The storm that had erupted over a married priesthood back in the 1890's would continue to erupt sporadically during this period of growth, exasperated by a Vatican proclamation, Ea Semper, issued in 1905, which severely mitigated the rights of Greek Catholics in the United States; and, certain members of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in America sought both to prohibit the immigration of married Greek Catholic priests and to forbid their ordination in North America.
Appeals to Rome from the American Greek Catholic community were futile; and, In 1929, another proclamation, Cum Data Fuerit, was issued by Pope Pius XI, forbidding the service of married Greek Catholic priests in the United States, requiring them to return to Europe. This decree became the rallying cry for another segment of American Greek Catholics, dedicated to safeguarding the Eastern heritage of their church, to once again fall into schism.
A pastor in Bridgeport, CT, Father Orestes Chornock, was elected Bishop of a new Independent Greek Catholic Church, and was consecrated a bishop by the Patriarch of Constantinople, eventually setting his See in Johnstown, PA. This would, in time, be known as The American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Diocese.
Despite this sad turn of events, the American Greek Catholics in union with Rome continued to grow and establish new parishes; and, in 1950, Saints Cyril and Methodius Byzantine Catholic Seminary was established by the second Bishop of Pittsburgh, Daniel Ivancho, for the spiritual and educational formation of a native clergy.
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