Vatican decrees Ukrainian Church's married clergy cannot serve in Poland (05/10/98)

Vatican decrees Ukrainian Church's married clergy cannot serve in Poland

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - Married priests of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church serving in Poland will have to return to Ukraine in accordance with a recent decree issued by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican's secretary of state. On March 4, Archbishop Jozef Kowalczuk, apostolic nuncio to Poland, and the bishops of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Poland were notified of this decision in a letter from the Holy See.

According to the Vatican's letter, the pastoral service of married priests in Poland "creates problems," so the priests must return to their eparchies (dioceses) in Ukraine. According to Catholic News Service, representatives of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine and Poland have voiced their dissatisfaction with the decree, and Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Catholic Churches in Rome, has refused to comment.

Most of the married priests serving in the two eparchies of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Poland were born in Poland and are Polish citizens, according to the press service of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, which means that they do not have an eparchy to which they should "return." Of the close to 60 priests serving the two eparchies, more than a dozen are married.

In his letter Cardinal Sodano recommends that the Ukrainian Greek- Catholic Church use the services of Roman Catholic, biritual, priests in the event that there are too few Ukrainian Greek-Catholic priests.

According to Catholic News Service, Bishop Lubomyr Husar, auxiliary bishop to Major Archbishop Myroslav Lubachivsky and administrator of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, stated in Lviv that the letter is very surprising since married priests of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church have served in Poland, the U.S. and Canada. Roman Catholic bishops in America and Canada stated that they have nothing against the presence of married Ukrainian priests in their countries.

Bishop Husar said the Vatican's proposal to substitute biritual Roman Catholic priests for their married Greek-Catholic colleagues is a sign of "disrespect toward the Ukrainian Church and its traditions."

Several experts familiar with the Code of Canons of Eastern Churches noted that the terminology in the Vatican letter seemed to confuse the concepts of Church and rite, and that justification for the decision was reliance upon a "constant tradition" of celibacy, though such a tradition is neither historically accurate nor canonically applicable to the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church.

As far as official instructions regarding the pastoral service of married priests in Poland are concerned, they have not been promulgated so far, the chancery of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church informed. To date, the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church has issued no official reaction to the letter and the Vatican decision will most likely be reviewed and discussed at the sobor to be held early this fall.

(For a reaction to this issue, see Commentary, page 6.)

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Below is an unofficial translation from the original Italian of Cardinal Angelo Sodano (the text was provided by sources from the Roman Catholic and Ukrainian Catholic Churches.)

Secretariat of State
N. 2005/98/RS
from the Vatican, March 4, 1998

To His Most Reverend Excellency
Bishop Jozef Kowalczuk
Apostolic Nuncio
Warsaw, Poland

Most Reverend Excellency:

You well know with what care the Holy See follows the fate of the Catholic Church of the Byzantine-Ukrainian Rite in this country. After the collapse of communism, the Catholics of this rite have also been able to manifest their religious membership freely. For its part, the Apostolic See has provided an adequate ecclesiastical reorganization.

The present situation causes new problems, which must be addressed and resolved in a spirit of collegiality among the ordinaries of the said rite, the Polish Bishops Conference and the Holy See.

I refer to the pastoral activity in Poland of a few married priests, theoretically incardinated in dioceses which are found in the territory of the republic of Ukraine.

On behalf of the holy father, I have the honor of communicating to you the following, asking that you convey it to their Excellencies, the Ordinaries of Przemysl-Warsaw and Wroclaw-Gdansk:

1) The bishops of the Byzantine-Ukrainian Rite cannot unilaterally modify the practice in use, according to which the Greek-Catholic priests in Poland must also maintain the discipline of celibacy. A change of this constant tradition cannot take place without consulting with the Polish Bishops Conference and receiving the authorization of the Holy See.

2) Therefore, the married priests who presently work in Poland must re-enter their dioceses of origin in Ukraine.

3) In the event that there are not a sufficient number of celibate priests, the question could be resolved, by relying on biritual priests. After all, this is a practice already in force.

Thanking you in advance for your valuable cooperation, I take advantage of this opportunity to confirm my sentiments of distinct respect to Your Most Reverend Excellency,

Most Devotedly in Christ,
[signed]
A. Cardinal Sodano