UPPER MERION — The spiritual home of the Greater King of Prussia area’s Ukrainian Catholics, from Upper Merion to Bridgeport, from West Conshohocken to Norristown and beyond, is St. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic.
The local Ukrainian Catholic worship community at the corner of Hurst Street and Union Avenue in Bridgeport was founded in July of 1924 with Father Eugene Bartosh as founding pastor. He served for approximately 10 years. Father Nicholas Lizak served as 2nd pastor during the late 1930s and early years of World War II. The parish rectory was built in 1941 to accommodate Father Lizak, his wife and two children. In 1944 a school building was erected.
The Philadelphia area is home to the 2nd largest Ukrainian population in the United States after New York City. Beginning in the early 20th Century successive waves of Ukrainian people immigrated to America fleeing from oppression, and seeking freedom and economic opportunities. They have fled Tsarist Russia, the Stalinist genocide, the Soviet Cold War era, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the 2022 Post Soviet Russian invasion.
From 1932-1933, communist dictator Joseph Stalin massacred over 3.4 million Ukrainians with a state-created famine. Known as the Holodomor, from the Ukrainian words for hunger (holod) and extermination (mor). Though the famine was not restricted to Ukraine, Stalin’s policy of aggression against Ukraine was especially virulent with intense measures aimed specifically at Ukraine and deaths rose far beyond the initial count. From his ascendency to power in 1924 to his decease in 1954 up to 6 million Ukrainians are reputed to have died due to his policies of murder, exile to Siberia and forced starvation.
Worship services for the Ukrainian Catholics were first held in a boarding house on Ford Street and in Saint Augustine’s Temperance Hall. The new congregation was soon able to gain a more permanent place in the borough in which to worship. For the first ten years of the new church’s life, they met in a former women’s bonnet factory at 494 Ford Street. The first mass was said July 12, 1924. Father Bartosh traveled from Camden, New Jersey to conduct services for the Ukrainian Catholics. The bonnet factory locale had also been used by the Irish and the Slovaks for their church services. Today the location is the home of the Benevolent Order of Elks Lodge 714. After a decade there the Ukrainian congregation had the church at the top of Union Avenue constructed. Built close to the feast day of St. Peter and Paul the church was named in their honor. The new church was dedicated on May 30, 1936, with the first mass celebrated in the new church soon after.
The third priest to serve as pastor of St. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church was Father Basil O. Sheremeta. He took over from his predecessor on April 14, 1944. Father Shermeta built the church hall and Fatima shrine next to it. The building was to serve as a regular school but instead was used as a church hall. With the advent of the Second World War, it was decided there was a need for a cemetery. Approximately 12 acres were bought and St. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery on Church Road in Upper Merion was established. Stephen Makowiak born on March 7, 1922, was the first to be buried at the new cemetery. Makowiak who had attained the rank of Technician Fifth Grade was attached to the 13th Armored Infantry Regiment 1st Armored Division. Technician Makowiak was killed in Action at the Battle of Anzio, Italy May 30, 1944, during World War II as a result of enemy action. Father Shermeta served St. Peter and Paul church for 28 years.
In 1972 Rev. Dr. Ronald Popivchak took over as 4th pastor of St. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church. A post he has held for over 50 years. Father Ron was ordained in Philadelphia at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Franklin Street. He had studied at the Catholic University in Washington D.C. and was assigned to inner city work. After five years he was able to be reassigned to Bridgeport with the passing of Father Shermeta.
During his tenure, Father Popivchak has had the cemetery repaired and beautified. He acquired the Coates Street property to enlarge parish parking. He has established Sunday school classes in the church hall. Most recently he has established online classes for both elementary and high school. These classes are streamed live nationwide every Sunday at 11:00 am. During his time in Bridgeport, Father Ron has doubled the size of the parish and its monetary holdings.
The Ukrainian Catholic Church is a part of the Universal Catholic Church. It observes the same traditions as Eastern Orthodox Churches but is part of the Catholic Church. Most people don’t know that the Catholic Church consists of over twenty distinct churches. The largest being the Roman Catholic. The non-Roman Catholic Churches consist of six liturgical traditions: Alexandrian, Antiochene (or Syrian), Armenian, Byzantine, Maronite, and Chaldean. The Ukrainian Catholic Church follows the Byzantine tradition.
Originally a part of the Great Schism between the West and East Christians of the Roman Empire which led to the split of the early Christian faith into the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches, the Ukrainian Catholic Church traces its origins to the Union of Brest in 1596 A.D. It was with the Union of Brest that the Church in Kyiv reentered communion with Rome. In 1944 the Russian Soviet Union insisted that the Ukrainian Catholics return to the Orthodox Church and be a part of the Russian Orthodox Church, which they would control. Many Ukrainian Catholic bishops refused. They were arrested and imprisoned, murdered or exiled to Siberia. This resulted in two Ukrainian Churches. The Eastern Orthodox Ukrainian Church and a Ukrainian Catholic Church then operated underground in secret. It was not until 1989 that the Ukrainian Catholic Church could again operate freely. Until 1990, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church remained under the authority of the Bishop of Moscow. This is no longer the case.
St. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church in Bridgeport is part of the Universal Catholic Church. Worldwide the Ukrainian Catholic Church is governed by the Synod of Ukrainian Catholic Bishops. Its highest-ranking major archbishop is Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk. Archbishop Borys Gudziak is metropolitan archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia. The head of the Catholic Church, and so the Ukrainian Catholic Church, is Pope Francis. Archbishop Gudziak in Philadelphia is the highest ranking Ukrainian Catholic prelate in the United States.
Ukrainian Catholicism differs from Roman Catholicism in minor and major ways. Ukrainian Catholics cross themselves from right to left. Roman Catholics cross left to right. In Ukrainian Catholic tradition Holy Communion is always distributed directly into the mouths of communicants by a priest using a spoon. Married Ukrainian Catholic men can be ordained as priests or deacons, though unmarried clergy may not marry. Widowed clergy may not remarry.
Ukrainian Catholics celebrate their faith with the Divine Liturgies of St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil the Great. These are quite different from the Roman Catholic Liturgy as reformed by the Second Vatican Council. Ukrainian Catholics in Ukraine and many other Eastern Catholics outside the United States follow the Julian calendar as opposed to the Gregorian calendar. In a number of ways, Ukrainian Catholics worship like Eastern Orthodox. Despite this, all Catholics, regardless of their liturgical tradition, may receive Holy Communion in Ukrainian Catholic churches.
With the closure of the borough’s various ethnic churches, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel (Italian) Our Mother of Sorrows (Slovak) and St. Augustine (Irish) St. Peter and Paul is the sole surviving national-centric Catholic Church in Bridgeport. Sacred Heart Church (Founded as Polish, but now serves all) remains but is located in Swedesburg, Upper Merion. Today, despite significant challenges to the Ukrainian people in their homeland and here in the area they continue to persevere. Each week Father Ron celebrates the holy liturgy in the Ukrainian language, which is live streamed for a nationwide audience.
Sources for this article: History Channel.com, Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, Father Ron Popivchak, Randy Bennett and the Bridgeport Borough Hall of Fame, Philadelphia Inquirer, Britiannica.com. & the Saints Peter & Paul Diamond Jubilee anniversary commemorative booklet. Black and white photos courtesy of Saints Peter and Paul Church.
