LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (09/13/98)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

We must save our Soyuzivka

Dear Editor:

Soyuzivka was built by our parents as our national home in the diaspora. Will we now take this away from our children under the guise of "savings"? How can we, in this rich country, give up so easily?

My father taught me many things, but one day he uttered a simple statement that stuck with me like a melody that won't leave: "You will spend half of your working life earning things, and you will spend the other half stopping others from taking it away."

What I can't understand is why our own people are trying to take away the home of the diaspora. What "siege mentality" financial accounting dictates that we must close our doors to survive? How many other ethnic centers have fallen to this false logic, only to slide down the slippery slope of "100 percent cost savings" - otherwise known as "closed forever."

Is Soyuzivka unsuccessful? Let me tell you that you have a better chance of getting Taras Shevchenko to sign his autograph at the front desk on a weekend in July then signing a reservation! It would seem that a place that is so heavily booked in the summer can certainly generate enough income to offset the cost of maintaining a small staff during the off season.

Exactly how much would be saved by closing the doors? The largest expenses will remain. Taxes don't go away, and neither does insurance. Roads must still be plowed in the winter in case of fire. There is no significant cut in heating. Buildings not used during the slow months are not heated now and any heating expense should be welcomed since it means paying customers.

Instead of cutting costs, we must develop business plans and budgets to increase, not decrease, the use of our Ukrainian home in the diaspora.

Understandably, the diaspora has lost some wind in its sails. For too long our reason for living was to fight the outside Soviet menace. Our dreams have come true and now we have a free Ukraine which requires a proactive philosophy and not the old one. It's time to end the "circle the wagons" mentality.

The home of the diaspora is at Soyuzivka - not in the ledgers of insurance policies. Our home reaches every corner of the continent. If you doubt this, review the address of the hundreds of children who enjoyed summer camp this year. One family of three generations with Lemko roots came from Houston. Another family of three generations with roots in Poltava came from Canada. And guess what? Another family drove all the way from San Francisco on the Pacific coast so that one son could learn his first Ukrainian words and appreciate Ukrainian culture with other Ukrainian children.

To repeat, too many have worked too long to make our national home in the diaspora, and it cannot be taken away. Closing it for six months will further reduce revenues and this will result in its closing forever.

We must plan for the success of our home in the diaspora just as free Ukraine has now reversed its fall and is rising from the ashes. Otherwise, we Ukrainians in the diaspora are our own worst enemy.

Yaroslav Chelak
Karen Chelak
Morristown, N.J.

P.S.: UNA members recently received a plea to purchase the new UNA Blue/Gold discount policy. If you want to help, please purchase this one even if you already have a policy. It will help generate revenues for the UNA and Soyuzivka. Call 1-800-253-9862.

And to those readers with children, let us tell you that, thanks to multiculturalism, our two daughters have more daily exposure to everything but our own culture. Send your children to camp at Soyuzivka (we did), and plan your vacation there also. No long lines, no ridiculous prices, plenty of time to relax, and no need to "take a vacation after your vacation."

Catholics should protest decree

Dear Editor:

On March 4, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, secretary of state, Vatican, addressed to the apostolic nuncio in Warsaw a decree that married priests of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Poland will have to return to Ukraine. Orthodox Churches, the Church of England with its communion Churches, the 124-member Churches of the Lutheran World Federation and others have expressed ecumenical concern about this odd development.

The Ukrainian Catholic Church was to deliberate the decree at its Sobor in Lviv this August, and its synod of bishops will act on the conciliar findings when they meet the following month. Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, has expressed disappointment at the expulsion decree and called it ecumenically harmfully.

Catholics in the United States have a special obligation as regards this decree. In 1929 the Holy See acceded to repeated requests by Latin Rite bishops in the U.S. to forbid the ordination of married men to the priesthood in the Eastern Rites in the U.S., or the sending of married priests from the native regions of these rites to serve immigrants in the U.S. This years Polish bishops' conference based its request on the American precedent of 1929.

Catholics in the U.S., indeed all Christians concerned with ecumenism, can express dissatisfaction with the Vatican secretary of state's decree expelling married Ukrainian priests from Poland, by sending letters to or phoning/faxing the nunciature in Washington: His Excellency, The Most Rev. Agostino Cacciavillan, Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to the U.S., 3339 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20008-3687; telephone, (202) 333-7121; fax, (202) 337-4036.

Latin Rite bishops in the U.S. should be asked to officially reverse their position of 1929, as was recently done by the Australian Catholic bishops' conference with regard to their position of 1949. To support a reversal in the U.S., write or phone/fax: The Most Rev. Anthony M. Pilla, President, National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 3211 Fourth St., NE Washington, DC 20017-1194; telephone, (202) 541-3000; fax, (202) 541-3166.

Send copies of correspondence to: The Most Rev. Stephen Sulyk, Ukrainian Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, 827 N. Franklin St., Philadelphia, PA 19123.

Oles Cheren
Mansfield, Ohio

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