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Pope Accepts Resignation Of Bishop Pataki Of Byzantine Eparchy Of Passaic, Assigns Bishop Skurla Of Van Nuys As His Successor, Names Passaic Pastor As Bishop Of Eparchy Of Van Nuys
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WASHINGTON (December 6, 2007)Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of 80-year-old Bishop Andrew Pataki of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic (New Jersey) and appointed Bishop William C. Skurla of the Byzantine Eparchy of Van Nuys (California), 51, as his successor.
The Pope also named Very Reverend. Gerald N. Dino, 67, protosyncellus (chancellor) of the Passaic Eparchy and pastor of St. George Parish, Linden, New Jersey, to succeed Bishop Skurla as bishop of Van Nuys.
The resignation and the appointments were announced in Washington, December 6, by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States.
Bishop Skurlas enthronement will take place at the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel, in Passaic, January 29. Bishop-elect Dino will be ordained and enthroned at St. Helen Catholic Church in Phoenix, March 27.
The Eparchy of Passaic of the Ruthenians, USA, comprises Catholics of the Byzantine-Ruthenian rite in New Jersey, the District of Columbia and some 25 states, primarily on the East Coast and as far south as Florida.
Bishop Skurla, a native of Duluth, Minnesota, earned a bachelor of arts degree from Columbia University in New York in 1981. He attended Mary Immaculate Seminary in Northampton, Pennsylvania, where he earned a master of divinity degree in 1986 and a master of theology degree in 1987. He was professed as a member of the Franciscans in Sybertsville, Pennsylvania, in 1985, and ordained a priest in 1987. In 1996, he was incardinated into the Eparchy of Van Nuys and named bishop of Van Nuys in 2002.
Gerald N. Dino was born in Binghamton, New York, on January 11, 1940. He received a bachelor of arts degree, cum laude, from Duquesne University in 1961, and a master of divinity degree from Saints Cyril and Methodius Seminary, Pittsburgh, in 1965. He was ordained a priest for the Eparchy of Passaic on March 21, 1965. He received a licentiate degree in Oriental Ecclesiastical Studies from the Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome, in 1972, and completed graduate work in religious communication from Loyola University, New Orleans, 1973.
After ordination, he was assistant pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish, Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 1967-1967, and St. Michael Parish, Perth Amboy, New Jersey, 1967-1969, and pastor, St. Nicholas Parish, Dunellen, New Jersey, 1969-1970.
He did graduate studies in Rome from 1970-1972, and from 1973-1979, was professor and academic dean at the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Sts. Cyril and Methodius.
From 1979-1996, he was pastor of Holy Ghost Parish, in Jessup, Pennsylvania, and from 1996 until the present, pastor of Saint George Parish, in Linden. In 2000, he was named administrator of Saints Peter and Paul Parish, Elizabeth, New Jersey.
The Eparchy of Van Nuys of the Ruthenians, USA, was established on December 3, 1981, and canonically inaugurated on March 9, 1982. It includes parishes in the states of Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Idaho Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii and Alaska.