1987: A LOOK BACK: The Millennium and our Churches (12/27/87)

1987: A LOOK BACK

The Millennium and our Churches

The year 1987 was the year before the Millennium of Christianity in Kievan Rus', but you might have thought that it was the year of the 1,000th anniversary, as it seemed that every event staged in every Ukrainian community was dedicated to that historic jubilee.

Politicians, too, got into the act. Gov. Thomas Kean of New Jersey issued a proclamation on May 15 recognizing the Millennium of Ukraine's Christianity as well as the 600th anniversary of Lithuania's Christianization. Pennsylvania Gov. Bob Casey on June 24 signed a proclamation designating 1988 as the year of Millennium celebrations in his state. Also on that day, hierarchs of both the Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox Churches, respectively, Archbishop-Metropolitan Stephen Sulyk and Bishop Antony, were present at the ceremonies at the Pennsylvania State Capitol and delivered addresses.

Much time was devoted to planning events for 1988.

The National Committee to Commemorate the Millennium of Christianity in Ukraine announced that weeklong observances of the anniversary would take place in Washington on October 2-9. Planned events include concerts, a scholarly conference and a demonstration protesting religious repression in Ukraine.

In Canada, the Ukrainian Canadian Committee announced that a three-day celebration would be held in Ottawa on October 6-8, 1988. Scheduled are concerts, exhibits, a reception, seminars and religious services.

The Mazepa Foundation, meanwhile, announced that, under the aegis of the national Millennium committee in the U.S., and in cooperation with the Ukrainian National Association, it is sponsoring a Millennium Concert on February 14 at Avery Fisher Hall with a program of Ukrainian religious music performed by the Choral Guild of Atlanta, members of the symphony orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, and Met stars Paul Plishka, Vyacheslav Polozov, Andrij Dobriansky, Marta Senn and Gilda Cruz-Romo.

Meanwhile, the Harvard Project on the Millennium released the first three facsimile volumes of the Harvard Library of Early Ukrainian Literature, while the Harvard University Ukrainian Studies Fund published various booklets on the occasion of the Millennium.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. officially began its celebrations of the Millennium with the unveiling of a monument to St. Olha, Princess of Ukraine, at the Ukrainian Orthodox Center in South Bound Brook, N.J. Some 10,000 people came to the August 16 unveiling of the monument sculpted by Peter Kapshuchenko.

On September 18, U.S.A. Today published a "special advertising section" headlined "Ukrainian Catholics Celebrate 1,000 Years as Christians." The insert was the work of a public relations firm hired by Bishops Robert Moskal and Basil Losten to promote Millennium commemorations.

Ukrainian Catholic bishops held their synod in Rome on September 21-30. They were addressed by Pope John Paul II on September 29, who assured the hierarchs that he would participate in the Ukrainian Catholic Church's celebrations of the Millennium planned for next July in Rome. Ukrainian Catholic laity had a chance to meet with the pope during a papal audience that same day. Wasyl Kolodchin of the Ukrainian World Patriarchal Society, outlined proposals for action by the Apostolic See: that the Soviets be pressured to respect human and religious rights and to permit the Ukrainian Catholic Church to exist in the Soviet Union; that the Ukrainian Catholic Patriarchate be recognized; that the beautification process of Servant of God Andrey Sheptytsky be hastened; that the lot of the faithful in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Rumania be improved with the assistance of the Apostolic See.

Then, on October 17, Polish and Ukrainian Catholic hierarchs exchanged mutual pardons for their nations' past wrongs and pledged cooperation at a meeting in Rome. It was also announced that day that Polish Primate Cardinal Josef Glemp had stated that the Marian Shrine at Czestochowa would be the site of a commemoration of the Ukrainian Millennium. Cardinal Myroslav Lubachivsky, leader of the Ukrainian Catholic Church will attend those commemorations. He is also slated to visit Ukrainian Catholic faithful in Yugoslavia next year.

Soon afterwards, on November 6, Cardinal Lubachivsky called for reconciliation with the Russian nation and the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church: "In keeping with Christ's spirit, we extend our hand of forgiveness, reconciliation and love to the Russian nation and to the Moscow Patriarchate. We repeat, as we said in our reconciliation with the Polish nation, the words of Christ: 'forgive us, as we forgive you' (Matthew 6:12)."

The statement took most in the Ukrainian community - Catholics and non-Catholics - by surprise. Some observers explained that the offer of mutual forgiveness was given in a purely Christian spirit and in the same vein as the earlier reconciliation with the Polish nation. Others, however, asked: For what are we seeking forgiveness from the Moscow Patriarchate? How can we extend a hand to the Moscow Patriarchate without addressing the rights of the Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox Churches? Or, perhaps most pointedly, as one observer said, you cannot make a gesture to the Russian Orthodox Church while ignoring the issues of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Metropolitan Mstyslav of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. was disturbed by the cardinal's statement. In an archpastoral letter released soon afterwards, he stated that Ukrainian Catholic hierarchs have taken a separatist route and have refused to acknowledge the existence of other Christian faiths, including the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, among Ukrainians. "Finally, the road to a joint commemoration of the glorious 1,000th anniversary of Christian Ukraine was strewn with sharp stones and nails by none other than the primate of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Cardinal Myroslav I. Lubachivsky, who loudly to all in the world proclaimed forgiveness for all 'willful and unwillful wrongs' committed in the past and today by Moscow and its Patriarchate against the Ukrainian nation and its Holy Church," the metropolitan said.

Back in Ukraine, beginning on April 26, the first Sunday after, Easter, a vision of the Virgin Mary has apparently been seen in the village of Hrushiv. Tens of thousands of pilgrims have journeyed to the site of the apparition, and many claim to have seen the vision. The "miracle of Hrushiv" has even been reported in the Soviet press.

Clergy and laypersons of the clandestine Ukrainian Catholic Church in Ukraine in an August 4 statement appealed to Pope John Paul II and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to legalize their Church. Citing the "more favorable circumstances" arising as a result of the restructuring of Soviet society, as well as the upcoming Millennium of Christianity in Kievan Rus', the letter states, "we regard it no longer beneficial to remain in the underground." The letter's signatories, including two clerics identified for the first time as bishops, 22 priests, 12 monks, nuns and laypersons associated with monastic orders, and 174 faithful, thus came out of the underground and publicly proclaimed their religious beliefs.

Then, on September 29, the identity of the leader of the underground Ukrainian Catholic Church was revealed in Rome by Bishop Andres Sapelak. The leader is 80-year-old Bishop Volodymyr Sterniuk of Lviv.

Upon emigrating to the West, Yosyp Terelia, leader of the Initiative Group for the Defense of the Rights of Believers and the Church, has described a vibrant Ukrainian Catholic Church that includes some 5 million believers in Ukraine and has an underground structure that consists of a hierarchy, seminaries and schools.

Then, on December 23, it was reported that Ivan Hel, apparently the new head of the Initiative Group, delivered a statement signed by two bishops and 1,543 faithful of the Ukrainian Catholic Church to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in Moscow. The statement appealed for the legalization of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

As of the end of the year, there has been no public response by either the pope or the Ukrainian Catholic hierarchy in the diaspora to the momentous events and news from Ukraine.

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