PROFILE: Bishop Emeritus Basil Losten, builder of the Church in the U.S. and Ukraine

by Andrew Nynka

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - When Bishop Emeritus Basil Losten was 8 years old he was asked one Sunday morning what he wanted to do with his life. "I want to be like you," he told the late Bishop Constantine Bohachevsky. A bit stunned by the response, Bishop Bohachevsky told the young boy that he first needed to become a priest. "I never forgot that," Bishop Losten said on a recent afternoon in January.

Several years passed after his encounter with Bishop Bohachevsky, and the young Basil took his first step toward a life in the Catholic Church, leaving his family's sprawling farm in Chesapeake City, Md., to attend St. Basil School, a grade school, in Philadelphia.

Many years later, in 1977, he would become the third eparch of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Stamford, Conn., a position he held for 28 years, until Pope Benedict XVI accepted his resignation on January 3.

Spanning 49 years, Bishop Losten's career in the Church included a number of achievements: he helped foster the rebirth of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Ukraine, developed ecumenical relations with figures outside the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and raised funds to support the Church both in the United States and Ukraine.

As the leader of an eparchy, Bishop Losten's responsibilities extended far beyond the spiritual realm. A bishop must also look after the day-to-day business of the Church and all of its various needs, said the Very Rev. Ivan Kaszczak, the pastor of St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church in Syracuse, N.Y.

"His spirit affects the morale of the clergy, and that filters down to the parishioners," said the Rev. Kaszczak, regarding the general role a bishop plays within the Church. "He has a tremendous amount of influence and he can change an entire diocese."

In that regard, Bishop Losten's career left a deep mark on the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Specifically, in Stamford, Bishop Losten was credited with bringing a certain degree of discipline and organization to the eparchy.

"When Losten came in people were more accountable," said the Rev. Kaszczak, who has known the bishop for over 20 years and, as a former vice-rector of St. Basil College, the Ukrainian Catholic seminary in Stamford, is familiar with the bishop's work.

"Ukrainians knew he was a hospodar [master of the house]," the Rev. Kaszczak said. "From lawnmowers to the salvation of souls, you always knew who was in charge - you always knew who was at the helm of the ship."

Indeed, in the 35 years he spent as a bishop - a distinction unsurpassed by any active Ukrainian hierarch - Bishop Losten was influential in the creation of a seminary in Ukraine and in bringing Ukrainian priests to study at the seminary in Stamford.

"He is a very powerful and influential individual," said John Kurey, a board member and the legal counsel for the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation, which is based in Chicago.

In keeping with church law, Bishop Losten was required to submit his letter of resignation upon turning 75. On rare occasions, the pope has rejected resignations and asked that a particular bishop continue working for the Church. Bishop Losten, who spoke with The Ukrainian Weekly on several occasions over the past month, said he is able and willing to continue working for the Church, but said there is much work he can still do as a retired bishop.

Yuliya Komar, a UCEF associate who holds a master's degree in theology and Church history, said it was normal for the pope to accept the resignation of a bishop age 75.

"He's always told me, 'I'll be retiring, and you need to be ready for that.' He's been preparing us," Mr. Kurey said of Bishop Losten.

Because of its role as a fund-raiser for and promoter of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, the UCEF has relied on men like Bishop Losten. While the bishop has had critics among the laity who say he comes off as too Americanized and too focused on business, his supporters say those traits have helped make him successful.

"Sometimes he did things that were unpopular, but he had only the best intentions of the Church in mind," said Mr. Kurey, the UCEF official who also called the bishop a good friend.

Youngest of 10 children

Born on May 11, 1930, Bishop Losten is the youngest of 10 children. The son of dairy farmers Julia (nee Petryshyn) and John Losten Sr., he grew up in northeastern Maryland, near the banks of the Chesapeake Bay, often helping his brothers with daily chores. The family later sold the dairy business but kept the farmland, giving the bishop a place to stay whenever he needed to be in Washington, D.C., for work.

Though the drive from the farm to Washington took Bishop Losten two hours, it gave him a rare opportunity to visit family.

His oldest brother, Peter, died of influenza during the Great Depression before Bishop Losten was born. In the years that followed, Bishop Losten would see his oldest sister, Stella, die at 92, while another sister, Mary, died tragically in a car accident some 15 years ago in Jersey City, N.J.

