LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (06/26/05)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Weekly fortunate to have Zawada

Dear Editor:

After reading Dr. Oleh Denysyk's letter to The Weekly (June 12), I became totally confused. I tried to understand whether Dr. Denysyk wanted to share an intimate moment about a profound life experience or to vent his spleen on Zenon Zawada. I am a friend of Roman Zvarych and know him from his days as a student activist in Lower Manhattan; I also had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Zawada and having a rewarding conversation with him about journalistic responsibilities.

Unlike Dr. Denysyk, I will not bore you how I learned to tie my shoes and what an impact it had on my life, but I will take Dr. Denysyk to task for questioning Mr. Zawada's ethics and competence as a journalist. It is obvious from the letter that Dr. Denysyk is unhappy with the story that Mr. Zawada reported - the story of an overzealous justice minister who inflated his academic credentials.

Dr. Denysyk suggests Mr. Zawada should learn more about Mr. Terech. Let us look at the events leading up to Mr. Zawada receiving the Michael Terech journalism scholarship, which was granted to him based on the requirements that he obviously met. The award is administered by the Ukrainian Institute of America and is awarded to journalism students of Ukrainian descent. It is obvious that the recipient must possess journalistic talents and a good nose to sniff out a story. Mr. Zawada obviously meets all the criteria, hence the award.

I did not know Mr. Terech, who was a reporter and worked for the Reuters News organization. However, as a reporter Mr. Terech no doubt would have encouraged Mr. Zawada to report the events as they were happening; he would have told Mr. Zawada to research the story, cross-check your sources and information, and then file the story.

Yet Dr. Denysyk tells Mr. Zawada to incorporate Mr. Terech's principles in his reporting and then accuses him of "slanted" coverage and "personal attacks" in The Ukrainian Weekly. How preposterous! If he reports the facts and you don't like them it's slanted.

Here I would like to digress and ask Dr. Denysyk if he remembers the recent "temnyky" that were issued in Ukraine. Oh, how we in the diaspora attacked those former Commies; look how freedom of the press was trampled by those draconian temnyky. How soon we forget.

Dr. Denysyk, it seems, would be very happy if Mr. Zawada's story was altered to fit his views, or better yet, not reported at all. Perhaps the editorial board of The Weekly should sensor all stories written by young journalists on assignment in Ukraine.

Allow me to remind Dr. Denysyk that the beauty of a free society is that we can express our views as readers; however, as a journalist Mr. Zawada must report the facts.

Readers of The Ukrainian Weekly are fortunate to have such a competent writer in Zenon Zawada who as a journalist strives to report the truth and all the news as it happens - not as it is manufactured to fit someone's views at a given moment.

Zenko Halkowycz
Teaneck, N.J.

Majority of clergy are married

Dear Editor:

Alec Danylevich, M.D., wrote an interesting letter to the editor (June 12). The sentence I find questionable is: "How in 400 years did the majority of priests change from being a married clergy to a minority in the last couple of generations?"

I don't know what statistics or empirical evidence gave rise to this statement, but I think it is inaccurate.

Allow me to quite simply address what I know from history about married clergy in the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church from 1596 (Union of Brest) to the present day (2005). Of course, I will not have the time to develop statistics for the first few centuries; however, for the present day I will use the Basilian Publication, Svitlo - The Light, 2005, as a reference. This publication provides a list of eparchies and a full list of diocesan clergy in the so-called diaspora. This publication does not list which priests are married so my personal knowledge of many priests in the U.S. will serve as a limited tool.

First, a very brief historical observation. From 1596 until 1920 the eparchies in Halychyna (western Ukraine) had a majority of married clergy, as most historians appear to corroborate. The UGCC in the United States, although facing strong opposition from the Latin hierarchy, continued to receive at least some married clergy. So, for over 320 years the majority of Ukrainian Catholic clergy were married men.

From 1920 to 1939 two out of the three eparchies of Halychyna (Stanislaviv and Peremyshl) began to ordain only celibate men to the priesthood. Yet, there were still many married men both in Halychyna and the diaspora during this period. In 1946 our Church was forced to go underground when it was declared an illegal Church by the Soviet authorities. We should not forget that the Church continued to exist with many married priests giving their lives for the faith.

From the 1950s until the 1960s many married priests emigrated to the various settlements of Ukrainian Catholics around the world. Perhaps, this was the only time in history when celibate priests may have been the majority.

Yet, I need to interject, the Church was alive in the Soviet Union and married men continued to be ordained. We lack accurate statistical information to come to a precise conclusion about this period. At the very least, we need someone to do the research and gather the information before we come to a proper conclusion.

From the late 1960s until the early 1980s a number of our married men were ordained by our late spiritual father, Cardinal Josyf Slipyj. As you can see from this short and quite general analysis, my contention is that the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church has had married clergy in the majority for most, if not all, of its history.

