NEWS AND VIEWS: A progress report on construction of sisters' monastery in Hoshiv (10/21/01)

NEWS AND VIEWS

A progress report on construction of sisters' monastery in Hoshiv

by Dr. John Didiuk

More than 10 years have passed since the Sisters of the Most Holy Family began to build their new motherhouse and monastery in Hoshiv, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, of western Ukraine. They began this project almost immediately after coming out of the underground as the Soviet Union was collapsing. The order had been suppressed by the Soviet Communist authorities early in the summer of 1946.

I recently visited the monastery for the fourth time as a member of its fund-raising committee and I marveled at the progress that the sisters had made under the leadership of their indefatigable superior, Sister Anatolia Dmytryshyn. Under discussion was the current state of the project and what was still needed to bring it to completion.

The exteriors of the motherhouse, chapel, guesthouse and farm buildings have all been completed, and the monastic enclosure has been walled in. However, all of the interior work in the motherhouse and chapel, including the building of walls, ceilings and floors, and the plumbing, heating and electrical work remain to be done. Estimates indicate that this final phase will cost more than of $100,000.

After carefully looking at all the financial records and the history of donations from both Ukraine and the West, it became clear that additional help is needed. As a result, the committee decided to appeal to Bishop Sofron Mudrij, the Ukrainian Catholic bishop of the Eparchy of Ivano-Frankivsk.

We were granted an audience with Bishop Mudrij and Sister Anatolia, Sister Volodymyra, Oleksii Burai, the director, my wife, and I drove to Ivano-Frankivsk for a 7 p.m. meeting. We arrived early so that we could look over the newly completed church. The bishop met us promptly at 7 p.m. and gave us a tour of the museum and then invited us into the library of his residence where our meeting took place.

Before being named to the Eparchy of Ivano-Frankivsk, Bishop Mudrij was the director of St. Josaphat's Ukrainian Catholic Seminary in Rome. He has visited the United States many times. As it turned out, he has even visited Boston several times, and we have mutual friends.

Our discussion turned to the monastery and we gave the bishop an update on the work completed and asked for his help. We discussed our fund-raising efforts to date and indicated that almost all of the money donated, both in Ukraine and the diaspora, had come from simple working men and women, and that there were very few large donations. In the United States alone, our committee has sent out more than 3,000 individual appeals and has contacted many of the clergy and most of our parishes.

Bishop Mudrij said that although he fully supports the monastery project, the current economic situation of Ukraine basically left his eparchy without funds. Without the help of several German Catholic charities he would not have been able to finish the restoration of the cathedral and the seminary, or complete the building of the new church.

However, Bishop Mudrij did offer to write an appeal to all of the Ukrainian Catholic bishops in the diaspora asking each of them to call for a second collection in each of their parishes for the completion of the monastery and he asked the committee to continue its work in Ukraine and in the diaspora.

Anyone wishing to aid the sisters in the completion of their motherhouse and monastery may send a donation to: Sisters of the Most Holy Family, c/o Ukrainian Fraternal Federal Credit Union, (Account No. 792), P.O. Box 185, Boston, MA 02132-0185.

Dr. John Didiuk of Needham, Mass., is a member of the Building Committee of the monastery of the Sisters of the Most Holy Family in the village of Hoshiv, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ukraine. He had been tapped in 1997 by Bishop Sofron Dmyterko to raise funds for the new monastery.

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