11/12/97

Atanas Kobryn column:

Eastern Siberia priest to speak

In his book "Moscow and the Vatican" published in 1986, Rev. Dr. Alexis Ulysses Floridi, S.J., writes: "The shadow of more than four million Ukrainian Catholics deprived of their religious freedom by the Soviet regime and forced into Russian Orthodoxy has hung over the politico-ecumenical dialogue between Rome and Moscow since its very beginning."

This, as well as subsequent statements in the book, was written in the period when the western news media wrote about the clandestine Ukrainian Catholic Church in the Soviet dominated Ukraine, and especially about the head of said Church, Metropolitan Josyf Slipyj, imprisoned for 18 years in prisons and Siberian labor camps. He was released in February 1963, thanks to the international pressure and the intervention of Pope John XXIII and President John Kennedy.

Upon his arrival in Rome (against his will, he wanted to live and serve his flock in Ukraine!), he was named Cardinal of the Roman Church and given other honorary titles ("without conferring on him any real jurisdiction" writes Fr. Floridi), Cardinal Slipyj engaged in a lengthy "tug of war" with the Roman Curia and other Vatican bureaucrats who wanted to keep him silent and "out of sight."

Fr. Floridi further writes: "Fundamentally, the reasons of this opposition (to Card. Slipyj's activities and plans for the revival of his Church, ATK) are canonical, ecumenical and political, although they can be easily reduced to one: the troublesome existence of a Ukrainian nation."

The situation in Ukraine is now quite different. Ukraine is free, and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine is also free.

Has the relationship between Rome and Moscow changed with respect to Ukraine? Very little, if at all, especially in the area of Moscow-Rome relations. Rev. Floridi's statement quoted at the beginning of this column is as valid today as it was then. Both Rome and Moscow would like to see the Ukrainian Catholic Church disappear, albeit for different reasons.

Rome would like the Ukrainian Greek Catholics to become Latinized, while Moscow would like to "reunite" them into the Russian Orthodox Church. Both parties deal with each other and discuss matters of mutual concerns, including the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, but without the representatives of said church.

The Vatican is reneging on promises made and treaties signed years ago regarding the status of the church in Ukraine, and as far as the pastoral care of Ukrainian Catholics outside of Ukraine, the situation is even worse, especially in Russia.

Latin rite archbishops and bishops have been appointed for Ukraine and Russia, as well as for other nations. In Russia there are estimated six or more million Ukrainians, many of them Catholic, but their pastoral care has been entrusted to the Latin (Roman Catholic) clergy and bishops because Rome does not want to antagonize Moscow by raising the Ukrainian question.

Traditionally, Roman Catholicism came to Ukraine from Poland and it served the Polish colonial policies, therefore most Ukrainians, both Catholic and Orthodox, view it with suspicion if not with resentment. To be honest about it, there were some individual Polish and other Roman Catholic clergy who were sympathetic to the plight of Ukrainians. Some became true friends of Ukrainians. But they were few and far between.

One of the priests who claims to be interested in ministering to Ukrainians is Fr. Myron Effing from Vladivostok, Eastern Siberia, Russia. There are over one million Ukrainians in Vladivostok and vicinity, many of whom did not go there of their own accord. Fr. Myron will speak about his work and about the people in Vladivostok at 5:30 p.m. Friday in the Parish Hall of St. Mary's Ukrainian Catholic Church, Biscayne Drive and Price Boulevard.

Fr. Myron will speak in English. Everyone is welcome. No admission will be charged, but dinners can be purchased starting at 4:30 p.m.

Atanas T. Kobryn is an immigrant from Ukraine who writes about his former country and the Ukrainian community for the North Port Sun Herald.