1995: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Churches: controversy on two continents (12/31/95)

1995: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Churches: controversy on two continents

Controversy reared its ugly head in Ukrainian ecclesiastical developments in Ukraine and North America in 1995.

In Ukraine, the funeral of Patriarch Volodymyr, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate, erupted in violence when Ukraine's special government police, the Berkut, attacked mourners in a peaceful funeral procession on July 18.

In Canada, tensions mounted between supporters of Ukrainian Catholic Bishop Isidore Borecky of Toronto, who was asked to resign by the Vatican in 1989 but didn't, and Bishop Roman Danylak, who was appointed apostolic administrator of Bishop Borecky's eparchy in 1992. That long-standing feud resulted, in part, in the defection of one Ukrainian Catholic priest to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Of unity and disunity in Orthodox Churches

1995 will most be remembered for the violence surrounding the death and burial of former dissident priest Vasyl Romaniuk, who in October 1993 was elected patriarch of the 15-million-strong UOC-KP. The 69-year-old patriarch, persecuted in Stalin's camps for 19 years for his religious and nationalistic convictions, suffered his third and final heart attack on July 14 in Kyiv.

On July 18, 3,000 faithful participated in funeral services at St. Volodymyr Cathedral, the seat of the UOC-KP. According to an agreement reached between the Church and the Ukrainian government, the late patriarch was to be buried either in Baikiv Cemetery or on the grounds of St. Volodymyr Cathedral. UOC-KP hier-archs, citing the will of the faithful, instead decided to bury Patriarch Volodymyr at St. Sophia Cathedral, the historic birthplace of Orthodoxy in Ukraine.

En route to the 11th century cathedral, mourners and clergy encountered riot police at the barricaded intersection of Volodymyr Street and Shevchenko Boulevard.

Berkut forces in full riot gear refused to let the clergy at the head of the funeral procession past the barricades and beat back those who tried to get through. Members of the Ukrainian National Assembly-Ukrainian National Self-Defense Organization, a paramilitary group that was enjoined to protect the funeral procession, joined the fray and full-scale violence erupted.

The Berkut beat mourners and the lid of Patriarch Volodymyr's casket, which was carried separately from the coffin, with clubs. Members of the UNA-UNSO lifted a barricade and threw it at the riot police. The Berkut returned fire with tear gas and beat back the procession three times before allowing it to pass through.

The funeral procession waited in a light rain before the locked gates of St. Sophia Cathedral for permission from the government to bury the remains of the patriarch inside. St. Sophia Cathedral is a historic landmark and falls under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian government.

The crowd, which dwindled from 3,000 to 1,000, waited for several hours for word from the Cabinet of Ministers before People's Deputy Oleh Vitovych and UNA-UNSO leader Dmytro Korchynsky, with shovels and picks, began digging a grave for Patriarch Volodymyr in the sidewalk near the cathedral's gate. A number of national-democratic people's deputies joined in the digging. Berkut forces hidden behind the gate periodically released tear gas into the crowd.

At 7 p.m. as mourners and clergy prepared to bury the patriarch in the six-foot grave in the sidewalk, two long colonnades of Berkut forces made their way from the back of St. Sophia Square toward the front gate. As the patriarch's remains were laid to rest, riot police burst from the front gate and attacked the unarmed men, women and children, clearing out the area surrounding the makeshift grave.

Blinded by tear gas, people stumbled over one another in an attempt to escape the Berkut's clubs. Rocks began flying. Bishop Paisiy, representing the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. at the patriarch's funeral, was injured, as were other members of the clergy. People's Deputies Vyacheslav Chornovil, Mykola Porovsky and Vitovych were beaten.

The Berkut destroyed journalists' equipment, shredded church banners, kicked apart floral wreaths.

The most seriously injured were members of the UNA-UNSO. Thirty of them were detained by the Berkut, and two were allegedly killed during the confrontation, although the UNA-UNSO never released the names of the victims.

Government figures site 59 injuries during the fray, 42 of whom were members of the Berkut. The lay committee that organized commemorations marking the 40th day of Patriarch Volodymyr's death cited 137 people, 25 of whom were clerics.

The patriarch's body was eventually interred in the sidewalk grave, and mourners were permitted to pay their last respects. To this day, Patriarch Volodymyr's grave remains near the front gate of St. Sophia Square.

