Father Chris Zugger is an ordained priest of the Byzantine Catholic Church. He hears confessions, assists at Divine Liturgies, services and classes in the parish, under the direction of the pastor. He provides spiritual direction for laity and clergy.

Father Chris’ health problems give him a good perspective on the redemptive value of suffering, and his research over the years provides information for talks on topics as diverse as Contemplative Prayer in the East; Carmelite Saints; Righteous Gentiles in the Holocaust; Scottish Catholics; Irish Catholics in Penal Times; Catholic resistance to the Nazis and Communists; the Church in China; Eastern Church Fathers; Syriac Spirituality; Liturgical Life of Eastern Churches.

Father helps where he can in the Eparchy of Van Nuys and in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.  He is very thankful to God for the opportunity to continue to serve Him in new ways, and for the fact that Bishop Gerald Dino created this arrangement whereby he can continue to live where he has spent most of his priesthood.

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Finding a Hidden Church

Father Chris Zugger's new book is the result of eight years of interviews and research covering the history of the Ruthenian Greek Catholic church in the USSR and independent Ukraine. Here  you will find not only background history of the Church before 1945, but the heroic witness of Blessed Theodore Romzha (killed in 1947), Bishop Petro Oros (executed 1953), Bishop Alexander Khira who died in Kazakhstan, and scores of priests, their wives, their children, and other people who fought to keep their beloved Church alive in a hostile society.

Read about the anti-religious attitudes of the Soviet Union, the imposition of harsh legislation, and the rupture of a 1,000 year old culture and Church. Also discover the determination of people to keep their faith in Jesus Christ and Catholicism alive by worshipping secretly at night, in forests, in barns, and how the Church survived with not one legal building and constant harrassment by the feared secret police. Discover the new ways Bishop Khira and underground priests came up with training new priests, establishing forbidden parishes, and nurturing the faith in an incredibly hostile atmosphere.

Included are short histories of what happened to the other Byzantine Catholic Churches in the Soviet bloc, five maps, over 70 photographs including some from the dreaded Gulag camps. Be inspired to renew your own faith in God and your own dedication to His Church and to realize that the impossible can be achieved, but only when relying on God's grace.