The life and times of Maxim Hermaniuk (05/12/96)

The life and times of Maxim Hermaniuk

by Christopher Guly

OTTAWA - For almost half a century, he was the mitre on the Prairies for the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada.

In days gone by, his scholasticism would have earned him the label "Doctor of the Church." In these times, Maxim Hermaniuk's aplomb at diplomatic ecumenism made him the penultimate conciliator. His loyalties were many. To Ukrainians, his voice against Soviet communism was considered among the most credible. To Ukrainian Catholics, his loyalty to Rome - especially during the high points of the patriarchal movement from the 1960s to 1980s - was second to none. To Rome, he was, not surprisingly, perhaps the best friend in the Eastern Rite.

Few would dispute the indelible mark Canada's first Ukrainian Catholic metropolitan, who died in Winnipeg on May 3, left on the Church's, if not Canada's, history.

When he attended Vatican II - as chairman of the 15-member Ukrainian Catholic bishops' delegation - Archbishop Hermaniuk was instrumental in securing the release of Cardinal Josyf Slipyj from the Soviet's grasp. Taking advantage of 2,500 bishops present in Rome, he took an ad out in Il Journale D'Italia on November 22, 1962, calling for support in bringing Archbishop-Major Slipyj to the Vatican.

"It was a day that the whole Church listened to our voice," recalled Metropolitan Hermaniuk in The Weekly in 1987. Pope John XXIII heard, and sent a delegation to Moscow. On February 10, 1963, Metropolitan Slipyj of Lviv arrived in Rome.

"I remember the feeling I had when we all walked into the Second Session [of Vatican II] with [Cardinal Slipyj] on October 11, 1963," said Metropolitan Hermaniuk. "You could hear a fly, a pin drop. All eyes were directed toward him - they considered him a witness to the persecution of the Church."

Metropolitan Hermaniuk, meanwhile, became known as the "father of collegiality" for promoting equality among the hierarchy through a permanent synod of bishops, and as an ecumenical peacemaker.

"We are a minority within the Roman Catholic Church, and I think Archbishop Hermaniuk's good public relations skills ensured that our voice was heard," the late Bishop Jerome Chimy of New Westminster, British Columbia, said in a 1991 interview.

In December 1965, during the last Vatican II session, Metropolitan Hermaniuk argued that the 11th century excommunication of the patriarch of Constantinople was not the result of any doctrinal differences between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

"When some of the bishops heard that, it was like an atom bomb had dropped," recalled the metropolitan. But his argument was obviously convincing.

On December 7, 1965, a representative of Patriarch Athanagoras heard Pope Paul VI publicly revoke the excommunication of his predecessor. "There was so much applause, the longest of the entire Synod, that it didn't seem to end. It was such a joy for me that after nine centuries of condemnation and incrimination, there was finally an understanding."

Twenty-four years later, Archbishop Hermaniuk - then 78 - experienced a more personal reconciliation when he returned to Ukraine after an absence of 51 years.

He recalled the moment in a 1990 interview with The Weekly. "I was leaving [Lviv's] Dnister Hotel to go out and saw a group of people. I was approached by a lady who greeted me with flowers. I said to her, 'Would I know you, dear lady?' She said, 'I'm your younger sister, Natalka.' When I left home, she was 12. Now, she [was] 62 with children and grandchildren. Of course, she started to cry and so did I. Beside her was another woman crying as well...'I'm your older sister, Maria,' she said. She [was] 80."

But beneath his diminutive 5-foot-4-inch exterior lay a Napoleonesque, steely-willed determination. Rules, for Metropolitan Hermaniuk, were rules. When asked about the intransigence to resign by his old friend and similar aged colleague, Toronto's Bishop Isidore Borecky, the archbishop told The Weekly in a 1993 interview, "I know his situation, but this is the law of the Church. Bishops and archbishops have to comply. But he prefers to say no."

Two years earlier, Metropolitan Hermaniuk chaired a Ukrainian Catholic commission that created a unique canon law code for the Eastern Church. Among its provisions: a mandatory retirement age of 75 for Ukrainian Catholic bishops.

Yet the gravelly voiced prelate would omit such details in conversation. A scholars' scholar, it was left up to reporters and interrogators to fill in the blanks.

Named an officer of the Order of Canada in 1982 and a member of Manitoba's Order of the Buffalo Hunt 12 years later, Metropolitan Hermaniuk will probably be remembered as embracing the attitude of his episcopal motto, "Thy Kingdom Come."

Certainly, he saw his own life as the result of divine providence. "During my darkest moments, I would always say, "Lord, it's absolutely up to you what I will do," he said. "Relief came in knowing that I was trying to do what I thought was His will."

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