Father Christopher Zugger

This link will take you to photographs from Holy Cross Cathedral, Uzhgorod, Transcarpathian Oblast, Ukraine. This is the mother church of the Byzantine Catholic Church in the US.

For these images, click on the link, and then go to the first picture on the left column and click. You can then click on the arrows to go through the whole set at your own speed.

PALM SUNDAY  The church is jam-packed, with an enormous overflow outside. How they gave out Holy Communion is beyond me. And keep scrolling, because you will see that the bishop blessed people’s flowering branches and willows from the porch, and flinging holy water down to the hundreds of upraised bouquets! Remember: in 1990 we were just barely emerging from a generation of massive persecution, and now this just 21 years later:

http://www.mgce.uz.ua/photogallery.php?album_key=1172

WAY OF THE CROSS OUTDOORS

This is from the famous village of Mizhgiriya,  a district that is home to 300-year old wooden churches. These pictures follow the procession carrying a life-sized wooden cross on the shoulders of the people; they take turns sliding in and out for the privilege.

http://www.mgce.uz.ua/photogallery.php?album_key=1174

This is the opening Liturgy for the Year of Blessed Theodore Romzha, in the renovated Ascension church in Khust, in honor of the 100th anniversary of his birth. Again, you will see a packed church. And there is a photo of the civil recognition of the martyr’s importance. What is sad is that there are still civil authorities who engaged in the persecution of our Church, receiving state pensions with no punishment for their crimes. We will have to wait for the Great Judge.

http://www.mgce.uz.ua/photogallery.php?album_key=1170

Reminder to those in ABQ area: services every night from tomorrow through Good Friday at 7 pm.