Stephen Varzaly
Encyclopedia
Stephen Varzaly was a leading priest
, journalist
, and cultural activist for Rusyns
in the United States
.
, Austria-Hungary
(now Slovakia
) and studied at the Greek Catholic
Seminary
in Prešov
. Varzaly married Anna Ilona Kristof. The couple had 7 children. Eugene Varzaly, Stephen Varzaly, Jr.; George Varzaly; Adela Varzaly Matiak; Dolores Varzaly Amman; Martha Varzaly Gaydos; Maria Louisa Varzaly Lazor. He was ordained November 7, 1915 and served in several Rusyn parishes during World War I
.
In 1920 Varzaly was offered his choice of assignment to the cathedral in Budapest or of a church in New Castle, Pennsylvania. In 1920 he emigrated to the United States on assignment to St. Nicholas Greek Catholic Church in New Castle, Pennsylvania
. In 1921 his wife and three children (Eugene, Stephen and Adela who were born in Fulianka) followed. He moved in 1932 to the parish of Saint Michael's Greek Catholic Church in Rankin, Pennsylvania
.
Fearing that married Greek Catholic priests might cause envy among celibate Roman Catholic priests, Pope Pius X
in 1907 issued an apostolic letter enjoining celibacy upon all Catholic priests in the U.S. Many Greek Catholics argued that by the 1646 Union of Uzhhorod
their clergy had been granted the right to marry before ordination, and the decree was unenforced.
The Holy See
issued a second decree in 1929 entitled Cum Data Fuerit, which reiterated Rome's previous position that the Greek Catholic clergy in America must be celibate.
Basil Takach
(1879–1948), the first bishop
of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh
, the American
branch of the Ruthenian Catholic Church
, opposed the new decree, but his appeals were rebuffed by Rome.
-American
newspaper
in America and the official publication of the Greek Catholic Union of Rusyn Brotherhoods
, a fraternal benefit society based in Pennsylvania
.
Many Carpatho-Rusyns, including Varzaly, believed clerical celibacy to be so inherently unnatural as to lead inevitably to promiscuity and sexual abuse. During the celibacy conflict Varzaly used the newspaper to argue against Cum Data Fuerit and for continuation of a traditional married clergy within the Church. He joined, eventually, with other clergy and laity to formally fight the Pope's decree, and they all were suspended from the Church.
, but by 1949 left to support a newly created Carpatho-Russian People's Church under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church in North America
.
In 1937, Varzaly—by then stationed for six years at St. Michael Greek Catholic Church in Rankin, Pennsylvania, in Pittsburgh’s Monongahela Valley—joined three dozen other Byzantine rite priests to form a Carpatho-Rusyn diocese independent of Rome and the Latin rite bishops of the United States. The first bishop, Orestes Chornock, was elected by his fellow priests and consecrated the following year by Orthodox bishops of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople.
Varzaly served as treasurer for the new diocese. He took seriously his role as guardian of the funds contributed by the largely impoverished faithful, refusing to sign checks for expenditures he believed inappropriate. This sparked controversy and lawsuits, but Varzaly prevailed in each.
Varzaly did not believe a juridical break with Rome to be sufficient, however. On the pages of his newsletter Vistnik (“The Messenger”) and in diocesan councils he argued for the elimination of Latinizations in the liturgy and popular devotions that had become part of the Eastern Church’s practice over the course of centuries living alongside Western Catholics.
The touchstone for authentic Eastern practice was held to be that of the Russian Orthodox Church. Varzaly and others argued that the preservation of Eastern tradition demanded an end to devotions of western origin such as the Stations of the Cross and the rosary.
Gradually, devotions of western origin disappeared from Orthodox practice; their standing remains the subject of debate among Byzantine Catholics to this day. Changes to Divine Liturgy, although less dramatic than those made at roughly the same time by Orthodox Ukrainians, moved Carpatho-Rusyn practice closer to that of the Russian Orthodox Church. In contrast to the earlier split led by Father Alexis Toth—who led his flock into the Russian Church in both juridisdiction and practice—distinctive Rusyn elements remained in the liturgy.
