2004: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Our Churches: news in Ukraine and beyond (01/16/05)

2004: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Our Churches: news in Ukraine and beyond

During 2004, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was moving a step closer to achieving its long-sought patriarchate.

In February, the Italian Catholic magazine, 30 Giorni, (30 Days) released a November 29, 2003, letter from the head of Orthodox Churches worldwide to the Pope, which warned that the establishment of a Kyiv-based Ukrainian Catholic patriarchate would risk a break in ecumenical relations between the two Churches.

In his missive to Pope John Paul II written in Greek, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the archbishop of Constantinople, rejected a document sent by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, to Russian Patriarch Aleksei II as "erroneous, confused, unacceptable [and] provocative" and asked the pope to indicate he had no intention "of initiating the institution of the Greek-Catholic Patriarchate in Ukraine as Cardinal Kasper's text alludes."

Ukrainian Catholic Bishop Basil Losten of the Stamford Eparchy responded strongly to Patriarch Bartholomew's letter and wrote to him and Cardinal Kasper stating he was "most disturbed by this development and disappointed that [the patriarch] should evince such a cruel and negative attitude towards a sister Church - especially one that does not fall under your jurisdiction. Your letter, now widely disseminated among Ukrainian hierarchy, clergy and laity, is creating a new, unnecessary division in Catholic-Orthodox dialogue: one that must be immediately healed or we are to lose all that we have gained in the past few years."

The issue of a Ukrainian Catholic Patriarchate, said Bishop Losten, "is a matter between the Synod of Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Bishops and Pope John Paul II, and concerns no other Church."

However, the Rev. Robert Taft of the Vatican's Pontifical Oriental Institute told the National Catholic Reporter that Ukrainian Catholic bishops, who he said are supportive of the idea, should "just declare the patriarchate and get on with it." Yet, following a February 22 meeting in Moscow between Cardinal Kasper - the most senior Vatican official to visit Russia in four years - and Patriarch Aleskei, the Holy See indicated that it would not establish a Ukrainian Catholic patriarchate amid protests from the Russian Orthodox Church, which accused the Catholic Church of engaging in "direct proselytism" on its "canonical territory."

Before the ecumenical summit, Cardinal Kasper told the Associated Press that "both sides must respect religious freedom and freedom of conscience" and said the Catholic Church did not have a "purposeful policy" of attracting Orthodox faithful. The Church, however, "has the right to exist in the countries of Eastern Europe, with their Orthodox majority, and fulfill its mission."

Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, primate of the nearly 6-million-member Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), later told the Catholic News Service that a patriarchate "is not a prize, but a pastoral tool," but that his Church would not establish one "at the expense of someone else."

Yet, while "willing to help ensure" creating a patriarchate "does not become an obstacle," the man who would serve as the Church's patriarch said there "must be a plan." He added, "Not now is not an answer."

The mood between the two denominations was decidedly more cordial on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean.

North American bishops of the Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox Churches in February held their second "fraternal encounter" in St. Petersburg, Fla., where they discussed several issues, including their joint opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion and the global youth prostitution trade. They also designated a special day - April 18 - to commemorate the estimated 10 million Ukrainians who perished during the Great Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933.

Back in Europe, Cardinal Husar, writing on behalf of the Synod of Bishops of the Kyiv-Halych Metropolitanate, issued a formal response to Cardinal Kasper's visit to Moscow in a letter on March 1 to Ukrainian Catholics. In it, the head of the UGCC said that many "have been troubled and, to some extent, indignant at the fact that a matter of the internal development of our Church was discussed not in Kyiv, Lviv or Rome, but in Moscow, and, most importantly, without participation."

Cardinal Husar, who officially still carries the title of major archbishop, said the Moscow talks "by no means negate the main line of development of the Patriarchate following from the decisions of the Synod of Bishops of our Church." He said the desire to create a patriarchate "is not a whim of the present" but is an idea that can be traced back at least to the 16th century and was reinvigorated by the worldwide UGCC Bishops' Synod in 2002. Furthermore, the pope dispatched Cardinal Kasper, "who is responsible for relations with non-Catholic Christian Churches" to present the UGCC's case for a patriarchate to the Moscow Patriarchate last year.

"Unfortunately, the responses from the Moscow Patriarchate and other Orthodox Churches often contained expressions which should be considered inappropriate for inter-Church dialogue," Cardinal Husar wrote. "Warnings, like ultimatums and verging on blackmail, saying that any possible contacts between Catholics and Orthodox will be broken off for years if the pope recognizes the Patriarchate of the UGCC, sound like a personal insult to the holy father. Such a reaction is very distressing, as it indicates that the leaders of the Orthodox Churches are not prepared to resolve historic contradictions by considering the legitimate needs of all interested parties."

On March 1, Bishop Losten issued an open letter to Orthodox patriarchs, in which he stated that he was "flabbergasted" by the "fear and not dialogue" expressed in statements made by Orthodox hierarchs to the notion of a Ukrainian Catholic Patriarchate. "The polemics advocated by the Moscow Patriarchate presents an ecclesiastical view that exists in a vacuum in the globalized world of today ... a position that is based upon past privileges granted by Russian imperialism and godless Communism," wrote Bishop Losten who is chairman of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Synod of Bishops' Ecumenical Commission.

