Press Release
The Society for the Patriarchate in the Ukrainian Catholic Church protests the appointments of three Ukrainian Catholic priests to the office of bishop by the Roman Curia. These three candidates are: Pr. Jerome Chimij, Rector of the Pontifical St. Josephat’s College in Rome: Msgr. Miroslav Marusyn, the Apostolic Visitor for the Ukrainian in Western Europe, and Pr. Martin Groshchuk, Pastor of the Ukrainian parish in Calgary, B.C., Canada.
These appointments were made without the knowledge or consent of His Beatitude Patriarch Joseph I Slipyj and His Synod of Bishops.
The said appointments constitute a flagrant violation of the rights of the Particular (Particularis) Ukrainian Catholic Church as guaranteed by the Union of Brest (1596), reaffirmed by the Decree on Eastern Churches of Vatican II, and set forth in the Constitution of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, i.e., “Patriarchal Structure of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.”
This document was signed by all of the Ukrainian Catholic bishops during the Sixth Archiepiscopal Synod of the Ukrainian Catholic Church held in Rome in November, 1973. Pope Paul VI was notified of this event and a copy of the documents was submitted for his information. The said Constitution clearly specifies that all candidates for the office of bishop are to be nominated and appointed by the Patriarch/Major Archbishop and his Synod.
Therefore, the appointments of the three priests are illegal; they are unwarranted intrusions by the Roman Curia into the internal affairs of a Particular Church and another in the series of attempts to latinize the Ukrainian Catholic Church and to destroy her identity.
The Ukrainian Catholic faithful, who, in the words of their Patriarch Joseph I, “have sacrificed mountains of bodies and shed rivers of blood for their faith and for their fidelity to the Holy See,” will take appropriate measures to protest these nominations and to safeguard the integrity of their Church.
Rome, July 2, 1974
Dr. Petro Zeleny, President,
World Association for the Ukrainian Catholic Patriarchate
Dr. Leo Rudnytzky, Secretary,
Society for the Patriarchate in the Ukrainian Catholic Church