As an example, let me turn my attention to the present day and the Basilian publication I mentioned earlier. According to the 2005 issue of Svitlo, the Stamford Eparchy has the following percentage of active diocesan clergy: 21 celibates and 32 married priests. We also need to include in this number deacons. Deacons are both legally and theologically "clergy." If you add them to the count then the Stamford Eparchy has 39 married clergy.

When you calculate that most of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Clergy live in Ukraine and that conservatively 90 percent are married, then it is apparent that even today the majority of Ukrainian Catholic priests are married.

I think Dr. Danylevich brings an interesting point to the table. This issue of the percentage of married clergy in the Ukrainian Catholic Church throughout its history merits a more thorough analysis than has been provided in these few lines. There are two items that need to be kept in mind for such a study: deacons are properly called clergy, and we are a worldwide Church so we need to think globally when making statements about it.

The Rev. Ivan Kaszczak
Syracuse, N.Y.

Objects to contest of varenyky eating

Dear Editor:

Today is June 14, and the May 29 issue of The Ukrainian Weekly just arrived in Winnipeg, so, my apologies for the delayed comment.

Regarding the varenyky-eating event in NYC, I wish the sponsoring companies well, but I hope they find another manner in which to celebrate their businesses, products, and accomplishments.

It may be an event, but it certainly ain't culture! I cannot fathom how any Ukrainian would think of organizing or participating in an eating contest. From what I have learned, our culture respects food and does not waste it, and our people certainly know the effects of its absence. Eating contests are the antithesis of all that.

There are some things we can adopt from others, and other things we should not even think about. Talents could be put to very good use, and people can still have fun. But not in this manner. It's beneath us - and a waste of food.

Orysia Tracz
Winnipeg

Author seeks info on wartime event

Dear Editor:

As part of my research on a U.S. bomber crew that crashed in southern Austria during World War II, I am trying to locate two Ukrainian girls who were captured by the German army and taken to Austria during the war.

The two Ukrainian women were present when the crash happened on October 1, 1943, outside the southern Austrian village of Brandlucken (Heilbrunn). At the time, the girls were working on the farm and at the inn of Johan Unterberger. The Ukrainian girls found the only survivor from the American bomber, who had parachuted from the plane, and led him back to the Unterberger inn, the Gasthaus Unterberger.

The names of the two girls/women are not known, but they would be about 70 to 75 years old today. I know that one of them was still living in Ukraine during the 1990s when her son visited the Unterberger family in Brandlucken.

I would like to find these two women and hear their personal recollections about the bomber crash, how they found the survivor and their lives in Austria during the war. I would be grateful if you could print this letter since one of your readers might know the identity of these women.

Gregg Jones
Dallas

The letter-writer is assistant projects editor at the Dallas Morning News. He may be contacted by phone, (800) 431-0010, ext. 8459, or by e-mail, [email protected].

Project funded solely by Hynansky

Dear Editor:

I am writing to respond to Myron B. Kuropas's column "Faces and Places" of May 22, "An immigration celebration."

I appreciate Dr. Kuropas's nice article about the retirement of Rudolph J. Vecoli, American history Professor and Immigration History Research Center director, and the project of microfilming Ukrainian American newspapers, periodicals and almanacs.

In his article Dr. Kuropas wrote that this important project was financed by both "John Hynansky, president of Winner Automotive Group, the largest American automobile dealership in Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Heritage Foundation of NB Bank in Chicago, headed by Julian Kulas."

However, this project was solely funded by Mr. Hynansky. We are greatly indebted to him for making this project possible. Without this funding, many of the unique and rare titles would be lost forever, thus, depriving the Ukrainian American community of their history in America.

Halyna Myroniuk
Minneapolis

The letter-writer is senior assistant curator, Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota.

Forums on Brama lacking oversight

Dear Editor:

The popular Ukraine news and information website Brama, continues to be an excellent choice for anyone wanting to learn about Ukraine, but there is trouble on its interactive forums, which make up a small portion of the website, but generate a large number of pro and anti-Ukrainian opinions expressed by individuals.

There is trouble because both the Community Press and the Travel forums are under siege by antagonistic pro-Russian individuals, relentlessly and repeatedly posting what can only be described as anti-Ukrainian hate-mail, particularly on the Community Press, and much less so on the Travel forum, which often gives the impression that travel to Ukraine is an extension of travel to Russia.

Manipulated and dominated by the pro-Russian opinion, the forums are in danger of ceasing to serve as forums of free expression, and are fast becoming forums of pro-Russian bias. The Brama administrators, Hania Krill and Max Pyziur, have lost control of the forums, and have yet to come up with solutions that will return the forums back to Ukrainians. One can only hope that changes will come soon.

Nestor Wolansky
Berkeley, Calif.

| Home Page |