INTERVIEW: Bishop Husar on developments in the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (02/07/99)

INTERVIEW: Bishop Husar on developments in the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

Bishop Lubomyr Husar, the acting leader of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, recently agreed to an interview with The Ukrainian Weekly to discuss the Sobor and Synod held in Lviv in September 1998. Bishop Husar spoke not only about the recent gatherings of leaders of the worldwide Ukrainian Greek-Catholic community, but also about the controversy over married priests, a possible visit to Ukraine by Pope John Paul II and upcoming celebrations of 2000 years of Christianity. The interview was conducted in Ukrainian at the Kyiv residence of the Vatican's papal nuncio to Ukraine. Following is an edited translation of the interview.

Q: What were the results of the Ukrainian Greek- Catholic Sobor and Synod that occurred at the end of August and the beginning of September 1998?

A: I believe that it was in 1959, or let's just say in the late 1950s, that all our bishops from around the world, the free world at the time, first officially met.

More periodic Synods began under the leadership of His Holiness Josyf Slipyj in 1963, and by the late 1960s were a regular occurrence. They attained a legal character in the late 1970s, and by that time all or most all of the bishops attended regularly.

Every time a Synod occurs, its format, its technique, its operation, improves. There have been Synods that dealt with very important matters: for example, the division of an eparchy or on specific liturgical matters, the results of which are felt for years. Others have a more fleeting character.

In any case, every year we polish the procedural aspect of the Synod. Each Synod, at least the ones in which I have taken part, continues to improve the technique, as it were.

As for the contents of the Synod, at this Synod we addressed a very important topic, we only began to address it because we foresaw from the outset that we wouldn't finish it, and that was a deep discussion on the place of our Church in the Universal Church.

The point is to better understand ourselves. Two or three years ago the thought was that such a discussion should occur at a general patriarchal Sobor. This changed after we realized that it is such an expansive and difficult theme that it would be difficult to do this at a general Sobor in that the topic has so many aspects.

We decided to address this within a tighter circle of bishops. We invited several non-bishopric experts and analyzed the topic from several points - the historical, biblical, liturgical, canonical, ecumenical - to attempt to better understand who we are, what is our role in the universal Church, keeping in mind that we now are living in a free country of Eastern Europe, in the geopolitical context, and keeping in mind the point of our existence, that of the Greek-Catholic in the Church.

These issues, it can be said, are of a fundamental nature and will help us develop answers to other concrete matters. If we don't have a well-thought-through understanding of our roots, our reason for existing, the nature of that existence, our place in the universal Church, even in a divided Church, then it becomes difficult to develop answers to specific problems.

It becomes what Americans call lurching from one catastrophe to another. There is no integrated aim, and it is reflected in the life of our Church.

So, from that point of view, I think it was a very positive result in the life of our Church, a discussion that I believe will continue in one form or another. The discussion is very important. We will continue to call on experts, and continue our discussions at various levels.

I believe that this was the most important outcome of the Synod. Besides that, the Synod also dealt with a whole slew of more practical matters - not only matters that crop up annually but also ones with longer-term resonance.

For example, we put forward the matter of liturgical renewal. Everyone is pleased with the beauty of our liturgy, people love it, foreigners are impressed. However, we asked ourselves whether our nation really utilizes the treasure that is our liturgy; whether we take advantage of the treasure?

With that as the aim, some steps were made, but they are for the long term. For example, at the next Synod the liturgical commission looking into the matter is supposed present a 10-year program, that is, a long-term project for the renewal of our liturgy.

As for more short-term matters, there was the topic of the celebration of the year 2000. It is short-term, it will all end within two years. What we focused on, however, was how we could take advantage of the opportunity. It is a date to which something could be attached, which the holy father had the good forethought to realize.

We decided on our participation in specific celebrations [in Rome], which will be limited. One, for example, will be our participation in the commemoration of the contemporary martyrs who were persecuted in this century. We will send a delegation of no more than 50 persons, most importantly people who suffered: bishops, priests, laypersons who experienced persecution firsthand.

We also expect a large turnout of people for the youth days celebration, which is scheduled for the second half of August in the year 2000. The third event will be the participation of our bishops in a divine liturgy with the holy pontiff on October 1, which will include not only Ukrainians but also other Greek-Catholics. From Ukraine we will take a choir of limited size.

Individual eparchies from Ukraine have expressed an interest in traveling to Rome, but they will do that on their own. There is no planned national action. Today it is difficult for us to do something on a large scale because we do not have the funds.

That is one class [of celebration]. Another class will be a kind of all-Ukrainian celebration on the territory of Ukraine. The largest action will be an all-Ukrainian prayer meeting at Zarvanytsia. We will invite everybody to this, including members of the diaspora.

We also are planning retreats, national conferences, things like that. The rest will occur at the eparchy level and will be decided individually. That will include missions for children, teens, young adults. For example, we are planning celebrations for various categories of our faithful - for married people, priests, monks, nuns, youngsters, the elderly, the sick. And then by professional groups - lawyers, teachers, students, doctors, soldiers - a very large calendar of events during which we want to take advantage of the opportunity to organize these people in the Christian community so that they deepen their professional knowledge with their Christian beliefs.

Q: And how did the Sobor turn out?

A: Unfortunately, at our Synod we did not have the opportunity and time to review the proposals of the Patriarchal Sobor. It ended just as our Synod began. We are currently doing this. All the bishops have received the proposals, and we have asked them to return them by the beginning of December.

We will review them during the course of the daily work of the Synod and hope to have them ready for release by the beginning of Lent to stimulate the life of our laymen and to educate a Christian intelligentsia, which we lack to a degree. We have learned people, intelligent, wise - but we do not have a developed intelligentsia.

