Ukraine mourns Pope John Paul II, recalls 2001 visit (04/10/05)

Ukraine mourns Pope John Paul II, recalls 2001 visit

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Gripping pink roses, an elderly Orthodox Christian, Halyna Dobrovolska, gently climbed steep church steps on a sunny morning.

She placed the bouquet at a memorial for Pope John Paul II, crossed herself, whispered a short prayer and went inside St. Alexander's Roman Catholic Church to pray further.

"He showed us love and spirituality," she said.

Ukrainians of all faiths lit candles, worshipped and prayed this week as they mourned the passing of Pope John Paul, the Roman Catholic Church leader whose historic visit to Ukraine in 2001 made a deep impression on the largely Orthodox Christian nation.

Ukraine's leaders, representing the nation's diverse spectrum of confessions and faiths, expressed their sympathies and condolences to the Vatican.

Before embarking on his trip to the United States, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko sent a letter of condolence to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals that selects the pope's successor.

"In the memories of Ukrainian citizens - Orthodox and Catholic, believers of other confessions, all who hold Christian values - there will always dwell a bright image of the Holy Father," Mr. Yushchenko wrote.

"Ukrainians, who are proud of their close blood relation with this great person, have always been deeply grateful for the sympathy and sincere love of His Holiness, for my people, his respect for our European history and culture. [He was] a symbol of good, peace, justice, and love of neighbor," he added.

Pope John Paul II earned a special reverence among Ukrainians after his 2001 trip to Kyiv and Lviv, the first visit ever by a pope to Ukraine.

At the time, Kyiv residents didn't quite know how to react to the pontiff's visit. Some protested in contempt; others were welcoming and many were indifferent.

Orthodox Christians such as Ms. Dobrovolska were among those moved.

"I became familiar with him then," she said. I attended the liturgy, and I felt that God brought me there. I really liked his sermons."

Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, primate of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, flew to Vatican City on Sunday. At the end of March, Cardinal Husar had two successful operations on his eyes. The patriarch was supposed to remain in the hospital for several more weeks under doctor's care. Instead, he decided to fly to Rome.

In a letter to clergy and faithful of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, Cardinal Husar wrote:

"The holy memory of Pope John Paul II during his many years of service as successor to St. Peter is of a man of Providence. Today, as we emotionally live through the pain of loss, we lack the perspective of time to properly value his historic stature and his multi-faceted activity. We will do this over the course of many following months and years. Today we can only say that during the years of his pontificate he greatly helped our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in her passage from a state of captivity to a normal way of life.

"Perhaps many of us feel regret that Pope John Paul II didn't complete all too well the beginning process of the rebirth of our Church, but the late Father himself stated that this is an act that in God's time will have its due fulfillment. He had hoped that he would be the one who accomplishes this, but it wasn't his fate. And this circumstance does not dare lessen our gratitude for what he did for our Church."

Most Catholics in Ukraine first learned of the pope's death when they had arrived for mass Sunday morning. Ukrainian Greek-Catholic churches held panakhydy (requiem services) that day, while Roman Catholics prayed their rosaries, which the pope had so vehemently urged his followers to do throughout his life.

Parishioners at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church at Kyiv's Askold Tomb felt a particular loss. Pope John Paul II visited their church to initiate his 2001 apostolic trip to Ukraine.

On June 23 of that year he knelt before the icon of the Zarvanytsia Mother of God and surrendered himself to Holy Mary's protection during his visit.

The icon was brought to Kyiv from the western Ukrainian village of Zarvanytsia at the pope's request.

To commemorate the pope's visit to their small church, the parish placed two plaques on the church's outside wall: one of the pope kneeling in prayer and the other of the icon itself.

Carnations, candles and framed pictures of the pope placed on makeshift benches adorned the plaques this week. Spilled wax smears the ground underneath.

"The pope's influence was sanctifying for the whole nation," said Father Ihor Onyshkevych, who founded St. Nicholas Church along with parishioners in 1990.

