1994: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Our Churches: woes of the faithful (12/25/94)

1994: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Our Churches: woes of the faithful

Although Ukrainian civic and government leaders complained that Ukraine's citizens were plagued not only by economic woes, but also by spiritual and cultural collapse in 1994, little was done to alleviate the situation.

One of President Kuchma's first moves in office was to create on July 22 a new department in the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Nationalities Issues, Immigration and Cults, and to appoint Mykola Shulha minister. The new Cabinet post eliminated the Council of Religious Affairs, but did little to create a much-needed infrastructure for religious life in Ukraine.

For example, despite the fact that over 20,000 Ukrainian Greek-Catholics live in Kyyiv, they continue to worship in two small chapels in the capital city. Although they broke ground in the summer of 1993 for a church, no work has been done to build a new house of worship because of problems with the city administration.

The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Lviv in September opened the doors of its Theological Seminary, which had been closed down in 1946 after the Soviet regime banned the Church.

The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, which boasts 3,000 parishes in Ukraine, held a synod of bishops on February 20-27 in Lviv under the guidance of Cardinal Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky and appointed three new bishops, including Bishop Julian Voronovsky as ordinary of the recently created Eparchy of Sambir-Drohobych. That announcement came on April 7 and he was installed on April 17.

On May 4 the Archeparchy of Lviv announced that it would receive two new auxiliary bishops, also named at the February conclave. These are the Rev. Julian Gbur and the Rev. Vasyl (Ihor) Medvit. Bishop Gbur was given the titular See of Bareta, and Bishop Medvit was given the titular See of Adriane.

However, little was disclosed about the Synod; issues such as the current territory of the Church and its patriarchal status were discussed, as well as the 50th anniversary of the death of Servant of God Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, and preparations for the1996 celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the Treaty of Brest and the 350th anniversary of the Union of Uzhhorod.

In an interview with The Weekly, Cardinal Lubachivsky also mentioned that the beatification of Metropolitan Andrey was reviewed, along with various liturgical and administrative decisions, among them, the situation of the Eparchy of Toronto.

The Ukrainian hierarch said the Roman Apostolic See has a great interest in the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and that the Church is continually gaining a greater understanding in Rome. Metropolitan Volodymyr Sterniuk, who served the Underground Church in Ukraine when it was banned for more than 40 years, disagreed; he expressed concern that Rome is trying to Latinize in Ukraine.

"The Vatican sent five Polish bishops of the Latin rite to Ukraine. The priests they brought with them began conducting liturgies in the Latin rite in Ukrainian, in order to lure the faithful. They turn people's heads this way, because there was never any basis for this here in Ukraine. Throughout Ukraine, the entire religious rite has always been Eastern. We adhere to it, our Orthodox brethren adhere to it.

"The Vatican's main imposition on us is the appointment of bishops for our Church who are not nominated by our Synod," said the 87-year-old Galician hierarch, who visited Toronto in June.

In the Toronto Eparchy, many of the problems of 1993 continued in 1994, as 12 priests from the eparchy filed a $1.1 million (Canadian) libel and slander suit against Bishop Roman Danylak on December 14, 1993. Included in the suit were two editors of the Catholic New Times and its publisher; the newspaper had carried a series of articles on the ongoing feud between the backers of Bishop Isidore Borecky and Bishop Danylak.

In the offending article, headlined "Ukrainian Catholics, I am known for my strong love of all things Ukrainian," Bishop Danylak denounced certain priests as incompetent in financial affairs and inadequately "theologically, religiously and spiritually trained."

However, on February 6, the Catholic New Times issued an apology to the 12 clergymen of the Toronto Eparchy, in hopes that the move would satisfy the plaintiffs.

The Rev. Myroslaw Tataryn, one of the plaintiffs, called the wording of the apology "excellent," and said that the action against the bi-weekly paper would be dropped.

Although some observers in the Toronto Eparchy predicted that Bishop Borecky, who had steadfastly refused to resign as Toronto's first Ukrainian Catholic bishop since the Vatican appointment of Bishop Danylak, would step down in May, as the year drew to a close, Bishop Borecky still was an active hierarch in the Toronto Eparchy.

Rumors of his resignation surfaced after he was visited by both a representative of Archbishop Carlo Curs, apostolic pro-nuncio to Canada, and a canon lawyer from St. Paul University in Ottawa.

Bishop Borecky, who met with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in March, said that nothing about the problems of the Toronto Eparchy had been discussed during their meeting.

Also, in 1994, the laity of the Ukrainian Catholic Church decided to take matters of their Church into their own hands, citing a growing anxiety over many concerns, including ecclesial, administrative and apostolic issues that are felt in the diaspora.

The future direction of the Church, relations with the Vatican and the steep drop in membership were among the issues mentioned in a document published in The Weekly on March 13, on the eve of the anniversary of the Treaty of Brest. The dramatic decline in Church membership in the U.S. may leave Ukrainian Catholic parishes in American decimated within the next 40 years.

The Laity Council, an advisory body to the Patriarchal Society, held a conference on November 11-13 at Manor Junior College in Jenkintown, Pa. The aim of the conference was to begin revitalizing the Ukrainian Catholic Church from the grassroots level; it was the outcome of the North American Declaration of Ukrainian Catholic Concern, supported by a cross-section of laity.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyyiv Patriarchate, headed by Patriarch Volodymyr and based at St. Volodymyr Sobor in Kyyiv, has about 2,000 parishes in Ukraine today. It experienced its own problems at the beginning of the year, as five bishops broke with the Church on December 29, 1993, to join the Moscow Patriarchate, claiming that the UOC-KP had no basis in canon law.

However, on December 5 of this year, the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyyiv Patriarchate called on the citizens of Ukraine for a unification of Ukraine's Orthodox Churches.

A council statement addressed to Orthodox believers emphasized that "Ukraine desperately needs unity of the Churches now," and the state needs "a united National Orthodox Church, without any conditions or reservations. Since there are no disputes of a dogmatic nature between Orthodox believers in Ukraine, they must shed all the political considerations that disunite them," said the document.

The UOC-KP hierarchs have addressed the Ukrainian president, Parliament, the government and local authorities, asking for assistance in uniting the Orthodox in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church-KP held two synods in 1994, on July 7 and on November 29-30, and the Church consecrated six new bishops. The Church has 21 eparchies, 14 monasteries and four seminaries.

The largest Orthodox Church in Ukraine is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate, which is based in the Monastery of the Caves in Kyyiv and headed by Metropolitan Volodymyr Sabadan. It numbers 6,000 parishes.

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