As a grade school student in the 1940s, Bishop Losten moved from his home in Maryland to Philadelphia, where he attended St. Basil School. He was later accepted into St. Basil's Preparatory School in Stamford, and in June 1953 he received his bachelor's degree from St. Basil's College in Stamford.

Bishop Losten went on to earn a master's degree in theology from Catholic University in Washington, before being ordained a priest at the age of 27 at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Philadelphia.

At age 41 he was elevated to the episcopate by Pope Paul VI, and was appointed titular bishop of Arcadiopolis in Asia and auxiliary to Metropolitan-Archbishop Ambrose Senyshyn of Philadelphia. In this capacity Bishop Losten seemed to be in line to one day take over as the next metropolitan of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United States, but since that time three other men have taken the helm of the Church in the U.S.

Bishop Losten's elevation to the episcopate was announced by the Most Rev. Luigi Raimondi, the former apostolic delegate in the United States, on May 4, 1971. In addition to Bishop Losten, the Rev. Raimondi announced that Msgr. John Stock would become a bishop.

The announcement of the two bishops-elect became a focus of controversy as the Society for the Promotion of a Patriarchal System for the Ukrainian Catholic Church protested against the method of nominating the bishops, stating that it was done by the Apostolic See over the head of then Archbishop-Major Josyf Slipyj and thus in violation of his rights as the leader of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

The move at that time so enraged people that several thousand demonstrators gathered outside Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Philadelphia to protest the enthronement of both bishops on May 25, 1971. Inside the church, while the cathedral choir sang "axios" (worthy), some 300 protesters chanted "anaxios" (unworthy) in reference to the bishops being consecrated.

In addition to their disapproval with the way in which the bishops were appointed, supporters of a Ukrainian Patriarchate questioned whether Bishop Losten would respect the idea of an autonomous Ukrainian Church.

On December 7, 1977, Bishop Losten was installed as eparch of Stamford by the new metropolitan-archbishop for Ukrainians in the United States, Joseph Schmondiuk, who had been installed just six days earlier.

In the years that followed his elevation to the episcopate, Bishop Losten appears to have overcome the skepticism that greeted him as a newly tapped bishop and has shown strong support for the idea of a Ukrainian Partriarchate.

Among the protesters at Bishop Losten's enthronement ceremony in 1971 was Dr. Leonid Rudnytzky, then a 36-year-old press spokesman for the Society for the Promotion of a Patriarchal System for the Ukrainian Catholic Church (known in shorthand form as the Patriarchal Society).

"He has been a great bishop and embraced the patriarchal ideal," Dr. Rudnytzky said of Bishop Losten. "He has been a very good leader for his priests."

Dr. Rudnytzky, who is now professor emeritus at La Salle University in Philadelphia, stressed that the goal for protesters was to highlight the autonomy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

"Most of us admired Bishop Losten, and still do, for his dynamic personality," Dr. Rudnytzky said. "You didn't have to worry about diplomatic niceties. He spoke the truth, both here and in the Vatican."

"Among the bishops, he has definitely been the most active and, I think, has shown himself to be in favor of the Ukrainian Church," said Mykola Haliv, one of the organizers of the 1971 protest and a member of the Patriarchal Society's executive committe. "He cares about his priests," Mr. Haliv added.

"While some people still don't speak about the leader of the Ukrainian Church as a patriarch and many newspapers still don't use the term, Bishop Losten does - he uses the term," Mr. Haliv.

For his part, Bishop Losten told The Weekly that Ukrainian priests who come to America from Ukraine are deeply religious men, but they lack patriotism. What makes the Ukrainian Catholic Church unique is its Ukrainian tradition, the bishop said. Maintaining that tradition and ensuring that priests also recognize it, Bishop Losten said, is a great concern for him.

Moments of doubt

While in hindsight Bishop Losten's decision to pursue a religious life appears destined, there have nonetheless been moments of doubt.

"I believe each and every one of us has that temptation to go into other fields," said Bishop Losten, who once wanted to be an opera singer. In fact, his love for classical music still runs so deep that a radio in his office is constantly tuned to 96.3 FM WQXR, the classical music radio station of The New York Times. "But I didn't have the money to go to opera school."