This search for a liturgical and devotional life shorn of Western accretions led Rev. Varzaly to re-examine his earlier positions about the proper standing of the new Carpatho-Rusyn diocese within worldwide Orthodoxy. Once an advocate of submission “neither to Rome nor Moscow,” by 1950 he was making the case that since it was to the Patriarchate of Moscow to which the people turned for the pure form of the Eastern liturgy, the independent Carpatho-Rusyn church ought to look to Moscow, the “Third Rome” rather than to the remnant of ethnic Greeks representing the ancient patriarchates of Constantinople and Antioch in a modern Turkey that seemed no longer remotely hospitable to Christians.
This was a controversial position among the Carpatho-Rusyns. While none disputed that their people were Slavs, the Carpatho-Rus had been largely untouched by the pan-Slav movement of the previous century. Constantinople, moreover, was the Mother Church of the East, an imperial city when Moscow was a collection of mud huts on the banks of the Moskva River. By turning to the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople, moreover, they could legitimize their position as an Orthodox church with little chance that they would be prevented from running their own affairs.
1950 was not the most auspicious time for a naturalized American to be arguing in favor of submission to guidance, much less instruction, from Moscow. Rev. Varzaly’s rivals in the church were not slow to capitalize on that and in short order, the FBI surveilled him as a pro-Russian and pro-Communist sympathizer during the Red Scare
of the 1950s and he ultimately testified before Congress about his activities. Nothing came of the charges. A review of two years' of his writings not only found nothing “subversive”, even by the somewhat hysterical standards of the day, but prompted a letter of apology from the federal government for its being drawn into an internal and essentially religious dispute.
Varzaly died June 3, 1957 in Pittsburgh's Montifiore Hospital. He is interred in Homewood Cemetery
, a nonsectarian burial ground in Pittsburgh.
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, and cultural activist for Rusyns
Rusyns
Carpatho-Rusyns are a primarily diasporic ethnic group who speak an Eastern Slavic language, or Ukrainian dialect, known as Rusyn. Carpatho-Rusyns descend from a minority of Ruthenians who did not adopt the use of the ethnonym "Ukrainian" in the early twentieth century...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Early life
Varzaly was born October 6, 1890 in the village of FuliankaFulianka
Fulianka is a village and municipality in Prešov District in the Prešov Region of eastern Slovakia.-Geography:The municipality lies at an altitude of 277 metres and covers an area of 3.805km². It has a population of about 390 people.-External links:...
, Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
(now Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
) and studied at the Greek Catholic
Slovak Greek Catholic Church
The Slovak Greek Catholic Church, or Slovak Byzantine Catholic Church, is a Byzantine Rite particular Church in full union with the Roman Catholic Church. L'Osservatore Romano of January 31, 2008 reported that, in Slovakia alone, it had some 350,000 faithful, 374 priests and 254 parishes...
Seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
in Prešov
Prešov
Prešov Historically, the city has been known in German as Eperies , Eperjes in Hungarian, Fragopolis in Latin, Preszów in Polish, Peryeshis in Romany, Пряшев in Russian and Пряшів in Rusyn and Ukrainian.-Characteristics:The city is a showcase of Baroque, Rococo and Gothic...
. Varzaly married Anna Ilona Kristof. The couple had 7 children. Eugene Varzaly, Stephen Varzaly, Jr.; George Varzaly; Adela Varzaly Matiak; Dolores Varzaly Amman; Martha Varzaly Gaydos; Maria Louisa Varzaly Lazor. He was ordained November 7, 1915 and served in several Rusyn parishes during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
In 1920 Varzaly was offered his choice of assignment to the cathedral in Budapest or of a church in New Castle, Pennsylvania. In 1920 he emigrated to the United States on assignment to St. Nicholas Greek Catholic Church in New Castle, Pennsylvania
New Castle, Pennsylvania
New Castle is a city in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, United States, northwest of Pittsburgh and near the Pennsylvania-Ohio border just east of Youngstown, Ohio; in 1910, the total population was 36,280; in 1920, 44,938; and in 1940, 47,638. The population has fallen to 26,309 according to the...
