On Saturday, November 25, 1972, Ukrainian Catholics held a protest march before the residence of the Vatican’s Apostolic Delegate Archbishop Luigi Raimondi. About seven hundred people, constituting a cross-representation of Ukrainian Catholic parishes from Chicago to New York, led by a number of priests and nuns demonstrated displeasure with the letter Jean Cardinal Villot, the Vatican Secretary of State, transmitted to the Ukrainian bishops through the Apostolic Delegate. This letter states that the draft of the «Archiepiscopal Constitution» which the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church Major-Archbishop Joseph Cardinal Slipyj sent to his bishops for comment for the purpose оf еventual ratification is unacceptable to the Vatican because it is not «canonically workable». It casts aspersions on the highest Ukrainian church prelate for sending the draft to the bishops «without the knowledge of the Holy See» and without subsequently informing it of his action. It rejects the idea of autonomy for the Ukrainian Catholic Church and refuses the right to Ukrainian bishops to meet in «Synod» and suggest that they meet in «Conference» instead.
This letter is a subsequent effort on the part of the Vatican to prevent the Ukrainian Catholic hierarchs from constituting a synodal form of administration for the Ukrainian Catholic Church which would make it administratively autonomous from the Roman curia – a form of administration traditional to Eastern Catholic Churches. Commenting on this latest move a spokesman for the Society for a Patriarchal System in the Ukrainian Catholic Church stated: «In their anxiety to nurse Vatican-Moscow dialogue by aligning Vatican Church policy with that of the Soviet Union (where the Ukrainian Church has been liquidated), Vatican curial officials are desperately seeking for a canonical loophole to rebuff the efforts of the Ukrainian hierarchs to establish an autonomous administration for their Church. The Ukrainian Catholic Church has been made the sacrificial lamb in Vatican’s Ostpolitic.»
The Ukrainian Catholic Church is the largest of all the Eastern Churches in union with Rome. It constitutes 75 per cent of all Eastern Catholics, yet, unlike the Coptic, Maronite, Chaldean, and Melkite Churches, it does not have a patriarch as is the custom in all Eastern Churches nor has Vatican been willing to recognize for it administrative autonomy in the form of synodal administration. This issue has been the one constant point of friction between the Vatican and the Ukrainian bishops headed by Major-Archbishop Joseph Cardinal Slipyj. The primate of the Ukrainian Catholic Church has never questioned the Vatican on dogmatic matters.
On the Fifth Synod of the bishops of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, which met over the objections of Cardinal Villot, a five-member Permanent Synod was established. Last June it held its first meeting. After this meeting Major-Archbishop Joseph Cardinal Slipyj mailed to the Ukrainian bishops a draft constitution for the autonomous administration of the Ukrainian Church for their consideration. It was this which caused the Vatican Secretary of State to forward this latest letter to the Ukrainian bishops.
To the Ukrainians not only is the contents of this letter objectionable but so is its method of transmission. They maintain that since their bishops have set up a Permanent Synod the channel of communication between their bishops and the Holy See is their Major-Archbishop and not the various Apostolic Delegates. This is the sentiment reflected in the placard carried by some of the marchers reading «No Communication Through the Apostolic Delegate.»
The struggle of the Ukrainian Catholics for autonomous administration has found support among non-Ukrainian church scholars. Father George A. Maloney, S.J., of the Pope John XXIII Center at Fordham University describes the Vatican procedure in reference to the Ukrainian Catholic Church as a policy of «Divide and Rule» and calls it a «lasting scandal to Orthodox, Anglican, and Protestant Brethren.»
Among the priests in the protest march was Fr. Alexis U. Floridi, S.J., of Boston, Mass. A Roman by birth, he was ordained in the Eastern rite. A scholar of Soviet politics and a former staff member of La Civilta Cattolicca he is a severe critic of contemporary Vatican-Moscow Speaking of Cardinal Villot’s recent letter to the Ukrainian bishops. Floridi said:
It is incredible that in these post-council days when the Church moved by Christian love is so quick in removing juridical obstacle’s in matters much more serious as for instance the administration the sacraments of marriage, penance, and the Eucharist, it finds it so difficult to resolve a territorial question which requires only a bit of good will and a little understanding for a situation created by the enemies of God.
These same sentiments were reflected in the placards carried by the marchers some of which read: «Ecumenism Requires Respect of Autonomy», «Orthodox and Anglicans, Beware of Vatican Promises», «Credibility Gaps Undermine Vatican Reliability», «Vatican Sacrificial Policy Is a Lasting Scandal», and «Don’t Bully Our Bishops». By-passers on foot and in cars were given leaflets captioned, «We Protest Vatican Strangulation Of The Ukrainian Catholic Church».
