PASSAIC, New Jersey (AP) 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 center of the Byzantine Church on the East Coast, is in a neighborhood that once was home to mainly eastern Europeans. Today the area is largely Latino.
Burnette tells The Record (http://bit.ly/18EHvJ9 ) newspaper that his vision for the church is "a place of mercy," rather than judgment.
