Metropolitan Judson M. Procyk, Archbishop of Pittsburgh of the Ruthenian Church, died on 24 April at the age of 70.
Calling himself a “brick-and-mortar priest,” Metropolitan Judson became Rector of St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Munhall, Pa., in 1973, after serving in several Ruthenian parishes in western Pennsylvania. In 1995, the Holy See appointed him Metropolitan Archbishop of Pittsburgh, which serves more than 71,000 Eastern Catholics of Ruthenian descent in parishes stretching from Lake Erie to Texas. The Ruthenian eparchies of Passaic, Parma and Van Nuys, which include an additional 165,000 members, belong to the Ruthenian Church, the only self-governing Catholic Church in the United States.
Known for his dedication to restore the rights and traditions of the Eastern churches in full communion with the Church of Rome, Metropolitan Judson developed strong ties with his Orthodox colleagues, including Metropolitan Nicholas of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Diocese of the USA, and Bishop Maximos of the Greek Orthodox Diocese of Pittsburgh: Metropolitan Judson’s death, said Bishop Maximos, “is a great loss for all of us… a great loss for the Church of Christ. I could not make a difference between him and any of my colleagues among the Orthodox bishops.
“He was just one of us, period.”
Eternal Memory!