By Religious News Service (9-8-76)
ROME (RNS) A spokesman for the worldwide Ukrainian Catholic Church denies assertions that Cardinal Joseph Slipyi is attempting to create «an independent, national Church» and that he is leading his people into «schism.»
Reaffirming the fidelity of Cardinal Slipyi, major archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and all Ukrainian Catholics to Pope Paul as «supreme pontiff» of the universal Church, the spokesman said the «insinuation» that the cardinal’s recent pastoral letter, The Unity of Ukrainian Christians, is nationalistic in character, «is not only false and malicious but outright calumny.»
Reaffirming the fidelity of Cardinal Slipyi, major archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and all Ukrainian Catholics to Pope Paul as «supreme pontiff» off the universal Church, the spokesman said the «insinuation» that the cardinal’s recent pastoral letter, The Unity of Ukrainian Christians, is nationalistic in character, «is not only false and malicious but outright calumny.»
Father John Choma, secretary to the cardinal and the Rome-based chancery of the Ukrainian Church, stated that the pastoral letter on unity «underscores most firmly our fidelity to the Holy Father… We are and we remain a Ukrainian, Catholic, particular church in union with the Universal Church, the Pope of Rome.»
In a «declaration» issued by the chancery, Father Choma said the «world press» has published «articles without foundation, false commentaries, and distorted evaluations of our church-life», focusing mainly on the Ukrainian Church’s continuing pressure on the Vatican and Pope Paul to award it patriarchal status.
(Despite the fact that the Ukrainian Catholic Church is the largest of the Eastern rites in the Catholic Church, Pope Paul has thus far refused to acknowledge Cardinal Slipyi as patriarch, claiming that his «non-territorial status» outside the Ukraine does not allow him patriarchal rank.)
Father Choma, claiming that «Ukrainian endeavors for a patriarchate are just,» said the «main obstacle» is the Moscow patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church «which does not desire a rupture in its territorial dominion.» And he indicated that the Vatican has thus far acquiesced to the wishes of the Soviet church.
Vatican II granted the rights of a patriarch to Cardinal Slipyi, who has assumed the title, Joseph I, said Father Choma. «Our people have reclaimed these rights in order to safeguard their moral entity. We use the term (patriarch) rightfully while awaiting its official confirmation by the Apostolic See.»
He said that all efforts by Cardinal Slipyi to gain acknowledgement of the Ukrainian patriarchate «have absolutely nothing in common with the fantastic conjectures that he wishes to create some sort of independent, national Church.»
«A very harmful and false assertion has been made; namely, that the realization of a patriarchate will lead us into schism,» he added. «This is a gross insult and injustice to His Beatitude (Cardinal Slipyi) and to all those who for the past three centuries have worked for the attainment of a patriarchate.»
An assertion that Cardinal Slipyi contemplated schism «which has never entered his mind» is to «negate and destroy the work of his whole life, his incredible sufferings and his long, cruel punishment, precisely for his loyalty to the See of Peter,» said Father Choma. (Cardinal Slipyi was confined to a Soviet prison camp for 19 years.)
«There has never been any question concerning Christ’s teaching on the primacy of Peter in our Ukrainian Church,» the priest stressed.
«May this declaration, based on our firm Catholic faith and confirmed by the testimony of so many martyrs of our Church, be our solemn affirmation before the whole world and its history of our aims and intentions in this historic and crucial moment,» he said.
Over the past several years, Ukrainian Catholics in England, Canada and the U.S., have been protesting the Vatican’s refusal to grant patriarchal status to theUkrainian Church and the curtailment of Cardinal Slipyi’s prerogatives to name bishops and ordain married priests.
Several confrontations between the Vatican and local Ukrainian bishops and pastors have arisen. In Toronto, three married priests ordained by the local bishop were suspended by the Vatican, and in England, several parishes have been closed by the local bishop following demonstrations by the laity.
