Turning the pages back... October 10, 1996 (10/12/97)

Turning the pages back...

October 10, 1996

From October 6 to 10, 1996, at Lviv State University, Ukrainian Greek-Catholics held the first of four Patriarchal Sobors to be held annually until 1999. More than 200 delegates, religious leaders and laity from each of the Church's eparchies throughout the world gathered to discuss the future of the Church and prepare the Church for the jubilee year 2000. Our Kyiv correspondent Roman Woronowycz reported on that historic conclave as follows.

Five committees - on the configuration of the priesthood; the academic configuration of study for priests; matters of the family; catechization of the laity; and matters of youth - presented a lengthy list of proposals for affirmation by the Sobor. They were to be presented to the World Synod of Bishops for their action.

The proposals presented to the Synod of Bishops for approval were both philosophical and practical in nature. For example, the committee on matters of youth proposed a statement on the global AIDS epidemic, as well as on sexual morality, sexual abuse and rape. It also suggested that the Synod work forcefully to build youth organizations in parishes.

The Sobor of religious and laity also voted on resolutions. First, they agreed to call on the Ukrainian government to officially rehabilitate the Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine, outlawed in 1946 by a non-canonical synod of bishops, with an addendum that the Church never accepted the findings and resolutions of that synod. Also, they unanimously voted to request that the president of Ukraine send an official invitation to the Vatican for a papal visit. And they agreed to submit a proposal to the Synod of Bishops to withdraw the condemnation of those bishops who did not recognize the Union of Brest in 1596.

Bishop Lubomyr Husar, recently appointed the leader of the newly formed Kyiv-Vyshhorod Eparchy, who presided over the work of the Sobor, told The Weekly: "I was happy that the whole Church was there, the laypeople, the leadership, the clergy ... The complaints and criticism were good. That shows that ours is a living Church."

An outdoor divine liturgy held two days later was the emotional culmination of the yearlong observances of the 400th anniversary of the Union of Brest. More than 30,000 people filled Prospect Svobody in Lviv on October 13 to participate in the divine liturgy as the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church celebrated the anniversary of the reunion between a portion of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The World Synod of Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Bishops followed, beginning on October 14.

Source: "Ukrainian Catholics mark 400th anniversary of union with Rome," by Roman Woronowycz, Kyiv Press Bureau, The Ukrainian Weekly, October 20, 1996 (Vol. LXIV, No. 42).

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