The main topic covered at this Sobor was the role of the layperson. It was very interesting. There were representatives from nearly our whole Church. Each eparchy could send six representatives: a bishop, a priest and four laymen, two younger and two older.

The youth was not fully represented, unfortunately. We especially designated two places [from each eparchy] for youth. If all had come there would have been 48 young people younger than 30. Their contribution would have been greater, however, there were not enough of them.

The discussions were very interesting and encompassed a wide range of activity. We are planning now to form a commission at the bishopric level which will deal with issues of the layperson, and at the same time we will be working to get the laity to better organize itself. And this must begin with bettering the health of parishes, especially on the territory of Ukraine. We must put the parish on its feet. If the parish functions normally, then the laypeople will expand their activity even more, and it will help the Church expand.

Q: For when are the next Synod and Sobor scheduled?

A: The next Synod is scheduled for March 2-8. We will have Synods every year through the year 2000. Then we will see. After that it may be held every other year. That's still up for discussion.

The next Sobor is scheduled for 2001. It was scheduled for 2000, but so much will be going on that we decided not to mix the two, but rather to put it off to 2001. The topic of the Sobor will be "Social Teaching of the Church and its Realization by the Ukrainian Catholic Church."

Q: Last fall you returned from a meeting in Rome of the Congregation of Eastern Churches. To put a broad base to the question, let me ask simply if there were any achievements?

A: I believe that very interesting themes were addressed. By that I mean, how can the Eastern Churches live their own life? That is, how can they better live by their own traditions?

I was only there for two of the four days, and only as an observer, but my impression was very positive. I heard that there is a very real desire for the Churches to make their mark on the universal Church. For years, or centuries, we lost our Eastern identity through various influences. Through persecution, Turkish and other occupations, through the Latinization process.

But through the expressed desires and concrete proposals, I was positively taken by the desire that the Churches should in a step-by-step process renew their traditions, not that the Churches should return to a time 1,000 years back, but that they should live today with the treasures of their past.

Q: Was there any discussion regarding the status of married priests?

A: It was not part of the formal agenda. It was discussed at our Synod. In Rome the subject was touched upon at the plenary session [of the Congregation of Eastern Churches]. It was not on the list of subjects to be covered. But some discussion occurred.

At the Synod it was part of official discussions. We decided in a resolution to turn to the pope and Cardinal [Angelo] Sodano to request that the matter be decided in a way so as not to cause consternation, and that we be allowed to support all our localities with married clergy from Ukraine, and the best would be that married clergy from the localities would be allowed to serve.

That desire has been expressed [to the Vatican] along with supportive pastoral argumentation. The situation has changed drastically, you see. A hundred years ago, for example, the Western Church in the United States and even Western Europe did not accept the idea of a married priest. Today, it is far more open to the idea. But there are various elements that must be dealt with.

We have put forward our proposals, our argumentation, and now a discussion will begin.

Q: I think that there was no doubt that such a proposal would appear as a result of your Synod, but how do you think the pope will look at such a proposal?

A: It seems to me that the argumentation in its sum, in the way we presented it, will have positive results. You must realize that this is not supposed to affect one or another person. A certain development of the concept must take place, and the world must become accustomed to it.

This could be a step-by-step process, but nonetheless, we are hoping for a positive determination. This is our position, and we believe there is a basis for believing such.

Q: Are the married priests of the Ukrainian Greek- Catholic Church in Poland today working and celebrating divine liturgy there?

A: Oh yes, of course. Nothing has changed. They are needed there and continue to work there. There are all together six married priests from Ukraine. And I believe that three of them are in Poland without their wives. Their wives remain in Ukraine.

It seems that this matter has been a bit overblown. There are only six of them in all.

But it did give us the ability to present the needs of our Church. It was in a sense a positive moment for us. It gave us a chance to calmly present this problem in its spiritual pastoral sense, without the need to rely on historical rights; simply to show that we need priests.

Our diaspora helped us, mostly financially. How can we help them, we have little to give? But we do have people. Some of them want to go and have gone, to America, to Canada. But many are married.

If they weren't there, we would have large numbers of vacancies in the eparchies. So at least in this way we can at least partially repay our brothers in the diaspora.

Q: Now, a question that we continually return to when we meet with you: the matter of a visit by Pope John Paul II to Ukraine. We heard from, of all people, the press spokesman for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate of rumors of a visit by the pope to Ukraine scheduled for 1999 during the come-up to the presidential elections. Could you please comment?

A: There have been such discussions, without a doubt. And, yes, they are in regard to a visit in 1999.

But this year is an election year and that is where the difficulty lies. The pope does not, as such, visit a country that is going through elections. That forms a political situation, which the pope avoids.

The way it looks right now, even though I can't assure you because this is not first-hand information, an invitation will be issued without a specific date identified, simply an open invitation to which a date will be added later, depending on the situation.

In the year 2000 the pope will not be traveling because there will be much work [at the Vatican in conjunction with the celebrations of the Second Millennium of Christ].

But there will be an open invitation, which for us is a great step forward. A year, maybe two, ago it didn't seem possible. So this is a step forward. But I am sure that in the pre-election period he will not be here.

Q: So can one say that at least there is an agreement for a visit?

A: No, you can't say that there is an agreement, that will only be true when there is an invitation. The official invitation [from Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs] will be the proof.

Q: Last question. What is the state of the health of Archbishop-Metropolitan Ivan Lubachivsky?

A: In general, it is good, thank God. He has some minor problems with his legs. He receives visitors, friends from America from the time he spent there, visits by cardinals and bishops during the recent Synod.

You can say that the state of his health, considering his age, is very good, except for his legs. He is now 85, and recently celebrated 60 years of his priesthood.

His work is limited to the ceremonial aspects of his position, or to signing special documents, but the day-to-day activities are now on my shoulders.

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