March 24, 2017

A wondrous weekend!

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Lesia and I recently experienced a wondrous weekend beginning with a gala banquet celebrating the 80th anniversary of St. Nicholas Cathedral School in Chicago and concluding with a viewing of “Bitter Harvest” the next afternoon.

Some 450 people, mostly graduates, attended the joy-filled banquet. We had the pleasure of being seated with Sisters of St. Basil: Sisters Irene, Girard, Jo Ann, Dorothy Ann and Maria. When St. Nicholas School was first established in 1936, nuns comprised the only staff. According to the jubilee book that we all received, some 73 nuns, now mostly deceased, had taught at St. Nicholas at one time or another. Currently, most of the teachers are laypeople.

Catholic religious orders throughout America today are hurting, thanks in part to the legacy of Vatican II. According to a recent Pew Research Center study, the number of religious in the United States fell from 179,954 in 1965 to 49,883 in 2014. Committing to a lifetime of poverty, chastity and obedience in a religious community has never been easy in an increasingly secular society. Today it is harder than ever.

There were three speakers at the celebration: Father Myron Panchuk, who berated the lack of support for St. Nicholas by Fourth Wave immigrants who prefer to send their children to a local public school; Natalie Martinez of NBC, who joyfully reminisced about her Catholic school years; and Dr. Boris D. Lushniak, a who also fondly recalled his time at St. Nicholas. A retired rear admiral, Dr. Lushniak spent a year as acting U.S. surgeon general; he now serves as dean of the University of Maryland College Park School of Public Health. In his remarks Dr. Lushniak, a lifetime member of Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization, shared his belief that during the Trump years, parents could eventually receive tax credits for sending their children to private schools. Nice thought.

Entertainment was provided by the premier Hromovytsia Ukrainian Dance Ensemble of Chicago and the choir of Chicago’s Ukrainian American Youth Association. Performers did not disappoint, and were greeted with prolonged applause at the conclusion.

An extraordinary debt of gratitude is owed to the organizers of the gala, especially to Julie Kashuba, chairperson. (One more thing. I’ve never been a fan of banquet chicken, but the serving that night was superb. Hats off to the chefs at Hyatt Regency O’Hare.)

The following day we attended a showing of “Bitter Harvest.” Dr. Donna Dobrowolsky had taken the initiative to purchase a bloc of tickets for our parish in advance so Lesia and I had tickets in hand as we entered the theater. Having read some of the early, disparaging reviews of the film (“gooey Canadian-produced soap opera,” “cloying attempt to stir nationalistic and diasporic pride,” “A clunky lesson in Ukrainian history,” etc.), I was apprehensive. The film was a pleasant surprise. All of the main points about the Holodomor were presented brilliantly: the murder of a priest and the desecration of his church by a Russian commissar; a woman running next to a moving train holding her baby up to the window begging passengers to take it; the suicide of a disillusioned early believer in the total independence of Soviet Ukraine; fierce Ukrainian resistance by a group of patriots who died bravely; the transformation of all artistic endeavors to the service of the state; determined disrespect of the Ukrainian identity by Russians in Ukraine; emaciated dead being dumped into a ravine; and, of course, the brutal confiscation of all food products by the state. “The land belongs to the state,” a Russian commissar reminds a group of starving, thunder-struck farmers.

Joseph Stalin, realistically played by Gary Oliver, demanding that Ukrainian freedom be totally crushed and that Ukrainian villagers be forbidden to leave for the cities in search of food, was an especially gruesome reminder of the architect of this horrendous, little-known, still denied crime against humanity. A tragic love story between Yuri (Max Irons) and Natalka (Samantha Barks) is woven into the death-producing scenes. Directed by George Mendeluk and financed by Ian Ihnatowycz, a Ukrainian Canadian who invested $20 million in the film’s production, the film proved once again that our diaspora is alive and well.

Some older Ukrainians left the theater in tears, telling me later that they found the film difficult to watch because of the memories that came flooding back.

Reviews remain mixed. “Movie Reviews for Christians” described “Bitter Harvest” as a “must-see, dramatic, powerful story about the horrible devastation of Ukraine by Soviet communist atheists known as Holodomor… well-plotted with terrific acting.” A more recent review, however, resurrects the old Soviet cock-and-bull story that the entire endeavor is a Ukrainian fascist lie about an event that never happened.

It was good to see Andrew Gregorovich and Valentina Kuryliw, old friends, mentioned in the credits at the conclusion of the film.

Ukrainian Canadians have really out-done themselves in helping to bring “Bitter Harvest” to fruition. They also have produced such teaching guides as “Holodomor in Ukraine, 1932-1933: Teaching Materials for Teachers and Students,” by Valentina Kuryliw (2017), “Teacher Package on the Holodomor: Ukrainian Famine Education,” prepared by under the auspices of the League of Ukrainian Canadians (2006), and numerous English-language publications, as well as the Holodomor Mobile Classroom.

Ukrainian Americans have done their part as well, beginning with the U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine that published its findings in 1988, a number of university-led Holodomor workshops (Northern Illinois University, University of Chicago); the institution of mandatory Holodomor education programs in Illinois public schools; curriculum guides (Myron Kuropas, Motria Melnyk, Vera Bej, et al) and English-language publications.

Our wondrous weekend proved to be a tribute to Ukrainian diasporans in North America who have labored so assiduously in the vineyards of Catholic education and Holodomor awareness. In the words of the old Negro spiritual, “We will overcome some day!”

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