Bishop Milan Farewell

On Sunday, February 5, we said farewell to Bishop Milan Lach, who has served us faithfully since 2017. Our Eparchy has been truly blessed by Bishop Milan's gift of self as he worked to strengthen and grow our Byzantine Catholic Church here in the United States. As our bishop, he often had to make difficult decisions, but like a true spiritual father, he did all for love of the Church and for the salvation of souls. A beautiful Divine Liturgy was held at Dormition of the Mother of God Church in Cleveland, Ohio, followed by a dinner, at which around 272 people attended, hosted at the Social Hall at Holy Spirit Church in Parma, Ohio. Bishop Milan was presented with a bound photo book of memories and hundreds of farewell messages. 

 

"You are a man of principle, integrity, transparency, love and sometimes tough love, but you care for your people, the faithful, your eparchy, your priests and deacons".

~Fr. Marek Visnovsky to Bishop Milan during the farewell dinner

 

"Please pray for new priestly vocations; pray for the small boys that from them there might be holy priests. Pray for the small girls that they might be nuns, and we need nuns. Please pray for new vocations, and I assure you, if we believe that our prayer has the strength then God will send the courage and grace into the hearts of men, and they will say: Yes, I want to be a priest. It's not a job, it's a vocation. Do you know how this is different? It’s like the marriage vocation: it's not your job that you wake up four or five times during the night because your baby was sick and crying; no, it's your vocation and this is different. So please live your vocation faithfully. Your marriage; please live faithfully and you will be happy, I assure you. And this happiness will be radiant like a nuclear weapon. Because this is the light, not of yourself, but is the light of Christ."

~Bishop Milan Lach during the farewell dinner

 

Bishop Milan, thank you for everything. You will truly be missed.

 

 

Bishop Lach, his somewhat limited English at the beginning notwithstanding, made himself very well understood. His messages were clear and always

underlined with the fact that it was his job as a bishop to lead as many souls to heaven as he could, and that it was our responsibility to follow Christ and live the

Gospel message in every way, every day.