"It's as if, just by his apostolic journey alone, he brought God's blessing and the forgiveness of all the sins of our people," he said. "And that's how the possible changes happened in society. It was replenishing that resulted in the current day."

St. Nicholas scheduled panakhydy for nine consecutive days, and a parastas was to be offered on the morning of April 8, the day of the pope's funeral in Vatican City. Father Onyshkevych invited Orthodox priests to join his parish in worship.

St. Alexander's held a mass in honor of Pope John Paul II on April 7, the feast of the Annunciation, to which leaders of all of Ukraine's Christian, Jewish and other faiths were invited, said Father Oleksander Hurskyi.

St. George Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Cathedral in Lviv and all Ukrainian Catholic churches will hold panakhydy on April 8, the day of the pope's funeral; on April 10, the ninth day after the pope's death; and on May 11, the 40th day after death, in accordance with Church tradition.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian television reporters visited the Kachurovska sisters, two Ukrainian women who firmly believe that their Polish-born aunt, Emilia Kachurovska, was Pope John Paul II's mother, whose family lived for a period in the city of Kremenets in the Ternopil Oblast.

From their village of Vyshnivets in the Ternopil Oblast, Maria Kachurovska, 69, and Olena Obyziuk, 64, said they sent four letters to the pope, but were never able to confirm from him whether their "Titka Milia" (Aunt Milia) was indeed his mother.

The sisters believe that Emilia Kachurovska lost contact with the family because she had married a Pole, Karol Wojtyla, a decision her parents fiercely opposed.

The pope had stated publicly that his mother was Rusyn, according to several historians of the papacy.

Ukraine's Orthodox Church leaders issued statements expressing their sympathy and condolences, and honoring Pope John Paul II and his legacy. They also opened books in their churches for parishioners to sign and express their condolences.

"Of course, the pope's memory won't only be in the hearts of believing Catholics," said Metropolitan Filaret, the patriarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP). "Orthodox Christians will also remember him."

Metropolitan Volodymyr, leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), sent a letter of condolence to the Vatican. He wrote: "The Pontificate of His Holiness John Paul II became one of the most important periods in the life of the Roman Catholic Church. The pope was a person who was not indifferent to the problems of the current world and openly called for peace, brotherhood, mutual respect and love. Even in the last days of his life, under severe physical pain, His Holiness was with his faithful."

The UOC-MP is under the jurisdiction of the Moscow patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose leader would not issue an invitation to Pope John Paul II to visit Russia, something the pontiff had longed to do.

Outside St. Alexander's in central Kyiv, which the pope also visited in 2001, a billboard with a photograph of Pope John Paul II was placed on a ledge, leaned against the church wall.

Printed along the billboard's bottom was the phrase in Ukrainian, "John Paul II, you were a gift to the Church and to peace."

The effect of Pope John Paul's visit was apparent more than three years later in the city he referred to as "the cradle of eastern Christianity."

Many of those taking time out of their day to visit St. Alexander's happened to be Orthodox Christians, who came to pay tribute to a Christian leader whose quest for peace struck a chord that reverberated among people of all faiths, confessions and denominations.

Natalia Fedorenko, 25, an Orthodox Christian who said she attends Catholic mass, said the pope's courage in 2001 impressed her.

At the time, the Moscow Patriarchate did not welcome the pope, and did not send a leader to greet him upon his arrival.

"But the pope was not discouraged, and 2 million people came out to welcome him," Ms. Fedorenko said. "That was extraordinary."

Goran Sablic, 25, a Dynamo Kyiv soccer player from the mostly Catholic nation of Croatia, prayed with his wife, Monica, 25, in St. Alexander's after learning of the pope's death. Croatians revered the pope, particularly for his three visits to the country plagued by ethnic wars and strife, they said.

"He wanted peace and love," Ms. Sablic said.

Despite the religious tensions his 2001 visit sparked, Ukrainians said this week that Pope John Paul II united faithful Ukrainians rather than dividing them.

"For any decent, honest person who lives in peace with himself, this pope will be an example of how to live life," Ms. Fedorenko said.

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