EDITORIAL: The guardian of the underground Church (10/12/97)

EDITORIAL

The guardian of the underground Church

Archbishop Volodymyr Sterniuk, a leading figure in the underground Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church during the bleakest, darkest days of the Soviet Union, rests in peace - he died at the age of 90 in Lviv on September 29 and was buried on October 2.

Thousands came to mourn the archbishop on the day of his funeral. Pope John Paul II sent his condolences, underlining that "as the 'locum tenens' of the Ukrainian Church during the time of persecution he daily faced the dangers and sufferings of a heroic mission totally devoted to give the strength of faithfulness and perseverance to his priests and faithful."

It is worth recalling that, after the forcible liquidation of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church at a pseudo-synod in 1946, the Rev. Sterniuk, along with hundreds of other clergy, was arrested and spent five years of imprisonment in the far reaches of the Russian SFSR. Once he was released, he continued to clandestinely minister to his faithful, while outwardly holding down menial jobs such as park attendant, janitor, medic, etc. He was secretly consecrated a bishop in July 1967 by another underground hierarch, Bishop Vasyl Velychkovsky. A few years later he became the locum tenens of the major archbishop (the primate) of the UGCC, being tapped for that dangerous task in 1972 by the head of the Church in exile, Cardinal Josyf Slipyj.

Archbishop Sterniuk was instrumental in the movement for the legalization of the Church at the close of the 1980s. On September 17, 1989, he gave his blessing for a manifestation by 250,000 persons who marched for legalization of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. Soon thereafter, on October 27, 1989, the Soviet authorities declared the legalization of the Church. The following year, on August 19, Archbishop Sterniuk celebrated the first divine liturgy to be offered by a Greek-Catholic priest in St. George Cathedral since the Soviet liquidation of the Church in 1946. He faithfully served as the leader of the Church in Ukraine until the major archbishop, Cardinal Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky, returned to reclaim his see in Lviv on March 30, 1991.

Thus, Archbishop Sterniuk had fulfilled his role as locum tenens. He became, as Church sources characterized it, a goodwill ambassador, and he traveled to the West as a witness to the newfound freedom for the Church in Ukraine. The archbishop was warmly welcomed wherever he went by audiences large and small who found in him a natural warmth and humility that made him very approachable. It was evident to all: here was a man who was at once saintly and very human.

That this quiet hero was loved by the people was evident in Ukraine as well. Reports from Lviv indicate that the highly revered archbishop continued to regularly receive visitors who sought his counsel, inspiration and blessings through the last days of his holy life. More than 10,000 lined the streets of the Lviv, and more than 3,000 filled St. George Cathedal and overflowed onto its grounds on the day of his funeral. In the days prior, thousands had come to pay their last respects as the good shepherd's body lay in state in St. George Cathedral. Scores had maintained an all-night vigil on October 1-2.

One of those who came to mourn, 68-year-old Lidia Kovalevsky, shared her feelings about Archbishop Sterniuk with our correspondent in Ukraine: "He was a saint. He was a humble man who totally gave himself to the Church and to Jesus Christ."

And that, no doubt, is how the guardian of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church will always be remembered. Vichnaia Pamiat.

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