Daniel Eugene Ivancho (March 30, 1908 – August 2, 1972) was the second

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh, the

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branch of the

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Early life

Born on March 30, 1908, in

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, Máramaros,

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, he emigrated at the age of eight to the United States and settled in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

, with his widowed mother. He graduated from St. Ignatius High School (Cleveland) in

, in 1926. He graduated from St. Procopius College in

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, and completed his seminary training in

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. Due to illness, he transferred to

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Theological Seminary where he completed his studies. On September 30, 1934, Bishop

Basil Takach Basil Takach (October 27, 1879 – May 13, 1948) was the first bishop of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh, the American branch of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church. Early life Born in a Rusyn village in Máramaros Co ...

ordained him to the priesthood and he served in parish assignments.

Episcopate of Bishop Ivancho

When Bishop Takach was diagnosed with terminal cancer in the 1940s, a request was made to the

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for the appointment of an auxiliary bishop. Monsignor George Michaylo and Father Stephen Gulovich were perceived to be leading candidates, but the Vatican announced the appointment of Ivancho, a dark horse. The 1946 official decree declared his status to be a "Coadjutor Bishop", mandating that he would automatically become Bishop Takach's successor. He was ordained as the first-ever Coadjutor Bishop of the Greek Catholic Exarchate of Pittsburgh on November 5, 1946. In order to accommodate the crowds, the ceremony was held at the Cathedral of Saint Paul of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh The Diocese of Pittsburgh () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in Western Pennsylvania in the United States. It was established on August 11, 1843. The diocese is a suffragan diocese of the Archdi ...

in the

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district. Byzantine and Roman Catholic bishops and clergy attended, as did Empress Zita and other members of the Imperial

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family of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen was the homilist for the ordination. In May 1948, Takach died, and Ivancho became the new bishop. Some advisors urged that the construction of a new cathedral church should be a priority. They believed a new cathedral—not the 1903 St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cathedral—was needed in the post-

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era. More

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and a more central location in Pittsburgh, they argued, would better showcase the identity of the Eastern Catholic church. Ivancho, however, tackled the problem of seminary training. In a pastoral letter dated June 14, 1950, he announced plans for the construction and operation of the first Eastern Catholic seminary in the United States. Byzantine Catholic Seminary of SS. Cyril and Methodius was completed in October 1951. Ivancho resigned suddenly for personal reasons on December 2, 1954. According to a historical account by Serge Keleher, Ivancho was forced to resign once it was revealed that he had secretly married after his priestly ordination. He died in retirement in Florida in 1972.

External links

Daniel Ivancho bio sketch at Catholic-Hierarchy.org

The Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh

Byzantine Catholic Church in America

References

Also: * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ivancho, Daniel 1908 births 1972 deaths Bishops of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church People from Zakarpattia Oblast Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United States Benedictine University alumni Eastern Catholic bishops in the United States American people of Rusyn descent Religious leaders from Cleveland