National-democratic people's deputies accused the government of provoking the UOC-KP with the confrontation. Metropolitan Filaret said, "We asked for permission to bury the patriarch at St. Sophia, and we were denied. I said that this is unacceptable to our Church. By not allowing us to bury Patriarch Volodymyr at St. Sophia, the government has indicated that it does not recognize the role of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate or the role of the patriarch." The UOC-KP had enjoyed the support of independent Ukraine's first president, Leonid Kravchuk.

The government launched an investigation into the events of July 18, and Maj. Gen. Valeriy Budnikov, deputy chief of the Internal Affairs Ministry's Kyiv administration, and Yuriy Kulykov, commander of Kyiv's Berkut forces, were relieved of their duties until the investigation was concluded.

In the weeks following, the events of "Black Tuesday," as the July 18 confrontation came to be known, the UOC-KP negotiated with a special government commission on the final burial site of Patriarch Volodymyr. The government offered the Vydubytsky Monastery, St. Michael's Golden-Dome Cathedral and St. Feodosiy Pechersky Church as sites for re-burial. On July 31, Metropolitan Filaret said, "unless the authorities give their consent for re-burial in St. Sophia Cathedral, the patriarch's body will remain where it is. We will build a chapel or monument over the grave to honor it."

On August 23, the 40th day after Patriarch Volodymyr's death, thousands participated in a peaceful procession and political rally at St. Sophia Cathedral.

On October 20, Metropolitan Filaret, shrouded in controversy over claims that Patriarch Volodymyr had died of unnatural causes, was elected patriarch of the UOC-KP.

Four hierarchs of the UOC-KP - Metropolitan Andriy of Halych, the administrator of the Ivano-Frankivske Eparchy; Archbishop Vasyl of Ternopil and Buchach; Archbishop Roman of Vinnytsia and Bratslav; and Bishop Mefodiy, the administrator of the Khmelnytsky and Kamianets-Podilsky Eparchy - broke away from that Church in protest and joined the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church headed by Patriarch Dymytriy of Kyiv and All-Ukraine.

"Before God and before Ukraine, my conscience is clean," said Bishop Mefodiy of his desertion. "I received no pressure from presidential circles, nor did any members of the security services of Ukraine approach me in an attempt to convince me to unite with Patriarch Dymytriy. The split happened for one reason only: Filaret, in our spiritual world, is a criminal."

On November 14, the four new hierarchs of the UAOC told a press conference that the UAOC had approached Metropolitan Volodymyr of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate, the largest of Ukraine's three Orthodox Churches, to discuss unification.

The UAOC has eight bishops and 1,000 parishes and does not recognize the 1992 sobor that unified Patriarch Mstyslav's Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church with Patriarch Filaret's Ukrainian Orthodox Church to create the UOC-KP.

The UAOC formed a committee to pursue dialogue with the UOC-MP for the "resurrection of one Particular Ukrainian Orthodox Church" in Ukraine, said Bishop Mefodiy. Metropolitan Andriy said Metropolitan Volodymyr told the UAOC hierarchs that the UOC-MP would form a similar committee during its November 22 sobor.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. and the Diaspora, meanwhile, came under the spiritual omoforion of the Patriarchate of Constantinople on March 12. Under the jurisdiction of Constantinople, the UOC of the U.S.A. and the Diaspora will be recognized by world Orthodoxy and secure the privileges that it enjoyed prior to its subjugation to the Moscow Patriarchate in the 17th century.

The decision was ratified at a divine liturgy concelebrated by Metropolitan Constantine, head of the UOC of the U.S.A. and the Diaspora, and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomaios of the Constantinople Patriarchate at the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. George the Great Martyr in Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey).

Catholics in Ukraine and North America

Greek-Catholics in Ukraine enjoyed a prosperous year in 1995. On April 19, Cardinal Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky, head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, appointed Hieromonk Raphael Turkoniak as visitator for Kyiv and eastern Ukraine's 330,000 Catholics.

On May 21, close to 1 million Greek-Catholics made a pilgrimage to the village of Zarvanytsia, where, according to oral history, the Virgin Mary appeared to a 13th century monk praying that Ukraine be saved from Mongol invasions. Cardinal Lubachivsky, together with 600 clergy, consecrated Ukraine to the protection of the Virgin Mary. Cardinal Franjo Kuharic, archbishop of Zagreb, and Archbishop Antonio Franco, apostolic nuncio to Ukraine, attended the consecration at the chapel of Our Lady of Zarvanytsia.

