- Thomas Dolinay
Thomas Victor Dolinay (
July 24 ,1923 –April 13 ,1993 ) was the secondMetropolitan Archbishop of theByzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh , the American branch of theRuthenian Catholic Church .Early life
Born
July 24 to Rusyn immigrant parents inUniontown, Pennsylvania , Dolinay’s father was a Greek Catholic priest. Dolinay attended public schools inStruthers, Ohio and Uniontown and graduated in 1941. He earned his undergraduate degree at St. Procopius College inLisle, Illinois in 1945 and completed his theological studies at the Benedictine Seminary in 1948. On May 16, 1948, BishopDaniel Ivancho ordained him to the priesthood in the chapel ofMount Saint Macrina Monastery in Uniontown.Dolinay had parish assignments for the next 18 years throughout the Pittsburgh Exarchate and the Passaic Eparchy. He also served as the first managing editor of "The Byzantine Catholic World" and the first editor of the "Eastern Catholic Life" eparchial newspapers.
Pope Paul VI named him a papal chamberlain with the titleMonsignor in 1966.Episcopate of Bishop Dolinay
Monsignor Dolinay became the first auxiliary bishop of the Passaic Eparchy on November 23, 1976. His installment was held at St. Peter's Roman Catholic Cathedral in
Scranton, Pennsylvania . As auxiliary to BishopMichael Dudick , he served as the Vicar for the churches located in Eastern Pennsylvania.Eparchy of Van Nuys
Since the 1950s the Byzantine Catholic Church had experienced growth in the western United States, establishing parishes there. On December 3, 1981,
Pope John Paul II by decree established a new eparchy, the Eparchy of Van Nuys, composed of 13 western states. Its center wasVan Nuys, California , a suburb ofLos Angeles , and its cathedral would be at St. Mary's Church, the first Byzantine Catholic parish formed in the western United States. John Paul II appointed the auxiliary bishop of the Passaic Eparchy, Dolinay, to head the newly-created Van Nuys Eparchy .The Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Van Nuys was canonically inaugurated on March 9, 1982. At the same time
Metropolitan Archbishop Stephen Kocisko installed Dolinay as the first Bishop at a ceremony in St. Cyril of Jerusalem Roman Catholic Church inEncino, California . Archbishop Pio Laghi, the Apostolic Delegate to the United States, read the papal decrees.Timothy Cardinal Manning , the Archbishop of Los Angeles, was the homilist.In 1990, with the retirement of Archbishop Kocisko of Pittsburgh looming, Pope John Paul II relieved Dolinay of his duties as Bishop of Van Nuys and appointed him Coadjutor of the
Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh in 1990. The Pope appointed the Auxiliary Bishop of Passaic, George Kuzma, to succeed Bishop Dolinay.Metropolitan Dolinay
Kocisko submitted his resignation and entered into retirement on
June 12 ,1991 , automatically making Dolinay the second Metropolitan of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolia.After a brief illness he unexpectedly died at age 69 on
April 13 ,1993 . He is buried in the cemetery of Mount Saint Macrina Monastery in Uniontown, Pennsylvania.External links
* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bdolinay.html Thomas Dolinay bio sketch at Catholic-Hierarchy.org]
* [http://www.archeparchy.org/ The Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh]
* [http://www.byzcath.org Byzantine Catholic Church in America]References
*cite book | author=Byzantine Catholic Metropolia of Pittsburgh | title=Byzantine-Ruthenian Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh Directory | location=Pittsburgh | publisher=Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh | year=1999 | id=ISBN none
*cite book | author=Magocsi, Paul Robert and Ivan Pop | title=Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture| location=Toronto | publisher=University of Toronto Press | year=2005 | id=ISBN 0-8020-3566-3
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