with Bishop David Choby the possibility of priests from Nashville being trained as bi-ritual priests with the ultimate goal of someday establishing a Byzantine mission here.

One of the obstacles to establishing a mission in Nashville, Archbishop Schott said during his November visit, was the lack of available clergy.

Bishop Choby approached Fathers Perkin, Fowlkes and Baker to see if they had an interest in becoming bi-ritual, and all agreed, said Father Perkin.

“I’m intrigued, I’m excited,” Father Perkin said. “I’ve always had great respect for the liturgical ritual of the Catholic Church. This opportunity gives me a way of learning more about the liturgies that actually make up Catholic expression.”

“It’s wonderful that we have clergy who are interested in the Eastern Catholic Church who would be willing to do that,” said Veronica Varga, communications director of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Archeparchy of Pittsburgh.

After the formal requests to receive bi-ritual faculties from the priests and Bishop Choby is sent to Archbishop Schott, Varga explained, the requests will be forwarded to the Congregation for Eastern Churches at the Vatican for final approval.

The Nashville priests can concelebrate the liturgy as they learn it and other prayers and practices of the Eastern Catholic Church, Varga said. Their training most likely will require some time studying at the Byzantine Catholic Seminar of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Pittsburgh, she added.

Father O’Connell, who will be celebrating the Divine Liturgy monthly in Nashville and training the priests, is the pastor of the Latin rite Holy Family Church in Seymour. That church is also the site of a Byzantine rite mission, the Holy Resurrection Mission, of which Father O’Connell is administrator.

At the end of the training process, the three Nashville priests would receive faculties to provide a full range of service to the Byzantine Catholic Church, including other sacraments, such as baptisms and marriages, Varga said.

“It’s a great opportunity not only for us priests, but it’s a wonderful opportunity for the Byzantine community of the diocese to have priests available to respond to their spiritual needs and pastoral needs,” Father Perkin said.

The community of Eastern rite Catholics in the Nashville Diocese is small, said Kim Markovchick, but having priests who can celebrate the Divine Liturgy on a regular basis “is going to be an opportunity for the community to grow and develop.”

Markovchick, a parishioner at St. Matthew Church in Franklin, grew up as a Byzantine rite Catholic and has helped to organize several Divine Liturgies in the Nashville area in recent years. “We are very spread out,” she said of the Byzantine community, “but everybody is very excited about this.”

The Byzantine Catholic Church is one of the Eastern rite churches that remain in communion with the Roman Catholic Church. It traces its heritage to the Apostles who carried Christianity to the Gentiles in the Greek-speaking countries and communities of the Eastern Mediterranean. Its liturgical traditions, like those of all the Eastern rite churches, were shaped by those of the Byzantine church, centered in Contantinople, rather than the Latin-rite church based in Rome.

“While we share all the precepts of the Catholic Church, there are differences in the prayers, the rituals, the practices of the Eastern Catholic Church,” Varga said. “It’s a different tradition, spirituality and theology.”

Father Perkin had some exposure to the Byzantine rite as a seminarian at St. Meinrad Seminary. One of the monks on the faculty there, was a bi-ritual priest and would occasionally celebrate the Divine Liturgy, he said.

Archbishop Schott’s office has sent the three Nashville priests kits to help familiarize them with the Byzantine rite, including the text of the rites, a DVD showing the liturgy being celebrated, and some books on the theology and catechesis of the Byzantine liturgy, Father Perkin said.

“Anyone can sit down and read the text of the liturgy, but I’m anxious to experience it as a concelebrant,” Father Perkin said.

All Catholics can participate in the Byzantine rite of the Divine Liturgy.

“You don’t even have to be Eastern rite to come and experience it. It’s open to everyone. All Catholics in good standing are able to receive communion,” Markovchick said. “I think a lot of people are curious, because a lot of people didn’t even know there was an Eastern rite of the Catholic Church.

The Divine Liturgy will be celebrated at 6 p.m. Saturday, March 31, at St. Patrick Church in Nashville, and at 6 p.m. the last Saturday of the month from then on. There will be a reception following the March 31 liturgy.

Photo by Andy Telli

Metropolitan Archbishop Basil Schott, OFM, of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Archeparchy of Pittsburgh, distributes communion during a Divine Liturgy that he celebrated at Assumption Church in Nashville last November. In the Byzantine rite, the priests uses a spoon to place the Eucharist into the receiver’s mouth.