1982: a look back: A community still divided (12/26/82)

1982: a look back

A community still divided

1982 brought no relief from the rift within the Ukrainian community over the fateful, and perhaps fatal, 13th Congress of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America held in October 1980. In March of 1982 the executive committee of the Committee for Law and Order in the UCCA released a statement announcing that it had begun preparations for a national convention of Ukrainian organizations whose aim would be to create coordinating center for Ukrainian Americans.

The committee also announced that it was opening an office in New York City and that representatives would visit Ukrainian communities throughout the country in order to inform them of the committee's activity and progress in convention preparations.

Branches of the Committee for Law and Order in the UCCA were established in several cities, and the committee executives met a number of times during the year to assess the situation at hand and plan the convention.

The Ukrainian National Association, at the first meeting of its newly elected Supreme Executive Committee on July 22, released a statement asserting that it would work toward the formation of a representative community organization in the United States - the type of entity that the UCCA once was.

Things were quiet through the summer months, and then the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United States decided that they could keep silent no longer. On September 8 the hierarchs - Archbishop-Metropolitan Stephen Sulyk, and Bishops Innocent Lotocky, Basil Losten and Robert Moskal - released their "Appeal to the faithful and especially to the leaders of all organizations" in which they called on Ukrainian Americans to "throw off the shackles of disunity and the cancer of misunderstanding, intractability and hatred."

Quoting the Bible, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and Patriarch Josyf Slipyj, Princes Yaroslav Mudry and Volodymyr Monomakh, as well as Hetman Ivan Mazepa, and citing historical examples, the lengthy treatise expounded on the importance of unity and love of neighbor.

On September 27, the Providence Association of Ukrainian Catholics, in a communique signed by its supreme president, Msgr. Stephen Chomko, announced that effective September 29 it was withdrawing its representatives from UCCA central bodies and branches, and at the same time called on Providence representatives not to participate in the Committee for Law and Order in the UCCA.

Msgr. Chomko stated in his communique that he was acting in accordance with the hierarchs' appeal, which, in addition to exhortations for unity, had asserted that the Church cannot be party to the divisiveness within the Ukrainian community and that if unity is not achieved the Church would be forced to withdraw the representatives of all organizations operating under its aegis from "those central and local organizations that do not adhere to the principle of Christian love and do battle with one another."

Msgr. Chomko, noting that he had made his decision "with a heavy heart," said that the decision reflected the Providence Association's desire "to stand aside and thus be instrumental in bringing about the recuperation of our community life."

In October, Patriarch Josyf released a pastoral letter on the occasion of the Feast of St. Mary the Protectress and the 40th anniversary of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). In it he called for the Christian and national maturity that was so lacking among U.S. Ukrainians. He urged his flock "to unite in the spirit of brotherly love and forgiveness."

Then, in a statement released after its October 6 meeting, the executive of the Committee for Law and Order in the UCCA said that it was cancelling the national convention it had already scheduled for November 19-21 "in order to provide another opportunity for the settlement of our present conflict in the Christian and national spirit reflected in the hierarchs' appeal."

However, the committee communique added, if the appeal yielded no concrete results, the convention would be held in the spring of 1983.

A joint statement by the UNA and the Ukrainian Fraternal Association followed on October 11. The two fraternals acknowledged the hierarchs' appeal and stated that they fully supported its aims and would do their utmost to bring about their realization.

Patriarch Slipyj was next to respond to the hierarchs' appeal. In a letter to UNA President John O. Flis (a similar one was sent to Dr. Lev E. Dobriansky, president of the UCCA), the patriarch said that he joins in the appeal of the hierarchy in asking for unity and asked that Mr. Flis use his authority "to help return the spirit of mutual respect and cooperation to our community."

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. reacted to the Catholic hierarchs' appeal in the November-December issue of The Ukrainian Orthodox Word. A commentary signed with the initials MSM praised the appeal but at the same time noted that it was deficient because it did not state who had caused the rift in the Ukrainian community. The article went on to say that the responsible party was "leaders of the so-called Liberation Front."

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian community awaited a response to the hierarchs' appeal from the UCCA and the Ukrainian Liberation Front.

Msgr. Chomko of the Providence Association took the initiative once again on December 22 and announced in a statement published that day in America, the official publication of the association, that he would spearhead efforts at mediation between the two parties in the community dispute - the organizations that had withdrawn from the UCCA and the present UCCA leadership. He said he hoped he would find a foundation on which he could establish an arbitration committee that could finally settle the matter.

We can only hope that the new year will bring Msgr. Chomko success.

| Home Page |