2000: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Our Churches: a year marked by sadness and joy

The beginning and the end of this year were marked by sadness for many Ukrainian faithful, bracketed by the deaths of two prominent Ukrainian Orthodox and Catholic Church leaders. On February 25 the head of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church Patriarch Dymytrii passed away at age 84 in Lviv, where he had been spending the winter months with his son. Funeral services for the patriarch were held on February 29 in Lviv at the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ss. Peter and Paul.

Near the end of the year, on December 14, the primate of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, Cardinal Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky passed away at age 86; more than 100,000 came to pay their final respects to the cardinal the week after his death, and tens of thousands of mourners attended the funeral on December 20 in Lviv at St. George Cathedral.

Also among the other Church leaders to pass away this year was Bishop Platon Kornyljak, onetime apostolic exarch for Ukrainian Catholics in Germany and Scandinavia, who died on November 1 at age 80.

Declared by Pope John Paul ll as the year of the Great Jubilee, Ukrainian Catholics organized many events to celebrate the millennial holy year, including numerous pilgrimages. Among the official pilgrimage sites for faithful in America who were unable to travel to the Holy Land or Rome was the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family in Washington. More than 4,000 faithful attended the Dormition Pilgrimage on August 12-13 at St. Mary's Villa in Sloatsburg, N.Y. But by far the largest pilgrimage of faithful took place July 21-23 when more than 750,000 Ukrainian Catholics - 250,000 more than originally expected - traveled to the pilgrimage site of Zarvanytsia in western Ukraine, a site long associated with miracles of healing and salvation.

Besides pilgrimages, another major Jubilee Year event was organized by the Diocese of Stamford: an International Jubilee Day for Women on March 25 - a celebration of the role of women in the life of the Ukrainian Catholic Church - was attended by more than 700 women from the New York and New England area.

And for Ukrainian Catholics worldwide, long-hoped-for news arrived near the end of the Jubilee year when the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Ukraine officially confirmed on November 7 that Pope John Paul II would visit Ukraine in June 2001. The ministry announced that the visit by the pontiff is being organized as a state visit to Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. (UOC-U.S.A.) held its millennial event, "The Celebration of the 2,000th Anniversary of the Birth of Christ," on August 12-13 in Pittsburgh. The event included a program of liturgies, spiritual workshops and a concert of choral music.

Both in the United States and in Ukraine, several prominent openings and dedications of religious structures took place throughout the year.

On March 22 in Kyiv, the Jewish community rededicated and reopened the Great Synagogue (also known as the Brodsky synagogue) after a three-year reconstruction effort. The synagogue, located near the center of the city, was founded in 1898 by a wealthy sugar baron, Lazar Brodsky. During the Soviet era it had been converted into a puppet theater. It was returned to Kyiv's Jewish community in 1992.

In the United States a few days earlier, on March 12, the Sisters of St. Basil the Great consecrated the new Chapel of the Holy Trinity and the adjacent Basilian Spirituality Center on the grounds of the order's Motherhouse in Fox Chase, Pa. The completion of the chapel and spirituality center complex was the fulfillment of a dream that began 89 years ago with the order's founding in the United States. The center will focus on the development and understanding of Basilian and Eastern Christian Spirituality.

After four years of reconstruction, grand Golden-Domed Cathedral of St. Michael (Mykhailivsky Sobor) in Kyiv officially reopened on May 28 with a ceremony of blessing led by Partriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP). The church, which was originally built at the beginning of the 12th century, was once the religious center of the Orthodox world. In 1934, Stalin ordered the building destroyed and allowed Communist Party cadres to loot the structure; all that had remained from the religious complex was a small outbuilding.

In Zarvanytsia, located in western Ukraine, Ukrainian Catholic pilgrims gathered for the blessing of the new Sobor of Our Lady of Zarvanytsia on July 22. According to legend, in the 13th century a monk who was fleeing the Mongol invasion in Kyiv prayed for protection on the banks of the Stryi River at Zarvanytsia. In his sleep, he had a vision of the Mother of God; upon awakening the monk saw a brilliant light that led him to the icon of the Mother of God holding the baby Jesus. The monk decided to stay and build a chapel in the area to house the icon; he later built a monastery. Over the centuries the resident monks recorded many cases of miraculous healing of those who have prayed to the Mother of God at Zarvanytsia.

A more controversial dedication took place on August 24, the ninth anniversary of Ukraine's independence, as the Uspenskyi Sobor (Dormition Cathedral) was reconsecrated after a recently completed reconstruction. The sobor is the centerpiece of the Pecherska Lavra complex in Kyiv, and is controlled by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), which is subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). Demonstrators from the UOC-KP, as well as from community and political groups opposed to Moscow's control of the complex protested the reconsecration ceremony, which was held under tight security.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada (UOCC) held its 20th Sobor on July 12-16 in Winnipeg. The concern by a number of delegates prior to the Sobor that tensions surrounding the relationship between the UOCC and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople could be divisive was not borne out, though the Sobor did support a resolution to create a special commission to conduct a comprehensive review of the UOCC's policies towards and relationship with Constantinople.

The Ukrainian Catholic Church held its jubilee synod at the Basilian Monastery of the Holy Cross in Buchach, Ukraine, on July 22. Among the numerous topics discussed were the splitting up of large eparchies such as those of Ternopil and Lviv, and the creation of new eparchies as well as the appointment of new bishops. On October 12 Pope John Paul II agreed to the creation of three new eparchies in Ukraine: Buchach, Sokal-Zhovkva and Stryi.