"There are no exclusive canonical territories either in the East or the West in the world of today - there are only territories of ancestral lineage. That is why any Patriarchate of the Orthodox or Catholic world may have a jurisdiction of influence anywhere in the world dictated by its own sacred canons."

According to Bishop Losten, "the polemics of 'Uniatism' are once again rearing their ugly head. "The only Uniate Church that exists in the world today is that which is deeply imbedded in the Orthodox psyche."

Around the time of the letters, more than 150 Ukrainian national deputies - most of them members of Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine faction - signed a letter to Pope John Paul II asking him to grant the UGCC the status of a Patriarchate.

A month later, in April, Cardinal Husar announced that the UGCC would move its administrative offices, including the metropolitan's chancery, from Lviv to Kyiv, where it had been a presence until the 19th century.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Catholic Archbishop Stephen Sulyk, the metropolitan-emeritus of the United States and former head of the Philadelphia Archeparchy, released his autobiography, "I Am With You Always," a title taken from a scriptural verse (Matthew 28:20). In his memoir, the archbishop writes about growing up in a small Ukrainian village in the Carpathian Mountains, life as a student during the German occupation and subsequent advance of the Soviet army. Also discussed are the two decades (1981-2001) of his metropolitinate, which, as he points out, ended sadly when his retirement plans were unexpectedly altered by the arrival of his successor, Stefan Soroka, and he left his long-time home in Philadelphia for the adjacent community of Lansdale.

On the other side of the equator, Brazil welcomed a new Ukrainian Catholic bishop - Volodymyr Koubetch, a 51-year-old Basilian priest - who became co-adjutor of the Eparchy of St. John the Baptist in Curitiba.

Back in North America, Bishop Losten in March donated $100,000 to the St. George Ukrainian Catholic Schools Foundation - which strives to assist St. George's elementary and secondary schools in New York City - during the annual meeting of the Self Reliance (N.Y.) Federal Credit Union in New York. That same month Metropolitan Soroka announced the closing of two parochial schools: St. John's in Newark, N.J., and St. John's in Northampton, Pa. He cited the changing demographics of the Ukrainian Catholic Church as the major reason for his decision.

In June the metropolitan-archbishop also announced the amalgamation and closing of parishes in his archeparchy, beginning with the closure of two churches in Philadelphia. He said that amid a shortage of priests and poor church attendance "an attitude of proper stewardship among our faithful has not developed ... weekly upkeep support of the parish is relatively poor in all but a few of our parishes [and] the weekly donation of many parishioners has not kept up with the costs of maintaining a parish today."

On October 11, Cardinal Husar led a liturgical service involving 38 UGCC bishops, dozens of clergy and about 1,000 people in which the five crosses that would sit atop the domes of his new Kyiv cathedral on the right bank of the Dnipro River were blessed. Insufficient financial support for the new building caused its official opening to be delayed by at least a year, said UGCC spokesman the Rev. Oleksa Petriv.

At an October 13 press conference on the eve of the bishops' annual synod, Cardinal Husar told reporters that Pope John Paul II was keen for the Church to have its own patriarch - a title already used by many in reference to the major archbishop. "He would like to be the one to make that announcement," said the cardinal, and added the pope needed to wait for "the right moment."

Noting that on October 11 he made a courtesy call to outgoing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, Cardinal Husar also said he wished the country's elections to choose a new president that would be free and fair.

Back in the U.S., the Rev. Dr. Borys Gudziak, rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, visited New York and Chicago as part of a campaign to support Catholic education in Ukraine begun by Bishop Losten, and Richard Seminack, his counterpart in the Chicago Eparchy.

But 2004 ended on a sad note. Bishop Pavlo Vasylyk of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Kolomyia-Chernivtsi died on December 12 at the age of 79. Ordained a deacon while in prison from 1947 to 1955 after being sentenced for "the betrayal of the fatherland" and for engaging in "anti-Soviet propaganda" as a supporter of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, he became a priest in Lviv following his release and embarked on underground pastoral work.

Father Vasylyk was arrested again, in Ivano-Frankivsk, and spent another five years in prison - this time in a camp in Mordovia where his fellow inmates included the future head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Josyf Slipij.

Elevated to the episcopacy in 1974, Bishop Vasylyk remained a defiant figure. In 1987 he sent an official petition to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Pope John Paul II, asking for formal recognition of the Church in the USSR. A year later he led an outdoor liturgy celebrating the millennium of Christianity in Ukraine - a move that resulted in the suppression of public acts of devotions by Ukrainian Catholics. An auxiliary bishop in Ivano-Frankivsk from 1989 to 1993, Bishop Vasylyk was named head of the newly created Eparchy of Kolomyia-Chernivtsi in 1993 and remained in the post until his retirement in 2001.

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