Russian Greek Catholic Ordination !!!

(Rorate Caeli) - November 8 of this year witnessed an extremely rare event: the priestly ordination, in Russia and according to the Byzantine Rite, of a Russian Orthodox convert to Catholicism. On this day, Fr. Deacon Pavel (Paul) Gladkov was ordained by Bishop Milan Šášik of the Carpatho-Rusyn Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo in the Latin-Rite Cathedral of the Transfiguration in Novosibirsk (in Siberia).

More photographs can be found on the website of the Catholic Church in Siberia.

The new priest was born into Russian Orthodoxy in 1982 and became Catholic in 1999. The ceremony itself was according to the Byzantine Rite with some elements of the Latin liturgical tradition (such as the prostration for the Litany of Saints, which has been adopted by some Eastern Catholics for their ordination rites.)

The new priest is now one of about 20 Greek Catholic priests serving the small but growing community of Greek Catholics in Russia, of whom only a minority -- sometimes called "Russian Orthodox United with Rome" -- worship according to the Russian tradition (the majority are from Ukraine and follow the Ukrainian Greek Catholic tradition). He is part of a minority (Russian Greek Catholics) in a minority (Greek Catholics) in a minority (Catholics) in Russia. (The vast majority of Catholics in Russia belong to the Latin Rite.) The Greek Catholic community in Russia is governed by Bishop Joseph Werth S.J. who is also the Latin-Rite Ordinary for the Diocese of the Transfiguration in Novosibirsk. (Bishop Werth is biritual and was present in Byzantine vestments at the ordination of Fr. Pavel Gladkov.)