Byzantine Catholics in 84 parishes from Maine to Florida have a new bishop.
The Most Rev. Kurt Burnette was ordained the fifth bishop of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic on Wednesday.
Pope
Francis appointed Burnette to the post on Oct. 29.
Byzantine Catholics
in America are the spiritual descendants of Christians in central and
eastern Europe and the Middle East.
The ordination took place at
the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel.
The church, which is the
symbolic centre of the Byzantine Church on the East Coast, is in a
neighbourhood that once was home to mainly eastern Europeans.
Today the
area is largely Latino.