. In 1921 his wife and three children (Eugene, Stephen and Adela who were born in Fulianka) followed. He moved in 1932 to the parish of Saint Michael's Greek Catholic Church in Rankin, Pennsylvania
Rankin, Pennsylvania
Rankin is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, south of Pittsburgh on the Monongahela River. Early in the 20th century, Rankin specialized in manufacturing steel and wire goods...
.
Controversy over married clergy
Greek Rite Catholicism in the United States, which began in the 1880s with large-scale emigration from Eastern Europe, was until 1914 administered by the American Roman Catholic hierarchy, which instituted a subtle campaign to Latinize its conduct.Fearing that married Greek Catholic priests might cause envy among celibate Roman Catholic priests, Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X
Pope Saint Pius X , born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914. He was the first pope since Pope Pius V to be canonized. Pius X rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox...
in 1907 issued an apostolic letter enjoining celibacy upon all Catholic priests in the U.S. Many Greek Catholics argued that by the 1646 Union of Uzhhorod
Union of Uzhhorod
The Union of Uzhhorod, also referred to as Union of Ungvár, was the 1646 decision of 63 Ruthenian Orthodox priests from the south slopes of the Carpathian Mountains, then within the Kingdom of Hungary, to join the Catholic Church on terms similar to the Union of Brest from 1596 in the lands of the...
their clergy had been granted the right to marry before ordination, and the decree was unenforced.
The Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
issued a second decree in 1929 entitled Cum Data Fuerit, which reiterated Rome's previous position that the Greek Catholic clergy in America must be celibate.
Basil Takach
Basil Takach
Basil Takach was the first bishop of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh, the American branch of the Ruthenian Catholic Church.-Early life:...
(1879–1948), the first bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh
Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh
The Byzantine Catholic Metropolia of Pittsburgh is an autonomous Byzantine Rite particular church of the Catholic Church, originally serving members of the Ruthenian Catholic Church and their descendants in the United States...
, the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
branch of the Ruthenian Catholic Church
Ruthenian Catholic Church
The Ruthenian Catholic Church is a sui iuris Eastern Catholic Church , which uses the Divine Liturgy of the Constantinopolitan Byzantine Eastern Rite. Its roots are among the Rusyns who lived in the region called Carpathian Ruthenia, in and around the Carpathian Mountains...
, opposed the new decree, but his appeals were rebuffed by Rome.
Varzaly as journalist and dissident
From 1930 to 1937 Varzaly served as editor-in-chief of Amerikansky Russky Viestnik (1892—1952), the longest-running RusynRusyns
Carpatho-Rusyns are a primarily diasporic ethnic group who speak an Eastern Slavic language, or Ukrainian dialect, known as Rusyn. Carpatho-Rusyns descend from a minority of Ruthenians who did not adopt the use of the ethnonym "Ukrainian" in the early twentieth century...
-American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
in America and the official publication of the Greek Catholic Union of Rusyn Brotherhoods
Greek Catholic Union of the USA
The Greek Catholic Union of the USA is the oldest continuous fraternal benefit society for Rusyn immigrants and their descendants in the United States....
, a fraternal benefit society based in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
.
Many Carpatho-Rusyns, including Varzaly, believed clerical celibacy to be so inherently unnatural as to lead inevitably to promiscuity and sexual abuse. During the celibacy conflict Varzaly used the newspaper to argue against Cum Data Fuerit and for continuation of a traditional married clergy within the Church. He joined, eventually, with other clergy and laity to formally fight the Pope's decree, and they all were suspended from the Church.
American Carpatho-Rusyn Diocese
Varzaly backed the 1936 formation of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox DioceseAmerican Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese
The American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese or American Carpatho-Ruthenian Orthodox Diocese is a diocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with 78 parishes in the United States and Canada. It was led by the late Metropolitan Nicholas Smisko of Amissos...
, but by 1949 left to support a newly created Carpatho-Russian People's Church under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church in North America
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia
The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia , also called the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, ROCA, or ROCOR) is a semi-autonomous part of the Russian Orthodox Church....
