Jewish-Ukrainian society seeks recognition of Sheptytsky among "Righteous of the World" (08/07/05)

Jewish-Ukrainian society seeks recognition of Sheptytsky among "Righteous of the World"

Religious Information Service of Ukraine

LVIV - Yakiv Suslensky, an Israeli civic activist, is planning to turn to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to enlist his assistance in pressing for posthumously recognizing Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC) from 1901 to 1944, as one of the "Righteous of the World."

Israel bestows such recognition on those who saved Jews in the Holocaust, risking their own lives. The beatification process for Sheptytsky, who died in 1944, started in 1958.

At the same time, attempts were under way to justly assess the metropolitan's heritage and actions in the field of Jewish-Ukrainian relations.

According to Mr. Suslensky, the administration of the Yad Vashem Memorial Museum in Jerusalem, which is responsible for studying the historical materials and awarding the title, has been putting up the most obstacles to the recognition of Sheptytsky. Mr. Suslensky and a group of his supporters have turned to the courts 18 times already to no avail.

A direct appeal to the president of Ukraine is seen by Mr. Suslensky as the only way out of the difficult situation with the museum. He said that he had already turned to Ukraine's two previous presidents, Leonid Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma, but that they ignored his request.

Mr. Suslensky said he hopes the new Ukrainian government will give more attention to the Sheptytsky case.

This initiative enjoys support from the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church itself. According to Father Oleksa Petriv, head of the UGCC Bureau for Contacts with State Authorities, "Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, and the risky system he started back then, brought a lot of real help for the Jews, so of course it would be good to tell the truth about this."

To attract societal attention, Mr. Suslensky and the members of the Society for Jewish-Ukrainian Relations that he heads are planning to organize a scholarly symposium in Kyiv dedicated to Sheptytsky. The warm words that Pope John Paul II spoke about Metropolitan Sheptytsky during his 2001 visit to Lviv, and the call to acknowledge the metropolitan as a "Righteous of the World" in Israel, provide hope that this eminent leader of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church will finally be properly honored, reported postup.brama.com.

Postup also noted that Mr. Suslensky served a seven-year term in the camps and prisons of the Soviet Union for his democratic convictions, together with many Ukrainian dissidents. He founded the Society for Jewish-Ukrainian Relations in 1979 in Israel, and has headed it since then. The society's objectives are to promote normalization and improvement in relations between the Jewish and the Ukrainian peoples, to shed light on the truth, fight stereotypes and promote Jewish-Ukrainian understanding, and to develop friendship between the two nations.

The title "Righteous of the World" was posthumously awarded in 1996 to Archimandrite Klymentii Sheptytsky, Metropolitan Andrey's Sheptytsky's brother, who hid Jews in Studite monasteries during World War II.

Bishop Michael Hrynchyshyn of France commented that recognizing Metropolitan Sheptytsky for his role in saving Jews during the Holocaust might help further the cause of the metropolitan's beatification.

Bishop Hrynchyshyn has been working on the cause of the metropolitan's beatification since 1958.

He noted that hundreds of pieces of evidence exist today, proving that the metropolitan saved the lives of many Jews, hiding them in monasteries during World War II. Dozens of witnesses, who have published their memoirs, are still alive.

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