Cardinal Husar announces exarchate in eastern Ukraine (05/26/02)

Cardinal Husar announces exarchate in eastern Ukraine

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church has opened an exarchate in the predominantly Orthodox eastern region of Ukraine, announced Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, archbishop major of the UGCC, on May 13 in Kyiv.

Cardinal Husar said that on the previous day the Church had elevated a new bishop, Stepan Menko, to lead the new Donetsk-Kharkiv Exarchate during an archiepiscopal divine liturgy at Holy Protectress Cathedral in Donetsk. Among the notable individuals present at the ceremony besides Cardinal Husar, was Archbishop Mykola Eterovic, the Vatican's papal nuncio to Ukraine, UGCC Bishop Vasyl Medvit of the Kyiv-Vyshhorod Exarchate and local representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarch.

The Donetsk-Kharkiv Exarchate is the second one established in Ukraine. The Kyiv-Vyshhorod Exarchate was developed six years ago. An exarchate is a church administrative structure headed by a bishop, but considered an organizational notch below the level of a full eparchy because of a more limited number of faithful and clergy.

During his sermon, newly installed Bishop Menko said the UGCC does not want other religious confessions in eastern Ukraine to feel threatened by the new official presence of the Catholic Church there.

"Our Church moves eastward with love, peace and God's blessings," said the new bishop, according to a UGCC press release.

Cardinal Husar continued that theme the day after the ceremony. He explained that there is a considerable number of UGCC faithful in the eastern regions of the country, and the Church simply wants to organize them and attend to them properly.

"If we don't look after them, who will," queried the head of the UGCC.

Cardinal Husar said that many UGCC faithful had moved to the far eastern reaches of Ukraine over the last half century for various reasons: some were forcibly transplanted by Soviet authorities, while others were not allowed to attend institutions of higher learning in western Ukraine so they relocated eastward. Still others moved to the Donetsk region because the high-risk jobs in the coal mines were plentiful and paid more.

He explained that the UGCC is not looking to proselytize or to intrude on the predominance of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate in that region but simply to organize its faithful in that area of Ukraine. He said the UGCC is looking to bring together scattered adherents of the Greek-Catholic faith from all across Ukraine.

"In this way we are developing our Church," explained Cardinal Husar.

The UOC-MP has strenuously opposed any moves by the UGCC to move outside its stronghold in western Ukraine and vociferously opposed the visit by Pope John Paul II to Ukraine last year, calling it a missionary journey to convert Orthodox faithful.

"There is much misunderstanding about our development," explained Cardinal Husar. "There are those who say that we are aggressively pursuing expansion to capture the east. But we have faithful there and it is our responsibility to serve them if they consider themselves Greek-Catholics. We are not searching for or recruiting new converts."

The UGCC head did state, however, that those who would wish to become members of the UGCC would not be turned away.

The Church leader noted that in western Ukraine the job of re-establishing the UGCC - which was forced underground in 1946 when an unauthorized synod of bishops artificially created by the Soviet Union, decided to abolish the Church and absorb Greek-Catholics into the UOC-MP - is basically complete.

Cardinal Husar said it was time to move past pretentious tokenism to a serious effort and an open dialogue among the various Christian confessions of Ukraine for common understanding and eventual union. He said that a central reason that so many Ukrainians remain removed from any religious identity is due to the strife and conflict they see among the main religious confessions.

During a press conference that covered many topics, Cardinal Husar also reiterated a call to the Ukrainian government that had been made previously by other Church leaders, to recognize theology as a legitimate area of study in Ukraine. He noted that all of Ukraine's neighbors, including Belarus and Russia, have recognized the topic as a legitimate area of university studies.

Cardinal Husar also touched on the matter of the transfer of the UGCC's center from Lviv to Kyiv. Cardinal Husar said he could not identify a specific date when such a move would take place, but said that the transfer would be done very deliberately - "with little noise" - so as not to stir further acrimony from other confessions. He noted, however, that the construction of the UGCC's central cathedral in Kyiv near the left bank of the Dnipro River, where land has already been cleared, would begin within weeks. He said that if charitable funding held up, the construction project would be completed in a couple of years.

The UGCC has eight full eparchies in Ukraine, in addition to its two exarchates. A third exarchate, Odesa-Crimea, is planned for the future. There are some 4 million Greek-Catholics in Ukraine belonging to 2,240 parishes and a total of nearly 6 million around the world.

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