Throughout the year the UGCC has been meeting with the Vatican to make plans for a 1996 observance in Rome of the 400th anniversary of the Union of Brest and the 350th anniversary of the Union of Uzhhorod.

The Union of Brest (1596) united the Ukrainian-Belarusian Orthodox Church in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with Rome. The Orthodox clergy recognized the pope as head of the Church, while the Vatican agreed to retain the Eastern rite and confirmed the autonomy of the Kyiv Metropolitanate.

The Union of Uzhhorod (1646) joined 63 Transcarpathian Orthodox priests to the Catholic Church based on the provisions of the Union of Brest.

In November, the Holy See Press Office released Pope John Paul II's apostolic letter for the Union of Brest anniversary, titled "They knew the truth, and the truth set them free." The papal missive is divided into eight sections with an introduction, and was published in the Italian, English, French and Ukrainian languages.

In commenting on the letter, Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, said the pope clearly stated his desire for the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church: that its role "must be understood within the framework of the ecumenical path that the Catholic Church has made its own." "How can an oriental Church in full communion with Rome live its own identity and its own role within this new ecumenical perspective?" queried the cardinal. "The holy father invites the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church to pray and reflect in order to provide an answer."

In December, the pope finally recognized Patriarch Josyf Slipyj's 1977 secret consecration of the Revs. Lubomyr Husar and Ivan Choma as bishops for Ukraine. Fearing that the KGB would arrest and persecute bishops of the then underground UGCC, the patriarch did not inform the Vatican of his appointments at that time. In the ensuing 18 years Patriarch Josyf, and later his successor Cardinal Lubachivsky, pressed the pope for recognition.

Ukrainian Catholics in Canada fared far worse than their brethren in Ukraine. Machinations of the ongoing feud between Bishops Borecky and Danylak in the Toronto Eparchy were exposed with the leaking of a draft document attempting to "resolve existing tensions" written in the spring.

The document, signed by Archbishop-Metropolitan Michael Bzdel, Archbishop Emeritus Maxim Hermaniuk, Bishop Myron Daciuk of Edmonton, Bishop Basil Filevich of Saskatoon, Bishop Danylak and newly appointed Bishop Severian Yakymyshyn of New Westminster, affirmed that Bishop Danylak "possesses full and exclusive jurisdiction" in Toronto and urges "clergy and faithful to submit to and obey" his authority.

Bishop Borecky's name appeared on the document, but his signature did not.

He fired off a sharp retort to the joint declaration in June, challenging the authority of the document, given that three of the signatories had resigned: Archbishop Hermaniuk, and Bishops Filevich and Daciuk. Bishop Filevich was replaced by the Rev. Cornelius Ivan Pasichny, a Basilian, who was appointed bishop of Saskatoon on November 22.

In a July letter of its own to Canadian hierarchs, the 10-member eparchial consultors' council of Bishop Borecky's curia rejected the document's claim that Bishop Danylak has full and exclusive jurisdiction over them as "outrageous" and "untenable," asserting that he has powers "similar to an auxiliary bishop."

In August, Metropolitan Bzdel called the eparchial consultors' letter to Canada's bishops "uninformed," and Bishop Borecky's letter "very, very disheartening," given that the hierarch had ostensibly agreed to the joint document's contents.

On June 4, fallout from the Toronto bishops' power struggle hit home when the Rev. Bohdan Hladio became the first Ukrainian Catholic priest since the 1950s to convert to Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The 37-year-old Toronto priest said the conflicts that had emerged since the appointment of Bishop Danylak as administrator produced "demoralization [that] is reaching right down into the congregation." He also cited the UCC's drift toward Latinization and lack of leadership from the hierarchy as reasons for his defection.

The Rev. Hladio was assigned to St. Vladimir's Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Hamilton in mid-July.

British Columbia's new hierarch, Bishop Yakymyshyn, appointed to the New Westminster Eparchy in March, caused a flap with some of his priests when he instituted a Ukrainian-language only policy "when necessary."

About half of New Westminster's clergy are former Latin-rite priests. The Rev. Ken Olsen, a former Latin-rite priest from Portland, Ore., who served as the administrator of the eparchy for two and one-half years before Bishop Yakymyshyn was appointed, said few Ukrainian Catholics in the West Coast use or understand the Ukrainian language. The new bishop, who is a Basilian, said his policy would neither abolish nor set limits on the use of the English language.

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