In Kyiv on September 14-16, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UOAC) held its first Sobor since the death of its leader, Patriarch Dymytrii, earlier in the year. Since, in his final will, the patriarch asked that the UOC-USA offer spiritual guidance and direction to the UOAC, the bishops of the UOAC asked Metropolitan Constantine of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the United States of America to head the Sobor. No new patriarch was chosen to head the UOAC since active discussions are under way to unite the UOAC and the UOC-KP. In conjunction with the Sobor, 33 hierarchs from both Churches signed a joint letter addressed to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew asking for his assistance in unifying the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

The year did not pass without controversy. At the beginning of the year, on January 25, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople was quoted by news sources as stating that Eastern Catholic Churches were an "artificial phenomenon" during his address before the Polish Sejm on January 25, remarks to which Archbishop Ivan Martyniak, leader of Ukrainian Catholics in Poland, as well as Bishop Basil Losten, head of the ecumenical commission of the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, quickly responded. A little later, the Rev. Waclaw Hryniewicz, a professor at the Catholic University in Lublin and a member of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, was also quoted in public as disparaging the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

The Joint Commission met on July 9-19 in Emmitsburg, Md., and on the agenda was the issue of "Uniatism." In July Bishop Losten again wrote a letter, this one to Cardinal Edward Cassidy, head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in Rome, protesting that the topic of Eastern Catholic Churches was being undertaken by the Joint Commission without proper representatives from those Churches on the commission. The Joint Commission made no real decision or comment regarding the Eastern Churches, though representatives of several Orthodox Churches once again offered disparaging comments in the press about Eastern Catholic Churches.

Twenty-nine priests from the Peremyshl-Warsaw Metropolia of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church on June 5 wrote an open letter to Cardinal Roger Echtegaray, president of the Vatican Committee for the Great Jubilee of AD 2000, asking that as part of the millennial year commemorations, the Vatican acknowledge the sacrifices made by Ukrainian Catholic faithful in withstanding the repression of Soviet communism and remaining true in their dedication to their religion. The priests were particularly disturbed by the fact that there was no mention of any Ukrainian Catholics during the Vatican's official Commemoration of the Witnesses of Faith on May 7 in Rome.

The July 23-25 pastoral visit to Crimea of Patriarch Filaret of the UOC-KP was disrupted by demonstrations organized by supporters of the UOC-MP. From the onset protesters met the patriarch at the airport in Symferopol and throughout his visit lined his travel route, holding posters with slogans such as "Filaret out of Crimea" and "Anathema to Denysenko."

In Moscow on August 13-16, during the meeting of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, the bishops rejected the request by the UOC-MP for full autonomy from Moscow, while remaining in communion with the ROC. The bishops also rejected the possibility of uniting the three Orthodox Churches in Ukraine into one independent Church, claiming that the UOC-KP and UOAC are "schismatic" Churches. The ROC bishops also attacked Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, harshly criticizing the patriarch for his interference in Orthodox Church affairs in Ukraine, which the ROC considers to be the exclusive canonical territory of their Church.

The ecumenical patriarch has stated his support for the unification of all Orthodox Churches in Ukraine, though its not clear whether that Church would be independent or under the omophorion of Constantinople. President Leonid Kuchma, who supports the unification of all Orthodox confessions in Ukraine into an independent Church, discussed this topic during his meeting with the ecumenical patriarch in November in Turkey. The ROC rejects any such positions by either the ecumenical patriarch or the government or Churches of Ukraine.

Two major reports were released this year that included information about the status of religious rights in Ukraine. On February 25 the U.S. Department of State released its annual report of human rights throughout the world. Ukraine received a mixed review overall; however, in the area of religious rights, the report was positive, noting that the government continued to return religious properties, treated confessions equally and that, though anti-Semitism continued on a "individual and societal basis, ... the central government generally discouraged it."

On May 9 Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko met in Washington with leaders of Jewish American organizations who in general praised Ukraine's efforts to combat anti-Semitism and provide an environment in which Judaism can thrive.

On July 19, at a briefing on Capitol Hill, the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe released an in-depth report on "Religious Liberty: The Legal Framework in Select OSCE Countries" that noted that Ukraine "has met all its international obligations" regarding guarantees of religious freedom, but added that the implementation of guarantees is inconsistent. The report also noted progress since the previous study done in 1992-1994, stating that, in contrast to the earlier period, the government of Ukraine now tries to show an equal attitude to all religious denominations.

Though the government is tolerant of all confessions, a study released this fall by the Ukrainian Center for Economic and Political Studies indicates the conflict among the Orthodox Churches has disillusioned many faithful in Ukraine and that an ever-increasing number of people are rejecting Ukraine's traditional faith and are joining Protestant denominations and other confessions.

During the Sobor of the UOCC in Winnipeg on July 12-16, the Very Rev. William Makarenko was chosen to head the UOCC Consistory for the next five years.

On September 14 the Rev. Dr. Borys Gudziak was appointed rector of the Lviv Theological Academy, the only Catholic institution of higher learning in Ukraine. The academy was founded by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky in 1928 and was later headed by Patriarch Josyf Slipyj.

On October 12 Pope John Paul II confirmed Auxiliary Bishop Irynei Bilyk to head the Eparchy of Buchach; Bishop Michael Koltun as the bishop of Sokal-Zhovkva; and Auxiliary Bishop Julian Gbur as bishop of Stryi.

On November 29 the apostolic nuncio to the United States announced the confirmation of Auxiliary Bishop Stephen Soroka as the new metropolitan-archbishop for the United States, and the confirmation of Bishop Michael Wiwchar to the Eparchy of Saskatoon.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 7, 2001, No. 1, Vol. LXIX

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