Amid the ritual and regalia of his enthronement, Metropolitan Archbishop William Skurla of the Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh joked about his NFL loyalties and promised to lead a spiritual revival.
Too often technology has "chilled and dulled our ability to see God," he told a packed cathedral in Munhall on Wednesday.
The most serious challenge facing the church is "the need to present Jesus Christ and his Gospel teaching in a way that touches the lives of our people. ... We need to find a new method of teaching the faith that opens the mind to a deeper understanding of the faith," he said.
He is now head of the only self-governing Eastern Catholic Church in America, meaning he answers directly to the pope rather than a patriarch in Eastern Europe.
Eastern Catholic Churches are in communion with the pope, but their worship and practices closely resemble those of Eastern Orthodoxy.
The Archeparchy of Pittsburgh has 58,000 Catholics in seven states from Pennsylvania to Texas. He also oversees three other dioceses across the nation.
He noted that his predecessor, Metropolitan Basil Schott, was planning for renewal before his death in June 2010.
"After years of study and planning, the work begins today," he said. "We have to inspire our young and revitalize our leaders to give their lives unconditionally to serve the Lord, the savior Jesus Christ. No matter how the world changes in the future, we will find a way to bring our young people and those who have gone astray to renewed faith."
Archbishop Skurla, 55, is a Minnesota native who previously served as bishop of two other Byzantine eparchies in Phoenix and Passaic, N.J. But this appointment brings a change that those two didn't.
"I have to give up my allegiance to the Minnesota Vikings -- unless they go to the Super Bowl," he said, to laughter.
His father worked for U.S. Steel and returned from frequent trips to Pittsburgh with stories about "a magical place with rivers and more bridges than you could count, and roads that went right through the mountains," he said. "They even had a hockey stadium with a removable cover."
Now, he said, "I pledge to work very hard to build up this church and be a person who hopefully will be a model for our priests and religious, to bring our church back into the spirit of God and the resurrection of the Lord."
He was enthroned by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, papal nuncio to the United States.
About 20 Eastern Catholic bishops, some from as far away as Slovakia and Hungary, attended.
About 20 Eastern Catholic bishops, some from as far away as Slovakia and Hungary, attended.
Nearly as many Latin Catholic bishops, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, processed in, as did a half-dozen local Orthodox and Protestant bishops or their equivalents.
The Byzantine Archeparchy of Pittsburgh has taken a lead toward healing centuries-old hostilities with the Orthodox churches and Bishop Archimandrite Melchisedek of the Pittsburgh diocese of the Orthodox Church in America was given a seat of honor with Cardinal Dolan, just outside the icon screen.