Toronto's Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy subjected to major reassignments (07/19/98)

Toronto's Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy subjected to major reassignments

by Andrij Kudla Wynnyckyj
Toronto Press Bureau

TORONTO - Three weeks after the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Toronto celebrated its 50th anniversary, both major players in the contentious dispute that had divided it in recent years have been removed. The Bishop of Saskatoon has been relocated and appointed as eparch of Toronto.

The Canadian Council of Catholic Bishops on July 2 issued a press release announcing that the eparchy had been declared vacant by the Vatican on June 24, with Bishop Isidore Borecky in retirement and Apostolic Administrator Bishop Roman Danylak reassigned to "special responsibilities in Rome."

As of July 1, Bishop Cornelius Pasichny, 72, a Basilian, is the new eparch. No mention was made of who might succeed Bishop Pasichny in the western Canadian eparchy, nor was there any elaboration on what Bishop Danylak's "special responsibilities" might be.

In his own press release, also issued on July 2, Bishop Pasichny expressed regret that he was leaving Saskatchewan after just over two years of service with "a number of promising renewal initiatives ... unfinished," but added that he is looking forward to returning to an eparchy in which he has served for 25 of his 45 years of priesthood.

The Winnipeg-born Bishop Pasichny was consecrated as Saskatchewan's eparch in January 1996. Ordained as a priest in Rome in July 1953, he returned to Canada the next year to pursue studies in philosophy at the University of Ottawa and in 1958 became interim pastor of the parish in the Canadian capital.

In 1959-1973 he was first assistant superior then superior at the Basilian monastery in Ottawa, and lectured in philosophy at the University of Ottawa. For the next nine years he served as editor of the Basilian order's official organ, The Beacon, and served as assistant superior to the order's monastery in Weston, a suburb of Toronto.

In 1982 he returned to Ottawa for a three-year stint as spiritual director of the Holy Spirit Ukrainian Catholic Seminary and assistant pastor at the St. John the Baptist Church. In 1985 he returned to his home town, Winnipeg, to serve as pastor at St. Nicholas Church, among other duties. He was appointed eparch of Saskatchewan in November 1995.

On July 2 the Ukrainian Catholic metropolitan of Canada, Archbishop Michael Bzdel, presided over a meeting of over 60 of the Toronto Eparchy's clergy at the Church of the Holy Protectress with Bishops Borecky, Danylak and Pasichny in attendance, to deliver the formal announcement.

At the meeting Bishop Borecky spoke about the need to preserve the Old Church Slavonic Language and the Eastern Rite liturgical tradition. Bishop Danylak did not address the gathering.

At the Ukrainian Catholic Church's Synod in Lviv in September 1997, Bishops Borecky and Danylak apparently both agreed to step down if a third party could be found to fill their seemingly joint post. Bishop Pasichny was approached to accept the position of eparch of Toronto by the acting head of the Church, Bishop Lubomyr Husar, but Bishop Pasichny asked that the appointment be delayed due to his health problems. Bishop Pasichny underwent coronary bypass surgery in February.

At the synod, Metropolitan Bzdel suggested that deference be shown to the upcoming 50th anniversary of Bishop Borecky's episcopate (he had been consecrated on May 27, 1948).

These recommendations were forwarded to the Vatican's Congregation of Eastern Churches, which then arranged for the issuance of the appropriate bullae at the appropriate time.

A source in the eparchy told The Weekly that on July 30 Bishop Pasichny will preside over a "healing day" for the eparchy's clergy to be held at the Mount Mary Retreat Center in Ancaster, Ontario.

To be sure, the acrimony sparked by the Vatican's appointment of an apostolic administrator in December 1992 has largely faded into the background, as Vatican representatives had ceased issuing demands for Bishop Borecky's immediate resignation (the last one coming in 1996), and Bishop Danylak had moderated his erstwhile pursuit of dissidents within the eparchy. The modus vivendi the two hierarchs established muted discontent among the faithful and the clergy.

Indeed, at the 50th anniversary celebrations held on Toronto's Canadian National Exhibition grounds on June 14, harmony appeared predominant. Bishop Danylak joined Bishops Husar, Metropolitan Bzdel, Metropolitan Stephen Sulyk of Philadelphia, Bishop Severian Yakymyshyn of British Columbia and Bishop Julian Gbur, secretary of the Bishop's Synod in Lviv, in congratulating Bishop Borecky for his extraordinarily long years of service.

Soon after the celebrations Metropolitan Bzdel told the Edmonton-based Ukrainian News weekly that "no new bishop has yet been named to serve the Toronto Eparchy," adding that "perhaps one will be named following the next synod in Lviv."

One priest, on condition of anonymity, offered that while the latest moves in the Toronto Eparchy dealt superficially with an obvious source of friction, the Curia in Rome continued to ignore calls to appoint a bishop's adjutor, or auxiliary, whose presence would make the eparchy easier to rule and make the question of succession less controversial. The clergyman added that the new appointee would himself soon be up for retirement (if he chooses to accede to the Vatican-mandated age limit of 75), and that someone more youthful would have been more appropriate.

The Rev. Bohdan Lukie, a Toronto-based member of the Redemptorist order, described the incoming hierarch as the ideal man to reconcile the opposing factions in the eparchy, and underlined that this is the most important consideration at this point. The Rev. Lukie told The Weekly that Bishop Pasichny is "a gentle, kind and caring man of God. He truly is a mediator and reconciliator."

Metropolitan Bzdel said, "the Toronto Eparchy desperately needs ... a comforter, a healer; someone with the wisdom of Solomon, the patience of Job and the strength of King David."

September 24 has been scheduled for the incoming bishop's consecration as eparch of Toronto and eastern Canada, but a venue has not yet been chosen.