A Forward Step in Reunion

...A great step toward this rapprochement has been taken in the recent arrangement between the Right Reverend Constantine Bohachevsky, bishop of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic diocese of the United States, and the Reverend Augustine Galen, president of the Catholic Union, whereby these two will work together in the furtherance of the Catholic Union Seminary which has just been opened in Philadelphia at the request of the Holy See, for the education of American-born priests of the Greek rite in the United States...

...The Roman Catholic Church, with its freedom from state entanglements or political questions, and its world-wide membership, offers just the solution that is needed...

...With the reunion of orthodoxy the goal of unity among all believers would be .almost won...

...The seminary is at present most inadequately housed and plans have been drawn for a modern building to accommodate ioo students, and costing upwards of $250,000...

...Similar difficulties are being encountered in many places...

...We believe so, and it is an effort toward unity and Americanization which deserves the most hearty support...

...A FORWARD STEP IN REUNION HP HOSE who have been following the trend of af¦*¦ fairs among the members of the Orthodox church in this country know that the upheaval and breakdown of its organization in Europe have had their echoes here also...

...Dissatisfaction with the dissensions in orthodoxy is creating a much more receptive attitude toward Catholicism among many of their priests and people than has hitherto existed, and the natural "bridge" in this direction is in the Catholics of the eastern rite who are of the same racial stocks and who, because of similarity of language and customs, can secure a contact scarcely possible to a Latin Catholic...

...The mingling in school of these youths, who come from all parts of the country and from the dioceses of both Bishop Bohachevsky and Bishop Takach, will weld all the racial elements closer together, and, as they go forth, they will bring their own people into more intimate touch with American life and thought...

...The controversy between Archbishop Platon and the rival claimants to his place at the Russian Cathedral in New York, is by no means the only trouble among the adherents of this communion...

...May not the beginnings of that unity, so exactly in accord with the will of Christ, and so ardently desired by the Holy Father, be begun right here through this new Catholic Union Seminary...

...The Sisters of the Order of Saint Basil the Great will have charge of the domestic department...

...Outside the religious phase of the question, the average American is apt to ask: "Why should these two bodies of people, the Orthodox and the Greek Catholics, holding almost identical doctrines, worshipping with the same ceremonies, and racially so closely allied, continue to duplicate effort...

...The racial prejudices and nationalistic problems which so frequently offer serious barriers to reunion work abroad, are toned down or entirely obliterated in this country, for, as Bishop Bohachevsky said in a recent interview, "we are all Americans here...

...And we ask: "Why, indeed...

...The ancestors of all these people were once within her fold, and their present differences are in reality slight...

...The importance of this new enterprise can scarcely be overestimated...

...In coming back to her unity they lose none of the rites or ceremonies which are so dear to them, and which are so ingrained into their lives...

...Priests of the eastern rite will be in charge and will give part of the instruction, though the lower studies will be under the care of a community of teaching Brothers...