He was, however, able to use what skills he had to work tirelessly for the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Throughout his career, the bishop maintained the reputation of a dedicated hierarch, often answering his own phone calls, traveling on weekends to parishes within his jurisdiction and taking part in fund-raisers to benefit the Church.

"Our job is to be there and be seen," Bishop Losten said one afternoon after serving a Julian calendar Christmas liturgy in New York City. "I always tell the bishops: if the people don't see you, they don't know you."

Those who have worked with him personally say Bishop Losten is a decisive man, though one who keeps close tabs on the flow of money to all churches under his jurisdiction.

Helping the Church in Ukraine

As a fund-raiser and advocate for the Church, the bishop said that his work has resulted in much help for the Church in Ukraine. On one occasion in the early 1990s, Bishop Losten was behind the effort to purchase new cars for bishops and priests in Ukraine. The Church at that time was struggling, having priests cover multiple parishes throughout western Ukraine. Bishop Losten helped purchase cars so that clergy could drive from congregation to congregation.

"I say that I myself did not do it, but I was instrumental in getting others to do it," Bishop Losten said of the purchases.

On another occasion, the bishop was lecturing a group of Ukrainian seminarians in Lviv in what he said was a freezing cold church. At the time, the seminary did not have its own buildings.

"This can't be," Bishop Losten remembers saying to himself one day after class. "So we went to Archbishop [Volodymyr] Sterniuk and said, 'I'm here now; let's go look for a place.'"

Bishop Losten said he and others went in search for a suitable home for what would later become a portion of the Lviv Theological Academy. They came upon a dilapidated summer camp in the town of Rudno, and Bishop Losten remembered saying, "Let's buy it."

"The archbishop thought I was nuts, but I said, 'Don't look at the buildings. Look at the land; look at all of the land," Bishop Losten said.

It took some four months to repair buildings, raise money through collections from the community and move into the new facilities. "We were slowly able to get ourselves together. That's how we started - very, very slowly," the bishop said.

Among the pressing issues facing the Church in the future, Bishop Losten stressed during one interview with The Weekly the need to keep "the face of our Church evident."

One Church

"My whole vision for our Church is one Church," Bishop Losten said, stressing the idea among all Ukrainian Churches of ecumenism, or the idea of promoting worldwide unity among religions.

"Volodymyr only had one faith," Bishop Losten said. "We have to enlighten the people about this faith. It's not the bishops; the bishops are all in union about uniting to create one Church." There is a strong undercurrent among the people in Ukraine who are opposed to the idea of uniting Ukraine's Orthodox and Catholic Churches, Bishop Losten said, citing this as among his Church's greatest problems.

With his resignation officially accepted, Bishop Losten said he would continue to work as the bishop emeritus of the Stamford Eparchy. Bishop Paul Chomnycky, who will succeed Bishop Losten, will be enthroned by Cardinal Lubomyr Husar during a ceremony on February 20 in Stamford.

Bishop Losten will continue to oversee the administrative needs of the eparchy until the new bishop is enthroned. Once the new bishop is in place, Bishop Losten will stay on in Stamford and spend a portion of his time in retirement helping the new bishop get acquainted with the eparchy.

"It's not going to be easy," Bishop Losten said. "Getting him introduced into how things work in New York - it will be very new and difficult for him, but people are going to really like him."

Contemplating the past

Speaking to a crowd of 150 people who gathered in Stamford, on January 14 to celebrate St. Basil's Feast Day, the bishop said he is often asked what he will do next. "I will have an opportunity to contemplate my past," he said.

He is planning to write a memoir of his life in the Church, but said he will need help with certain technical aspects. "I have an old IBM typewriter - I can't even start a computer," he said jokingly.

During the recent celebration, Lubow Wolynetz, curator of the Ukrainian Museum and Library of Stamford, recounted the tale of Sisyphus, who was condemned forever to roll a huge stone up a hill in Hades only to have it roll down again on nearing the top.

"Our own Bishop Losten has been pushing this great stone up the hill for 28 years," she said.

When the moment came for him to address his audience, Bishop Losten, pushing the podium toward the center of the room, said: "You are my family, and with you I have lived through the greatest moments of my religious life."

"I think in retirement I will continue to push that boulder," the bishop said, "I still have 75 years of work left."

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 12, 2006, No. 7, Vol. LXXIV

| Home Page |