OBITUARY: Romana Nawrocky, Ukrainian Catholic lay leader, 78 (12/26/99)

OBITUARY

Romana Nawrocky, Ukrainian Catholic lay leader, 78

by Kateryna A.R. Schray

PHILADELPHIA - On Saturday, November 27, Ukrainians gathered from across the United States and Europe to pay their final respects and bid farewell to Dr. Romana Lidia (née Lebedovych) Nawrocky, a leader of the St. Sophia Association of Ukrainian Catholics. Dr. Nawrocky passed away at the age of 78 on November 16 in Philadelphia.

Romana Lidia Lebedovych was born on October 11, 1921, in the village of Vizhomlia, Peremyshl region, the daughter of the Rev. Ivan Lebedovych, a chaplain in the Ukrainian armed forces and Natalia (née Sawoijka) Lebedovych, who died in childbirth.

From 1934 to 1939, she was enrolled at the Ukrainian Institute for Girls in Peremyshl, and later attended Middle School No. 2. She attended the university in Lviv and subsequently in Innsbruck, Austria, where she earned her doctorate in geography.

Under Hitler, along with thousands of Ukrainian women, she was incarcerated in Ravensbruck, the largest women's concentration camp in Germany, located northeast of Berlin. She was rescued from the camp by the man who was later to become her husband, Myroslav Nawrocky. After the war, in 1949, she emigrated to Philadelphia, where she and her husband lived until his death in the early 1980s.

Within the Ukrainian community, Dr. Nawrocky is best known for her dedicated work on behalf of the St. Sophia Association of Ukrainian Catholics, founded by Cardinal Josyf Slipyj (1892-1984), patriarch and primate of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Dr. Nawrocky and her husband were among the first to aid the patriarch in rebuilding the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Ukraine after his release in 1963 from 18 years of exile in Siberia.. Dr. Nawrocky dedicated her life to overseeing St. Sophia's good works: financing and maintaining the institutions founded by Patriarch Slipyj; supporting schools for underprivileged and orphaned children in Ukraine and Poland; funding education for both the religious and laity; responding to pleas for food, clothing, and medical equipment; publishing Ukrainian literature in translation as well as studies on the Ukrainian Catholic Church and books on Ukrainian spirituality in English.

Shortly before her death, Dr. Nawrocky oversaw the completion of St. Sophia's most recent project - the restoration of Patriarch Slipyj's childhood home in Zazdrist, Ukraine, and the building of a Memorial-Museum complex on the premises. Anticipating that Ukraine would one day regain its freedom, Patriarch Slipyj had entrusted Dr. Nawrocky with this undertaking in 1974. The Memorial-Museum Complex now offers programs in ethics and moral education. Dr. Nawrocky tirelessly attended to every detail of this undertaking, traveling frequently to Ukraine first to negotiate the purchase of the property, later to meet with architects and builders, and finally to guide the young nuns entrusted with the care of this complex in their ministry.

Metropolitan-Archbishop Stephen Sulyk celebrated the funeral services at Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church in Philadelphia with Msgr. Dr. Ivan Bilanych, pastor emeritus of Christ the King; the Rev. Jaroslav Kurpel, current pastor; the Rev. Dmytro Blazejowsky, scholar-historian and embroidery artist; the Rev. Marian Procyk, pastor of St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church in Buffalo, N.Y., and former administrator of the Philadelphia affiliate of the Ukrainian Catholic University; and the Rev. Ihor Kovalchuk of the Lviv diocese. Dr. Nawrocky was laid to rest alongside her husband and her father at St. Mary's Cemetery in Fox Chase, Pa.

Numerous letters attesting to Dr. Nawrocky's dedicated work on behalf of the Ukrainian Catholic Church were read at the Friday evening parastas and at the tryzna following the funeral, and formal condolences were offered by numerous Ukrainian organizations, among them: the Lviv Theological Academy, the Shevchenko Scientific Society, the Ukrainian Patriarchal Association, the Ukrainian Free University, and the St. Sophia Associations of Ukrainian Catholics of Rome and Belgium. The solemn proceedings were organized by Julian Holoulchak, treasurer of St. Sophia, and coordinated by Dr. Leonid Rudnytzky, secretary of St. Sophia, who presented the letters of condolence and introduced the many speakers.

In his letter, Bishop Ivan Khoma, president of the St. Sophia Association in Rome, described Dr. Nawrocky as a person who "did not spare herself, nor her worldly possessions, nor her health, in order to fulfill her great obligations" and who "did everything out of love for her Church and Nation."

Given that the 40th day after Dr. Nawrocky's death falls on December 25, masses for the peaceful repose of her soul will be celebrated on Sunday, December 27, in churches in Ukraine (Lviv and Ternopil), Italy (Rome), Germany (Munich), and across the United States (including Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church, Philadelphia; St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church, Buffalo, N.Y.; St. Joseph Catholic Church, Huntington, W. Va., as well as parishes in Detroit and New York).

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