Submenu Categories--------SELECT ARTICLE Historical Timeline A Short History The Old Country Coming to America The First Churches The Struggle for Recognition Renewed Efforts to Organize A Greek Catholic Bishop Comes to America The Episcopacy of Bishop Basil Tackach The Episcopacy of Bishop Daniel Ivancho The Episcopacy of Bishop Nicholas T. Elko A Change in Status Results in Two Eparchies New Honor; New Bishops and A New Eparchy The First Metropolitan The Episcopate of Bishop Michael J. Dudick The Eparchy of Parma The Byzantine Catholic Church in the West: The Eparchy of Van Nuys The Church in Transition Looking to the Future

Six months after the transfer of Bishop Stephen Kocisko to the Eparchy of Pittsburgh, Pope Paul VI named Monsignor Michael J. Dudick as the second Bishop of the Eparchy of Passaic.

Bishop Dudick was born on February 24, 1916 in St. Clair, Pennsylvania. He received his elementary and secondary education in the St. Clair public schools. He completed undergraduate studies in philosophy at St. Procopius College in Lisle, Illinois. He began his theological studies immediately after college graduation at the Benedictine seminary in Lisle. He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Takach on November 13, 1945.

Following ordination, Father Dudick served in the Pittsburgh Exarchate Chancery as Assistant Chancellor and Secretary for nine years. He also attended to the spiritual needs of the faithful at parishes located in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. Father Dudick served as pastor at St. Nicholas of Myra Church in Old Forge, Pennsylvania and St. Mary Church in Freeland, Pennsylvania.
Upon the establishment of the Eparchy of Passaic in 1963, Bishop Kocisko appointed Father Dudick as the first Chancellor of the new eparchy. Father Dudick was named a papal domestic prelate with the title Reverend Monsignor on October 25, 1963. Five years later, on October 24, 1968, Monsignor Dudick was ordained to the episcopate and enthroned as the Bishop of Passaic at St. Michael the Archangel Cathedral.

Through the twenty-seven years of his episcopal ministry, Bishop Dudick worked energetically and diligently for the progress of the Eparchy of Passaic and the promotion of the Byzantine Catholic Church in America. New parishes and missions, particularly in Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida, were organized and established. Two monasteries were established in the Eparchy: the Basilian Fathers of Mariapoch, Matawan, New Jersey (1972) and the Byzantine Carmelite Nuns, Sugarloaf, Pennsylvania (1980). A new Eparchial Center consisting of chancery, chapel and heritage institute was constructed in West Paterson, New Jersey in 1986, and the Carpathian Village spiritual and recreational center in Canadensis, Pennsylvania was constructed in 1982. These facilities were made possible by the generous gifts of the clergy and faithful to a stewardship program inaugurated by Bishop Dudick in 1979 and known today as the annual "Diocesan Development Appeal (D.D.A.)." At that time, Bishop Dudick stated: "The Eparchy of Passaic will continue to provide services for its people and parishes as the need arises. To do anything less would be foreign to its mission as part of the Lord's Church..."

Encouraging gifts of time, talent and treasure, the D.D.A. has enabled the Eparchy of Passaic to meet the increasing costs of the education of priests, medical and pension plans, religious education and cultural preservation programs and the assistance of our churches in Eastern Europe. The Heritage Institute, established in 1971, is comprised of a library and museum with an excellent collection of Carpatho-Rusin art, ethnic dress, embroideries, folk art and rare Slavonic liturgical books.
Prompted by his avid desire to re-establish authentic Byzantine liturgical and spiritual traditions and practices, Bishop Dudick inaugurated the eparchial Office of Religious Education in 1978. A noteworthy achievement of the Office has been the annual Byzantine Congress. Here the clergy and faithful benefit by the insights of various speakers at workshops arranged to introduce and apply the principles of Eastern Christian theology and spirituality.

Bishop Dudick's affable and friendly manner made him an important ambassador for our Byzantine Catholic Church not only in relations with Roman Catholic bishops but also with the hierarchs of the Orthodox Church. During his episcopacy, Bishop Dudick served on a number of important commissions which included: member of the Inter-Rite Committee and the Ecumenical Committee of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops; member of the Seven Catholic Bishop Committee with the Standing Conference of Orthodox Bishops; member of the Board of Regents for Seton Hall University; chairman of the Eastern Catholic Bishops Association; member of the Committee for the Revision of Eastern Code of Canon Law; member of the Oriental Congregation and member of the Visiting Committee of Harvard University. His deep love for our Church, its clergy and faithful prompted his active solicitude for the needs of the Byzantine Catholic eparchies in Europe, especially Prešov and Mukacevo.