Mishawaka, Indiana, Church Serves Eastern Rite Catholics Amid Local Mass Differences

Every Sunday in Mishawaka, a Mass is celebrated at St. Michael Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church, where a screen of colorful iconography largely blocks the congregation’s view of the altar, the readings are proclaimed from the back of the church, and the Body and Blood of Christ are administered on a spoon. The source notes that this Mass differs from the one most Catholics in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend attend each weekend and Holy Day of Obligation, but says it is nonetheless Catholic.

The parish was established on the west side of Mishawaka in 1916 and has cared for the spiritual life of Eastern Rite Catholics since then. Visitors often notice the painted icons on the iconostasis, the wall of icons and religious paintings near the altar, and its doors, which only the priest may use. The source says these images may lead some people to assume incorrectly that the church is Orthodox.

Rev. George Kuzara, CPPS, the parish’s pastor, said that any Catholic may come to St. Michael to receive Communion and attend the Divine Liturgy. Attending Mass there on Sunday fulfills a Roman Catholic’s Sunday obligation. Andrew Oross, a theology teacher at Saint Joseph High School in South Bend, said he has taken students to the parish to experience the Byzantine Rite, which he described as the largest rite outside the Roman Rite that most people know.

St. Michael belongs to the Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church, one of 22 Eastern Catholic churches that, together with the Roman Catholic Church, make up the one universal church. Kuzara cited Pope John Paul II’s description of the church as breathing “with both lungs,” adding that it has both Eastern and Roman Catholic churches. The Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church is the largest Eastern church, with roughly 5.3 million members. According to the source, its churches separated from Rome during the Great Schism in 1054 and were reunited with it in 1595. Significant immigration over the past century led to the establishment of Ukrainian Byzantine and other Byzantine Rite churches in the West.

Brett Perkins, who was baptized Roman Catholic and frequently attends Mass at St. Michael, said most people in the United States know only the Roman Rite. He said it was surprising that an Eastern Catholic church exists in an area the size of South Bend and Mishawaka. The source explains that both rites developed from how the Gospels were expressed and presented to different cultures, tracing the Byzantine Rite to the work of St. Andrew in the village of Byzantium and later modifications by St. Basil the Great and St. John Chrysostom.

The source lists several differences a Roman Catholic visitor may notice: the manner of administering the Body and Blood of Christ, the place from which the readings are proclaimed, and the iconostasis that blocks the view of the altar. Music is sung a cappella, the sign of the cross is made from right to left, and the priest faces the altar, with his back to the congregation, when he speaks to God. Outside Mass, the Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church uses different Lenten terminology, observes liturgical seasons on different dates, holds confession outside a confessional, and allows priests to be married if the marriage began before ordination.

St. Michael, though located in Mishawaka, is not part of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. It belongs to the Eparchy of Chicago, which the source says includes Indiana, Michigan, and every state to the west, including Alaska and Hawaii. The eparchy, a term many Eastern churches use for jurisdiction or diocese, currently has no bishop, following the death of the Most Reverend Richard Seminack in August. The source states that the new bishop will be assigned by Sviatoslav Shevchuk, patriarch and major archbishop of the Ukrainian Byzantine Catholic Church, who resides in Ukraine. The source says this process is typical because Eastern Catholic churches, though in full communion with Pope Francis and the Roman Catholic Church, are allowed to operate with maximum independence. It also notes that all but one of the Eastern Catholic churches has a corresponding Orthodox church, and that the Orthodox are not in communion with Rome.

“Most Catholics don’t know that the Eastern Rite Catholic churches exist,” Oross said.

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