Bishop Moskal
Robert Michael Moskal was born the son of William and Jean Marie (nee Popivchak) Moskal on October 24, 1937, in Carnegie, Pennsylvania. He attended Washington Elementary School in Carnegie for the first three grades, and then Shawn Elementary School in east Carnegie for grades four to six. He then attended Clark Junior High School in Scott Township for grades seven and eight, after which he entered Saint Basil's Preparatory School and Seminary (a unit of the Ukrainian Catholic Seminary) in Stamford, Connecticut in 1951.
In 1955, he was matriculated at Saint Basil's College Seminary in Stamford, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy four years later. He completed his graduate studies in Sacred Theology at the Catholic University of America and Saint Josaphat's Ukrainian Catholic Seminary in Washington DC, in May of 1963, when he was awarded a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (the equivalent of a Master's Degree).
On June 3, 1961, he received clerical tonsure, minor orders and the subdiaconate in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Philadephia, Pennsylvania, at the hands of the late Archibishop Joseph Schmondiuk, who was then the administrator of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia. He was advanced to the diaconate on April 14, 1962, by the late Ambrose Senshyn, OSBM, who also ordained him a priest in the same cathedral on the feast of the Annuciation, March 25, 1963. He offered his first Divine Liturgy in his hometown parish, at Holy Trinity in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, on June 2, 1963 under the aegis of his boyhood pastor, Msgr. Russell Danylchuck.
Immediately after his ordination as a priest, Father Moskal was assigned as secretary at the Archbishop's Chancery in Philadephia. Simultaneously, he was directed to form a new Ukrainian Catholic parish in Warrington, Pennsylvania, thirty miles from central Philadelphia. He undertook this task while commuting to work daily at the chancery and studying music at the Philadelphia Musical Academy and the Conservatory of Music for three years. In the midst of all these labors, he also served for two years on the Archdiocesan Tribunal as a Pro-Synodal Judge and later he served for two years as an editor of the Archdiocesan Weekly, "The Way." In 1964, he became a charter member of the Board of Directors of Ascension Manor, Inc., which provides housing for the elderly. The corporation has two high-rise facilities with two hundred and eighty apartments for senior citizens near the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in Philadelphia. For many years he served as the secretary-treasurer of the Board, and later as president. In 1967, he was appointed vice-chancellor of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
On August 1, 1972, Father Moskal was transferred from Saint Anne's Parish in Warrnington, Pennsylvania, to Annuciation Parish in Melrose Park, a section of Philadelphia, where he was pastor until August 1974. In November of 1972 he brought to the air waves a Ukrainian Catholic radio program called "God Is With Us," and the program aired weekly until December, 1977. In 1975 he established another radio program, "Christ Among Us," which is still aired weekly on Sunday at 9:00 in the morning by station WTEL 850AM in Philadelphia.
The year 1974 was a particularly eventful year for Father Moskal. He was appointed a diocesan consultor and, in April of that year, His Holiness, Pope Paul VI, elevated him to the position of Papal Chaplain with the title of Monsignor. In August he was named chancellor of the archdiocese and named rector of Immaculate Conception Cathedral.
In 1977 Msgr. Moskal was elected president of the Providence Association of Ukrainian Catholics of America for a four year term. The Providence Association is fraternal society established in 1912 by the first Ukrainian Catholic bishop in the United States, the M. Rev. Soter Ortynsky, OSBM.
On August 3, 1981, His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, and the Synod of Ukrainian Catholic Bishops - headed at that time by His Eminence, Josyf Cardinal Slipyj - nominated Msgr. Moskal to be a bishop. The episcopal ordination was conferred on October 13, 1981 in the cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Philadelaphia, where Bishop Mokal continued to serve as rector, as well as chancellor of the Archdiocese. But then on December 3, 1983, the pope created the new Diocese of Saint Josaphat in Parma, Ohio, and appointed Bishop Robert as its first prelate. He was formally installed as the first bishop of the new diocese on February 29, 1984, and cares for slightly more than twelve thousand people in thirty five parishes.
2006 marked the 25th Anniversary of Bishop Moskal's consecration as a Bishop.
For more information, see an article on the new Ukrainian eparchy; Bishop Moskal Parma eparch.
