Our Bishop

Bishop Emeritus

Most Rev. John S. Pazak, C.Ss.R., DD.

His Grace Bishop John Stephen Pazak , C.Ss.R., DD. served as the fifth Bishop of Holy Protection of Mary Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix from July 2016 to August 2021.

Born in Gary Indiana, Bishop Emeritus John entered the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorist) in 1965. He was ordained a priest on August 27, 1972, and served as a parish priest, rector of St. Vladimir’s College and superior Redemptorist scholasticate throughout Canada.

Bishop Emeritus John was appointed Bishop of the Slovak Catholic Eparchy of Saints Cyril and Methodius of Toronto on December 2, 2000, and was consecrated a bishop on February 14, 2001. Pope Francis named Bishop John the Eparch of the Ruthenian Catholic Eparchy of the Holy Protection of Mary on May 7, 2016, and was enthroned on July 20, 2016. Bishop Emeritus John submitted his letter of resignation upon his 75th birthday on August 13, 2021, which Pope Francis accepted on August 23, 2021.

Bishop John can be reached at: eparch@ephx.org

He graduated from the Seminary in 1998 and in December he was ordained to the order of Subdiaconate by Bishop Ioann Semediy. He had entered the Licentiate program at the same institute and graduated from there with his License in Theology in 2001. He then worked for the Diocese of Liepaja in Latvia until 2005.

Bishop Bubnevych worked for the Eparchy of Mukachevo, serving as the Project Secretary with Bishop Milan Šašik, CM, 2006-2013. In addition, to his work at the chancery of the Eparchy of Mukachevo, he served as a teacher of English at the Seminary, and in 2006-2011 he served as the main cantor at his home parish of Saint Nicholas in Perechyn.

In 2013, he made the decision to apply to come to America as a missionary for the Byzantine Catholic Church, and worked in the Eparchy of Phoenix from September 2013 to March 2014 as a Subdeacon and parish office assistant at St Stephen Cathedral in Phoenix.

In 2014 Bishop Gerald Dino ordained Bishop Bubnevych on March 9 to the Order of Diaconate and on September 14 to the Order of Priesthood; both ordinations were celebrated at St Stephen's Cathedral.

Bishop Gerald assigned him as the Pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Albuquerque, starting on January 9, 2015.

Bishop Bubnevych has served on the following commissions: The Intereparchial Commission of Youth and Young Adults, the Vocation's Board, the Eparchial Pension Committee, and the Intereparchial Commission on Sacred Liturgy. Besides his priestly ministry, Bishop Bubnevych enjoys the sports of downhill skiing and Mountain Biking along with camping.

Bishop Artur Bubnevych

6th Bishop of the eparchy of the holy protection of mary

Bishop Bubnevych was born on June 22, 1975, in the village of Perechyn, in the Transcarpathian Oblast of Soviet Ukraine, in what was then the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This region is the site of the Eparchy of Mukachevo, the oldest Byzantine-Ruthenian Catholic eparchy.

Due to the oppression of our Church under communist rule, he was secretly baptized at home by the Byzantine Catholic priest Andrey Gleba on July 7, 1975. He speaks his native Ruthenian language as well as English, German, Latvian, Russian, and Ukrainian. In June 1994, he graduated from the Vinogradov Polytechnical College, and then entered the Seminary of Blessed Theodore Romzha in August of that year. The Eparchy sent him to Austria where he learned English at the Language Catechetical Institute in 1995, and in 1996 he entered the International Theological Institute for studies on Marriage and Family for the Master of Theology.