Thousands mourn at funeral of Archbishop Volodymyr Sterniuk (10/12/97)

Thousands mourn at funeral of Archbishop Volodymyr Sterniuk

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

LVIV - More than 10,000 people lined the streets of Lviv, while 3,000 overflowed St. George Cathedral on October 2 to pay their last respects to a man who led the underground movement of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church for many of the 45 years it was outlawed by the Soviet regime.

Archbishop Volodymyr Sterniuk, who spent five years in Soviet prisons and labor camps after the UGCC was outlawed in 1946 and absorbed by the Russian Orthodox Church, died on September 29 after having been given the last rites of the Church. The 90-year-old prelate died of natural causes.

The funeral ceremony at St. George Cathedral, the seat of the UGCC, was attended by all the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic bishops of Ukraine and led by Bishop Lubomyr Husar, auxiliary to the primate of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, Cardinal Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky, who was not present due to illness. Also in attendance were bishops from Canada and the United States.

The UGCC Press Office's spokesperson, Halyna Umblad, explained that because the death occurred only days after the worldwide Synod of Bishops had ended, many could not make it back to Lviv.

After the divine liturgy the casket was carried through the streets of Lviv, led by veterans of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), priests, nuns and the Vatican's papal nuncio to Ukraine, Archbishop Antonio Franco. Following the casket were the bishops of the UGCC. Also present was Archbishop Petro Petrus of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and Avhustin Markevych of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate. Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate sent condolences.

As the casket moved through the streets, bells tolled throughout the city and people going about their daily business stopped to look and at times to join the procession.

After circling the city center and passing Prospect Svobody and the statue of Taras Shevchenko, the procession made its way back to St. George's, where the final ceremony took place. Among the speakers were Lviv Mayor Vasyl Kuibida, First Vice-Chairman of the Lviv Oblast Stepan Davydiak, National Deputy Ihor Yukhnovsky and the head of the Oblast Organization of Former Political Prisoners and the Repressed, Petro Franko.

After circling the church, the casket, the bishops and the immediate family entered the crypt where the archbishop's body was interred near two other giants of the Church, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and Patriarch Josyf Slipyj.

Archbishop Sterniuk led a Church that in 1946 was absorbed by the Russian Orthodox Church in what today is commonly referred to as an illegal synod of bishops. In the months after the Church was banned, he and thousands of other clergy and faithful were arrested and imprisoned or exiled. Archbishop Sterniuk spent five years in Arkhangelsk.

In 1972 Cardinal Slipyj appointed him locum tenens (one who maintains the position) and senior bishop of the Kyiv-Halych Metropolia - in fact naming him the guardian of the underground Church that survived the massive Soviet arrests of clergy and laity, a position he maintained until 1991, when the leader of the UGCC, Cardinal Lubachivsky, returned to officially take his seat in Lviv.

Lidia Kovalevska, 68, who had attended the midnight vigil for the late Archbishop Sterniuk the night before, stood before St. George Cathedral as she waited for the funeral ceremony to begin. Mrs. Kovalevska said of the archbishop: "He was a saint. He was a humble man who totally gave himself to the Church and to Jesus Christ. God rest his soul."

Ms. Kovalevska was one of scores who kept an all-night vigil at the cathedral, where Archbishop Sterniuk's body had laid in state for public viewing since September 30. Others began arriving hours before the 10 a.m. divine liturgy.

Bishop Husar, who gave the sermon, explained the late archbishop's greatness in this way: "He expressed all the hope we have in God. Volodymyr never surrendered. He suffered and was persecuted. When the difficult times came, he couldn't do much. But the fact is that he remained, he persisted, he put and kept all his hope and faith in the Lord. This is what he taught us. This is what he left us with."

Archbishop Sterniuk was born on February 12, 1907, in the city of Pustomyty near Lviv. He was ordained a priest in 1931. During World War II he served parishes in the Ternopil and Stanislaviv regions (today Ivano-Frankivsk).

After the war he spent five years imprisoned in Arkhangelsk region near the Siberian city of Yertsevo, after which he returned to Pustomyty. There he worked at various menial jobs, including watchman, sanitation worker and medic, all the while maintaining his status as a clergyman in the underground Church.

He was secretly consecrated a bishop in 1967 by Archbishop Vasyl Velychkovsky.

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