Losten says U.S. contributions helped rebuild Church in Ukraine (01/06/02)

Losten says U.S. contributions helped rebuild Church in Ukraine

by Zenon Zawada
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

NEW YORK - While the Iron Curtain failed to extinguish the Christian faith, it succeeded in destroying churches, books and religious materials, especially those of the Catholic Church.

When the Soviet Union collapsed a decade ago, Ukrainian Greek-Catholics in the free world faced an enormous responsibility in helping revive the Catholic faith in their homeland.

The four U.S. dioceses and their parishes immediately mounted a massive campaign sending over Bibles, rosaries, liturgical texts and other essentials of the Catholic faith.

"To this day, I can't understand how the Communists could destroy so much in such a short time," said Bishop Basil Losten of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy in Stamford, Conn.

Investments in construction projects also flowed into Ukraine. Bishop Losten estimates that $8 million in support was funneled through his diocese alone during the last decade.

In the United States and Canada, the Ukrainian Catholic Church has nine dioceses. After spending half a century as the world's largest illegal Church until the Soviet Union fell, Ukraine's Catholics also lacked materials as basic as pens, notebooks and scotch tape, which the Stamford Eparchy diocese was more than happy to contribute.

"The Ukrainian American community is the community that put Ukraine on its feet," Bishop Losten said. "And we thank God that there was an immigration in 1884, 1917, 1933, 1950 and so forth."

American and Canadian contributions have extended beyond finances and materials.

For example, Ukrainian Canadian architect Radoslav Zuk designed the Church of the Nativity of the Holy Theotokos in Lviv, where Pope John Paul II held his youth rally during his historic five-day visit to Ukraine.

Perhaps the largest "contribution" from the United States was Lubomyr Husar, the current leader of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, who is an American citizen.

After his family became political exiles from Ukraine during World War II, he studied at the Ukrainian Catholic College of St. Basil the Great in Stamford, and later earned a master's degree from the Catholic University of America in Washington. He served as a prefect in Stamford until moving to Rome in 1972 to pursue his doctoral studies.

More than 500 Ukrainian Catholics in September extended a homecoming welcome for Cardinal Husar with a liturgy at St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church in Manhattan's East Village, the center of Ukrainian cultural life in New York City. It was at that church that the Husar family members attended their first liturgy after immigrating to this country.

Cardinal Husar journeyed to the United States mostly for personal reasons, and to visit places of sentimental value, like the parish he once led in Kerhonkson, N.Y., home of the Soyuzivka resort.

The primate's selection of St. George as final destination on his trip revealed his gratitude to that parish and the Stamford diocese, which had been at the forefront of American efforts to rebuild Catholicism in Ukraine. St. George parish members contributed half a million dollars to the construction of the first Catholic monastery in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv.

At present, Kyiv's Ukrainian Catholics can worship only at a chapel, which fits 50 people. The monks at the new monastery are serving Kyiv's Catholics by leading outdoor liturgies, which still are common in Ukraine.

There is no doubt that Cardinal Husar's close ties to the United States proved very valuable in leading the Catholic revival in Ukraine.

Among those ties is a former schoolmate. Cardinal Husar attended seminary with Bishop Losten, who is so active in assisting Ukraine's rebirth that he has a reputation among Ukrainian Catholic clergy throughout the world as an American faucet for funding.

Bishop Losten treats such recognition with modesty, attributing much of it to his role at the U.S. Catholic Bishop's Conference, where he was the motor for directing Roman Catholic support for Ukraine. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, he immediately petitioned the conference to organize a collection to support Catholicism in the new republics.

More than $25 million has gone to support Catholicism in the former Soviet republics, according to Losten, with Ukraine receiving at least one-third of the funds. Even though he no longer sits on the relevant committee, Bishop Losten said: "They still call me (from Ukraine).

He has led three major projects in Ukraine: a theological academy and girls' orphanage, both outside of Lviv, and renovation of St. Nicholas' Monastery in Zhovkva, a city north of Lviv.

After a decade, Ukrainian Catholics in the United States are very pleased with the results of their efforts, Bishop Losten said - especially when the pope chose to recognize Ukraine's religious rebirth with a historic visit in June. Illegal just over 10 years ago, the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church is now the second largest in Ukraine, with 3,317 parishes and 2,777 churches nationally and an additional 305 under construction.

The 10th anniversary marks a turning point, however, in the relationship between Ukrainian Catholics on both sides of the Atlantic, Bishop Losten said, as Ukrainian American Catholics have exhausted their finances. "Let me tell you something. I was shocked when I heard that figure," Bishop Losten said of the $8 million contributed from his diocese. "That's a lot of money we gave out."

Almost all of the money came from the Ukrainian immigrants of the World War II period, most of whom were political refugees and intellectuals fiercely devoted to Ukraine and the Greek-Catholic Church. That generation is now well into its senior years, and is allocating its funds towards medical and care-taking needs.

"It's time that our people in Ukraine assumed full responsibility for their parochial life," Bishop Losten said. However, the Church's efforts must focus on Ukraine's youth, he added, and Ukrainian American contributions will take a social form.

Such social work will include educating Ukrainians about concepts like stewardship and charity, and organizing such efforts. For example, Bishop Losten said he sees a dire need for Ukraine's Catholics to reach out to the country's poorest people. The Basilian sisters' goal of creating an orphanage for 60 girls is a perfect example of the types of projects Americans are considering.

In just 10 years, the relationship between Ukrainian Catholics and their American counterparts has come full circle, Bishop Losten said. Instead of sending materials east, the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United States is now buying religious items from Ukraine, where Catholic factories and publishing houses are operating. "We can buy cheaper over there than we can buy it here because of the high cost of living," he said. "And they do good work over there."

However, though the Church today is standing on its own two feet, Ukrainian Catholics in the United States still have an important role, as Cardinal Husar said: "Their function of representing Ukraine in the West is not finished."

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