Stephen Kocisko

Stephen John Kocisko (June 11, 1915 – March 7, 1995) was the first Metropolitan Archbishop of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh, the American branch of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church.

Early life Stephen Kocisko was born June 11, 1915, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Rusyn immigrant parents, John Kocisko and Anna Somos; John and Anna had a background of both Greek Catholic Ruysn and Lutheran Slovak. Bishop Basil Takach sent him to St. Josaphat's Seminary in Rome, Italy for philosophical and theological education, where he earned a Licentiate (Master's) Degree in Sacred Theology. Bishop Alexander Evreinoff, the ordaining prelate for the Byzantine Catholics in Rome, ordained him to the priesthood on March 30, 1941, just before to his return to the United States.

He first served as pastor in Detroit, Michigan and Lyndora, Pennsylvania. He also served as a member of the Exarchate's Matrimonial Tribunal and as professor of Patrology at the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of SS. Cyril and Methodius.

Rome upgrades the American Church's status Since its inception in 1924 as the "Apostolic Exarchate of United States of America, Faithful of the Oriental Rite (Ruthenian)", the organizational status of the Church was merely that of a missionary territory with limited self-governing authority, the homeland being Europe - albeit under Communist persecution since 1946.

On July 6, 1963, the Vatican upgraded the status of the church from Exarchate to Eparchy, or diocese according to the Latin-Rite terminology. A decree by the newly elected Pope Paul VI divided the entire U.S. territory of the Church into two separate ecclesiastical jurisdictions. The first, the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic, included the Eastern states and the second jurisdiction, centered in Pittsburgh, included the rest of the nation. Both jurisdictions now held the canonical status of an eparchy or a full diocese. Bishop Elko continued as the American Church's senior hierarch, but Kocisko was selected as the first bishop for Passaic and was installed on July 6, 1963.

Time Magazine reported on the unusual situation, noting that a "bishop is almost never separated from his see. For the past seven months, however, the Most Rev. Nicholas T. Elko, Ruthenian-rite bishop of Pittsburgh, has been in Rome, barred by his church superiors from returning to his diocese. The case of Bishop Elko, who describes his situation as 'exile', casts fascinating light on Catholicism's current internal stresses. . . ."

The Vatican next appointed Kocisko on December 22, 1967, to replace Elko as the chief hierarch.

To promote the role of the Byzantine Catholic Church on a national level, he erected in 1974 a Byzantine chapel in the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.

In 1986, Archbishop Kocisko, together with the bishops of the Byzantine Ruthenian Metropolitan Province, initiated the causes for the canonizations of three bishops of Subcarpathian Rus who had been martyred or suffered as confessors of the faith under the Soviet regime. Although these processes are normally performed within the territorial jurisdiction where the person lived, the unique situation of the liquidation of the Greek Catholic Church in Eastern Europe prompted Kocisko to act in his position of Metropolitan of the Ruthenians in the United States. Bishop Theodore Romzha, eparch of Mukachevo, Bishop Paul Peter Gojdich, OSBM, eparch of Prijashev and Bishop Basil Hopko, auxiliary bishop of Prijashev were the first to be considered. Shortly thereafter, as more information became available from behind the Iron Curtain, the name of Bishop Alexander Chira, Romzha's successor as bishop of Mukachevo in the catacomb church was added.

On December 17, 1994, the causes of these bishops were canonically opened in their native eparchies, continuing the work begun under Kocisko. Subsequently, on June 27, 2001, Pope John Paul II beatified Bishop Romzha along with other Ukrainian martyrs of the communist yoke during a Divine Liturgy in Lviv. Bishop Gojdich was beatified by the same pontiff on November 4, 2001. September 14, 2003 saw the beatification of Bishop Hopko by John Paul during a visit to Bratislava, Slovakia.

Communism ends in Europe In February 1990, as Communist rule ended in Eastern Europe, Archbishop Kocisko led a delegation of American Byzantine Catholic hierarchs to the Eparchies of Prešov and Mukacevo to show solidarity with them after 40 years of separation and persecution.

Final years As the Communist regime started to fall in the Soviet Union, February 1990 saw Archbishop Kocisko travelling to Eastern Europe with a team of American Byzantine Catholic clergy and religious to visit Byzantine centers in Prešov (Slovakia) and Mukačevo (Ukraine).

Archbishop Kocisko resigned as Metropolitan Archbishop of Pittsburgh on June 11, 1990, his seventy-fifth birthday.

He died at age 79 on March 7, 1995. He is buried in the cemetery of Mount Saint Macrina Monastery in Uniontown, Pennsylvania.