The Fortieth Eucharistic Congress held in Melbourne, Australia, during February 1973 was truly an international event. The Ukrainian participation in the Congress was indeed a formidable one, and served to focus, once again, the attention of the Christian world on the plight of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. The Ukrainian Catholics in Australia prepared for the event several months before it actually took place. A beautiful booklet entitled UKRAINE—A CHRISTIAN NATION was published with the purpose to acquaint the visiting pilgrims from all over the world with our Church and its rite. His Excelency Bishop Ivan Prashko, the Ukrainian Catholic clergy, and the Ukrainian faithful in Australia, did everything to make the Ukrainian contribution to the Congress meaningful and relevant. In addition to the aforementioned booklet, the Ukrainian Eucharistic Committee organized an exhibition of Ukrainian Icons and an exhibition documenting the persecution of the Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox Churches which they have suffered for more than two centuries. One of the truly grandiose events at the Congress was a Holy Liturgy concelebrated by his Beatitude Joseph Cardinal Slipyj, Major Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church and Maximos V. Hakim, Patriarch of the Melchites. During that Mass His Excellency Archbishop Maxim Hermaniuk, Metropolitan for the Ukrainians in Canada, preached a sermon which emphasized the need for justice as a prerequisite for peace.
During the various public meetings, such as concerts, banquets and the like, Major Archbishop Joseph Cardinal Slipyj frequently spoke about our Church and its current status. The recurring theme of His Beatitutde’s remarks was the need for a patriarchate for the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Again and again His Beatitude emphasized, that the Ukrainians, scattered all over the world and separated from each other by vast geographic spaces and many political and cultural barriers, can only be united by a strong Ukrainian Catholic Church. And in order to maintain its strength as well as its unity and integrity, the Ukrainian Catholic Church must be crowned with a patriarchal structure.
Australian television, radio, and newspapers gave the Ukrainians and particularly the Major Archbishop extensive coverage. In this sense, no other national or ethnic group dominated the Congress as much as the Ukrainian Catholics. The other Ukrainian Catholic bishops, namely those from Canada and Exarch from Jugoslavia, as well as the host, His Excellency Ivan Prashko from Australia, enhanced by their presence at the Congress the status of the Ukrainian Catholic Church on the international level and manifested its unity and its integrity.
The motto of the Eucharistic Congress “Love one another as I have loved you” was supplemented by the Ukrainians with the slogan For a Christian Ukraine. And it was precisely this Christian Ukraine which was visible at all times. It was represented by the Ukrainian Catholic bishops who came to Australia for this event, by the clergy, and by the faithful. But it was primarily the figure of the Ukrainian Patriarch, His Beatitude Major Archbishop Joseph Slipyj, who gave the Congress a Ukrainian imprint. He is truly a prophetic figure and his presence in Australia meant a lot not only to the Ukrainians who were gathered there, but also to the Roman Catholics. Perhaps no other event since the Synod in Rome served to emphasize the importance of our Church and its Primate for the entire Catholic Church as did the Eucharistic Congress.
For every Ukrainian participant of the Congress, both Catholic and Orthodox alike (and it should be added that there were many Ukrainian Orthodox at the event) the Eucharistic Congress will remain a real spiritual experience whose importance can as yet not be completely assessed. One can only voice one regret, namely the fact that not all Ukrainian Catholic bishops were present there. The Ukrainians in Australia were particularly disappointed with the absence of all Ukrainian Catholic bishops from the United States, whose unexplained decision not to attend the congress was incomprehensible to the Ukrainian catholic pilgrims gathered there.
On the whole, however, the Ukrainian participation in the Congress was a most constructive and informative effort on behalf of our Church. It stressed once more the necessity for the Ukrainians to participate em masse in all international events of this type and scope for it is there where we can demonstrate to the world that our Church, although persecuted in Ukraine, and downtrodden in the free world, will survive, develop, and prevail.
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During the 40th Eucharistic Congress, on Thursday, 22 February 1973,
a Laymen Council of Ukrainians was held in Melbourne, Australia.
During the proceedings of the Council following letter
to the Holy Father was approved:
His Holiness Pope Paul VI Vatican City
Your Holiness:
We, the Ukrainian Catholic faithful of Australia and pilgrims from Ukraine and other countries who have come to Melbourne to participate in the 40th Eucharistic Congress, wish to express our profound gratitude to Your Holiness for the Apostolic blessing which our beloved Pastor, His Beatitude Major Archbishop Joseph Cardinal Slipyj, conveyed to us on Your Holiness behalf. Moved by the spirit prevailing there at the Eucharistic Congress as expressed by it’s motto “Love one another as I have loved you,” we, your obedient sons and daughters, turn to Your Holiness with a fervent plea.
We belong to a particular Church whose members “have sacrificed mountains of bodies and shed rivers of blood for the Catholic faith and for their fidelity to the Holy See.” This very same Church, our Ukrainian Catholic Church, is now threatened with extinction, and the Holy See does nothing to save it.
We, the Ukrainian Catholics, are dispersed all over the earth and separated from each other by vast distances and foreign cultural barriers, and yet we do not cease in our efforts to maintain the spiritual unity and integrity of our Church.
Your Holiness, You Yourself have bid us to keep our beautiful rite, our language, our culture, when you received a delegation of Ukrainians on February 25, 1965. But we are pitted against foes beyond our power. In our native land, atheistic Communism has driven our Church into catacombs and people of our flesh and blood wait in vain for help from the Church for which they suffer. In the free world, our attempts to ensure the survival of our Church are constantly impeded. Will the physical liquidation suffered by our brothers in Ukraine be followed by a spiritual extinction in the diaspora? We are concerned not only with ourselves but with the generations of Ukrainian Catholics who will follow us. How can we pass on our rich ecclesiastical heritage to them if we are prevented from preserving it for ourselves? What judgement will they pass on us and on the Holy See if we suffer them to be deprived of those things which are theirs by virtue of both human and divine laws? The silence of the representatives of the Vatican at the critical moment when the Muscovite Patriarch Pimen rejoiced at what he termed the liquidation of the Union of Brest is indeed incomprehensible. Did they agree with Pimen’s claim or were they afraid to protest because of “diplomatic tact?” In either case their failure to do so was tragic.
Your Holiness, we the Ukrainian Catholic faithful feel that we have been betrayed by the Vatican. Our historic rights, guaranteed by the Union of Brest and reaffirmed by individual Pontiffs and the Second Vatican Council, are constantly trampled and our pleas and protests are met with a callous silence. Some of our bishops are continuously intimidated by the letters sent by the Secretary of State, and many of our priests and faithful are suffering a crisis of conscience as a result of the actions precipitated by the Vatican.
We, the Ukrainian Catholic faithful, call on Your Holiness, the Vicar of Christ, with the plea to let justice prevail. We ask Your Holiness to restore the ancient rights and privileges to our Church and to crown her with a patriarchate. A particular Church under the leadership of Patriarch Joseph Slipyj, Confessor of the Faith, is our goal. We will pursue it as long as we live.
Let history record that the Roman Pontiff, Paul VI, was the saviour of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.
With the expression of sincere filial devotion we remain
your
Ukrainian Catholic Faithful.