.
In 1937, Varzaly—by then stationed for six years at St. Michael Greek Catholic Church in Rankin, Pennsylvania, in Pittsburgh’s Monongahela Valley—joined three dozen other Byzantine rite priests to form a Carpatho-Rusyn diocese independent of Rome and the Latin rite bishops of the United States. The first bishop, Orestes Chornock, was elected by his fellow priests and consecrated the following year by Orthodox bishops of the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople.
Varzaly served as treasurer for the new diocese. He took seriously his role as guardian of the funds contributed by the largely impoverished faithful, refusing to sign checks for expenditures he believed inappropriate. This sparked controversy and lawsuits, but Varzaly prevailed in each.
Varzaly did not believe a juridical break with Rome to be sufficient, however. On the pages of his newsletter Vistnik (“The Messenger”) and in diocesan councils he argued for the elimination of Latinizations in the liturgy and popular devotions that had become part of the Eastern Church’s practice over the course of centuries living alongside Western Catholics.
The touchstone for authentic Eastern practice was held to be that of the Russian Orthodox Church. Varzaly and others argued that the preservation of Eastern tradition demanded an end to devotions of western origin such as the Stations of the Cross and the rosary.
Gradually, devotions of western origin disappeared from Orthodox practice; their standing remains the subject of debate among Byzantine Catholics to this day. Changes to Divine Liturgy, although less dramatic than those made at roughly the same time by Orthodox Ukrainians, moved Carpatho-Rusyn practice closer to that of the Russian Orthodox Church. In contrast to the earlier split led by Father Alexis Toth—who led his flock into the Russian Church in both juridisdiction and practice—distinctive Rusyn elements remained in the liturgy.
This search for a liturgical and devotional life shorn of Western accretions led Rev. Varzaly to re-examine his earlier positions about the proper standing of the new Carpatho-Rusyn diocese within worldwide Orthodoxy. Once an advocate of submission “neither to Rome nor Moscow,” by 1950 he was making the case that since it was to the Patriarchate of Moscow to which the people turned for the pure form of the Eastern liturgy, the independent Carpatho-Rusyn church ought to look to Moscow, the “Third Rome” rather than to the remnant of ethnic Greeks representing the ancient patriarchates of Constantinople and Antioch in a modern Turkey that seemed no longer remotely hospitable to Christians.
This was a controversial position among the Carpatho-Rusyns. While none disputed that their people were Slavs, the Carpatho-Rus had been largely untouched by the pan-Slav movement of the previous century. Constantinople, moreover, was the Mother Church of the East, an imperial city when Moscow was a collection of mud huts on the banks of the Moskva River. By turning to the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople, moreover, they could legitimize their position as an Orthodox church with little chance that they would be prevented from running their own affairs.
1950 was not the most auspicious time for a naturalized American to be arguing in favor of submission to guidance, much less instruction, from Moscow. Rev. Varzaly’s rivals in the church were not slow to capitalize on that and in short order, the FBI surveilled him as a pro-Russian and pro-Communist sympathizer during the Red Scare
Red Scare
Durrell Blackwell Durrell Blackwell The term Red Scare denotes two distinct periods of strong Anti-Communism in the United States: the First Red Scare, from 1919 to 1920, and the Second Red Scare, from 1947 to 1957. The First Red Scare was about worker revolution and...
of the 1950s and he ultimately testified before Congress about his activities. Nothing came of the charges. A review of two years' of his writings not only found nothing “subversive”, even by the somewhat hysterical standards of the day, but prompted a letter of apology from the federal government for its being drawn into an internal and essentially religious dispute.
Varzaly died June 3, 1957 in Pittsburgh's Montifiore Hospital. He is interred in Homewood Cemetery
Homewood Cemetery
Homewood Cemetery is a historic, nonsectarian burial ground in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in Squirrel Hill and is bordered by both Frick Park and the neighborhood of Point Breeze....
, a nonsectarian burial ground in Pittsburgh.