Maronite Catholics celebrate the feast of their saint

Intermountain Catholic

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Maronite Msgr. Bill Bonczewski is the leader of the local Maronite community. On Feb. 8 and 9 the Maronite community will celebrate the feast of St. Maron, the man who inspired the first Maronites. A hermit and a monk, St. Maron had many gifts, including the gifts of healing and discernment. IC photo by Barbara S. Lee

MURRAY — When people ask Msgr. Bill Bonczewski the difference between the Maronite rite and the Latin rite of the Catholic Church, he likes to use a quote from Pope John Paul II.

"Pope John Paul II said the Catholic Church has two lungs, the Western (or Latin) rite, and the Eastern rites, of which the Maronite rite is one," Msgr. Bonczewski said in an interview Jan. 21 with the Intermountain Catholic. "Our Mass is the same except the order of readings is different. Advent and Lent are longer, and the feast days differ a little."

Msgr. Bonczewski said the Maronite Church has two major tenets. "We defend the humanity and the divinity of Christ, and we always want to be ready to run out and meet Jesus when he comes again."

The parish family of St. Jude Maronite Catholic Church will honor the Feast of St. Maron on Sunday, Feb. 8, and Monday, Feb. 9, Msgr Bonczewski wrote in a press release.

"The Sunday celebration will begin with a solemn feast day liturgy (Holy Mass) at 10:30 a.m., which will begin with a traditional welcome to (the Most Reverend) Bishop John C. Wester of the Diocese of Salt Lake City," he wrote. "Bishop Wester will be greeted with a special gesture of incense at the entrance of the church while the parish choir chants a hymn of welcome in Syriac and in English to honor our visiting shepherd. Accompanying His Excellency will be the Diocesan Vicar General Msgr. J. Terrance Fitzgerald."

Following the Mass a banquet of traditional Lebanese food will be served in the parish hall. Tickets for the banquet sold out almost immediately, so the parish will host a second seating of the banquet at 2:30 p.m.

Msgr. Bonczewski said the second day of their celebration, Feb. 9., will include Evening Prayer, and vespers beginning at 6 p.m., which all parishioners and the public are welcome to attend. "Among the honored guests for this celebration we will welcome the priests, the deacons and their wives, who serve the Diocese of Salt Lake City."

At 60, Msgr Bonczewski is relatively new to the Utah Maronite community, having arrived in October. He is filled with enthusiasm about his people and the upcoming feast. He is a man of deep faith who laughs easily.

"The Maronite Catholic Church traces its origins to a holy man named Maron and to the ancient apostolic city of Antioch," Msgr Bonczewski wrote. "The very first Christians in Antioch were baptized by the first apostle, St. Peter.

"This holy man, St. Maron, lived in the early, possibly mid 300s A.D. He was ordained a priest and he followed a certain calling to total solitude in the open desert. Here he would live an extraordinary ascetical and penitetential life. The Holy Spirit would come upon him with many great and powerful gifts, including healing, prophecy, discernment, and a profound love for God."

Msgr. Bonczewski further wrote: "Many who lived in the region went to Maron for his blessings and seeking his spiritual direction. Many would also choose to stay with him and live the way he did. In time, he would have a large following of some 400 monks who would take over a pagan temple and make it into the first monastery. Also, families came to be baptized and live nearby for the benefit of the spiritual gifts they enjoyed. According to the little history handed down there is an account of a letter of respect and honor sent to St. Maron by a prominent churchman, St. John Chrysostom.

"The faithful followers of St. Maron in all their history will be well known for the shedding of their blood over the matters of false teachings. The major error at that time was the false teaching against the truth about the two natures of Our Holy Lord, that he was truly God and man. Another worthy and unique quality of this little Catholic Church is its total loyalty and faithfulness to all the successors of St. Peter in all its history."

Msgr. Bonczewski was born and raised in Wilkes-Barre, Penn., the second of three children of a Maronite mother of Lebanese descent and a Roman Catholic father of Polish background. As a child he went to Mass with his mother. He said it wasn’t until he was a boy scout, and Masses in camp were celebrated by Roman Catholic priests, that he heard the Mass in Latin. "I wasn’t sure it was Catholic," he said with a laugh. From the 10th grade, he attended daily Mass while attending a public school.

Discerning at the age of 5 or 6 that he had a call to the priesthood, Msgr. Bonczewski, when he entered the seminary, was told he should attend a Roman Catholic seminary because his father was Roman Catholic. Within his first year at a Franciscan seminary in Andover, Mass., a group of Byzantine seminarians, including Maronites, visited the seminary. In conversation with them, he learned that it would take only a letter to Rome to allow him to transfer to the Maronite seminary. He wrote to Rome, and was soon on his way to the Maronite Seminary in Washington, D.C. for eight years of seminary study. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in philosophy and studied theology.

The Maronite Church does not use lay ministers, instead they have ordained subdeacons and deacons who assist at the altar. Their children are baptized and confirmed in infancy, and the parents take religious education classes so they can be their children’s first teachers.

"It is in teaching the faith that you learn the faith," he said.

Ordained in 1976, Msgr. Bonczewski’s first assignment was in his home town of Wilkes-Barre.

His first impression as he drove across the country to take his assignment in Salt Lake City, he said, "was how beautiful the country is and how wonderful the people are. Even people who are strangers have been beautiful, and have welcomed me."

He said Bishop Wester, Msgr Fitzgerald, and the priests and deacons of the Diocese of Salt Lake City have been very welcoming.

Historically, Msgr. Bonczewski said, the Diocese of Salt Lake City has been very welcoming and generous to the Maronite community, which is vast across the state, but has about 80 families registered at the only Maronite Church in Utah, St. Jude’s Maronite Church on Wasatch Street in Murray.

"Bishop Federal and Msgr. Mark Benvegnu were instrumental in helping us settle here," he said. "St. Jude’s is the original St. Vincent de Paul Church and the rectory in which I live is the original St. Vincent’s rectory.

The artwork in the church reflects the simple, monastic tradition from which Maronites come.

The public is invited to both liturgical ceremonies of the feast celebration, and tickets are still available for the second seating of the banquet January 8.