Medvid's dream comes true as he receives visa for U.S. (11/26/00)

Medvid's dream comes true as he receives visa for U.S.

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - After a protracted effort beset with several temporary setbacks, the Rev. Myroslav Medvid finally received a visa to travel to the United States on November 15. Two days later, the former Soviet sailor, who was denied political asylum in the United States in 1985 after twice jumping ship from a Soviet grain trawler near New Orleans, boarded a Kyiv-New York flight to visit with the thousands of Ukrainian Americans who he has said saved his life.

The Rev. Medvid missed by three weeks a self-imposed target to spend the 15th anniversary of the debacle with his supporters in the United States. The delay was due to bureaucratic problems at the U.S. Consulate in Kyiv, where his case took several weeks to resolve. The Rev. Medvid said he wants to mark his visit by celebrating divine liturgies in all the U.S. cities that he will visit with the Ukrainian Americans who had attempted to help him during his ordeal.

Upon receiving his tourist visa, the Rev. Medvid expressed delight at the turn of events, which at first seemed to have barred his entry to the United States again but finally opened the door for a six-week visit, which began in New York on November 18 with the clergyman's participation in a Great Famine commemoration at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

"I am glad they finally understood that I am not planning to immigrate," said an obviously excited Rev. Medvid at the offices of The Weekly's Kyiv Press Bureau just hours after receiving a visa at the U.S. Consulate.

The 40-year-old parish priest from the Lviv region initially had expressed a desire to visit the United States after he had spoken at length in the spring with a reporter from The Weekly - the first such interview given a Western publication since the Rev. Medvid was whisked back to the Soviet trawler, the Marshal Koniev, by bungling U.S. immigration authorities. Once abroad he had been drugged into a stupor by Soviet handlers for a return to the Soviet Union, where an unknown fate had awaited him.

He said he wanted give to thanks and pray with those in the United States who had helped to spare his life by keeping his name in the international press when he was already back in Moscow's hands - efforts that made Soviet leaders wary of punishing the sailor.

After The Weekly's Kyiv Bureau staff agreed to help Mr. Medvid arrange a visit to the United States the newspaper's home office and publisher contacted several Ukrainian American organizations asking that they host the sailor-turned-cleric.

Askold Lozynskyj, president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) at the time, agreed to have his organization take on the project. He sent an official invitation to the Rev. Medvid a day before the priest's scheduled visa appointment at the U.S. Consulate on October 11.

Armed with copies of documents certifying his clerical status and his position as a parish priest in good standing, along with the UCCA's invitation to take part in the Great Famine commemoration in New York City, the Rev. Medvid went to the visa appointment confident that he merely needed to fulfill a formality.

He was shocked when the U.S. Consulate refused his request for a visa after an unusual two-hour wait in the consular offices, during which officers twice questioned him. It appeared the United States again had denied him entry for what he believed were baseless reasons. And again the reason appeared to be bureaucratic bungling.

Although the Rev. Medvid later admitted that he had been rather vague in describing the point of his intended visit to the United States and that he even had failed to mention the St. Patrick's Cathedral event, believing that all was explained in the UCCA invitation, at the time he felt the rejection was tied in part to the events of 15 years ago.

Along with the consular decision, Mr. Medvid was handed a form letter that stated he was rejected on the basis of section 214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which places the burden of obtaining a non-immigration visa on the applicant and forces him to overcome "a statutory presumption of intending immigration."

"Let them do what they want, said a disappointed Mr. Medvid later that day. "I have a parish to take care of. I have things to do."

Although at first discouraged and unsure how to proceed, the Rev. Medvid took the advice of Mr. Lozynskyj and a Ukrainian American journalist and asked his bishop, Mykhail Koltun of the Lviv-Zboriv Eparchy (recently renamed the Sokal Eparchy), to write a letter confirming his status and extending him permission to travel to the United States, with a stipulation that guaranteed his return.

The document was included in a request for an appeal that the Rev. Medvid filed with the U.S. Consulate. He explained in a letter that as a cleric he could not offer any material wealth as assurance that he would return, only his parish, which awaited him, and the assurances of his superior, Bishop Koltun.

While the appeal was being considered, Mr. Lozynskyj, who is the president of the Ukrainian World Congress arrived in Kyiv on other business and agreed to contact Consul General Lauren Hueber Marcott on behalf of the Ukrainian priest. The U.S. official told Mr. Lozynskyj that the U.S. Consulate needed additional authoritative proof, preferably from the Vatican's apostolic nuncio in Kyiv, that the Rev. Medvid belongs to the clerical ranks of the Catholic Church.

The next day The Weekly's Kyiv Bureau contacted the Consulate once more and spoke with the individual responsible for the Medvid case to convince U.S. authorities that their request was unreasonable, that the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church of which the Rev. Medvid is a member is not administratively linked directly to Rome, and that the Apostolic Nuncio had no ability to issue the document required by the Consulate.

After some discussion, it was agreed that the Rev. Medvid would bring originals of his UGCC documents to the Consulate, including one that would show he remains a priest of the UGCC in good standing.

Upon his return to Kyiv for a second meeting, it was obvious that the Rev. Medvid was confident that he would get his visa this time: with him he brought money for an airline ticket and his packed bags, including his liturgical vestments and hand cross.

The Rev. Medvid is expected to remain in the United States through the end of January, with the UCCA planning his visits and setting his itinerary.

| Home Page |