Background
Botean, John Michael was born on July 9, 1955 in Canton, Ohio, United States. Son of John and Amelia (Popa) Botean.
Botean, John Michael was born on July 9, 1955 in Canton, Ohio, United States. Son of John and Amelia (Popa) Botean.
Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy summa cum laude, Catholic University America, Washington, 1977. Attended, St. Gregory Melkite Seminary, Newton, Massachusetts, 1977—1981.
He is currently serving as the second bishop in the Romanian Catholic Eparchy of Street George"s in Canton after Bishop Vasile Louis Puscas, in the United States" sole Romanian Byzantine Catholic eparchy and the sole Romanian Rite eparchy outside of Romania. He has one younger brother, Mark South. Botean. He was ordained a priest on May 18, 1986.
In 1993 he was appointed apostolic administrator for the diocese and then bishop on March 29, 1996, and consecrated on August 24 that year by Archbishop Lucian Mureșan (assisted by co-consecrators Archbishop Judson Michael Procyk and Bishop Nicholas James Samra).
As the second bishop in the history of a unique eparchy, a large part of Botean"s activities consist of compliance work, bringing the organization into conformance with the requirements of his split jurisdiction, both American and Romanian. Most of his parishes long predate the creation of the eparchy, often by many decades.
The first mission established during the lifetime of the diocese to be raised to the level of a parish will be raised on June 29, 2008. In 2005 Botean established traditional Romanian Byzantine Catholic monasticism in the Diocese of Canton with the transfer of Holy Resurrection Monastery to diocesan jurisdiction.
On October 17, 2006, the Holy Theophany Monastery for women (nuns) was established as a dependency of Holy Resurrection Monastery under the jurisdiction of Botean.
The letter was a direct condemnation of the conflict, and termed it "objectively grave evil, a matter of mortal sin". These were the most outspoken terms committed to paper by a United States Catholic bishop over the war. Number other United States ordinary has directly condemned the Iraq war.
On June 28, 2008, Botean called the eparchial assembly to meet.
lieutenant was the first serious effort to convoke the eparchial assembly in conformance with the 1990 Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (Canons 235-242) during Botean"s episcopacy. This preliminary session focused on organizing issues.
At that meeting the practice of yearly assemblies was announced, the next was held at Saint Basil"s in Trenton, New Jersey, in June 2009. He is in the unusual position of being directly answerable to the Pope and not necessarily to his synod.
The present situation of the eparchy is a midpoint between the two, within the newly formed Romanian synod but not entirely answerable to it and within the USCCB but not entirely answerable to it either.
Member of Eastern Catholic Associates (past secretary), United States Conference Catholic Bishops (past member ad hoc committee on bishops' life and ministry).
