CATHOLIC HERALD, Friday, December 23, 1977
Нижче містимо два документи, що стосуються подій Помісної УКЦеркви на терені Великої Британії, які були поміщені в Кетолік Гералд, за 23 грудня 1977. Перший лист, це о. мітрата І. Мовата. Про нього особисто є більше написано в статті М. Бойка: «Два російські священики і Українська Католицька Церква».
Автор другої статті є українець, ім’я якого відоме для редакції «Кетолік Гералд». За зміст цієї статті можна тільки соромитись. Незалежно від цього містимо, щоби наші читачі могли самі безпосередньо прочитати і дати свою власну оцінку. Нажаль, це вже не вперше прихильники єп. А. Горняка «пописуються» на сторінках чужинецької преси знеславлюючи Помісну УКЦеркву на чолі з Патріярхом Йосифом. Хіба приходиться сказати — не треба ворогів, щоби нас звоювали, ми самі собі це зробимо.
Редакція
Letter from mitred-archprist John Mowatt
Ukrainian Catholic
Name and address supplied.
Resently I was given a copy of the November 11 issue of the Catholic Herald and I was more grieved than shocked to see an article, appearing on the first page, entitled — «Rebel Ukrainian priest sets up a new parish in Halifax.»
His Beatitude Josyf I Slipyj is a Catholic prelat, and consequently any priest he might send to administer to the Ukrainian faithful anywhere is, and must be, a Catholic priest. Any parish which such a priest sets up cannot be «outside the jurisdiction of the Holy See» as so erroneously reported in your paper.
The turmoil which has «split» the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Britain for many years is, as those who have a genuine concern for the affairs of this Church are well aware, artificially manufactured by those who wish to keep this Particular Church (as well as other Catholic Eastern Churches) in a state of servitude with a mere Eastern-dress facade for Roman Rite Catholicism while they make glamorous ecumenical gestures and generous promises to various Eastern Orthodox Churches and to the Anglicans.
This is not only unjust but also deceitful on the part of those «high Church officials and spokesman» who make such proposals.
It was Pope Paul himself who, on December 23, 1963, elevated Metropolitan Slipyj to the high ecclesiastical rank of «Major Archbishop». I am sure that most Catholics of the Latin Church are unaware what this means, but this rank can never be a mere «title of honour». .
The rank and title is held by a number of Orthodox prelates and every last one of them rules and governs their respective Churches without any outside interference from any of the various Orthodox Patriarchs.
Is the Catholic Church’s one and only Major Archbishop any different or inferior to his Orthodox brothers? Even Vatican Council II, in its Decree on the Catholic Eastern Churches (No 10) states that a Major Archbishop «rules and governs his Particular Church or Rite, can have a Permanent Synod, appoint bishops, set up dioceses, etc. and what has been said about Patriarchs is equally true concerning Major Archbishops.»
In view of these privileges, His Beatitude Josyf I Slipyj, as a Major Archbishop, has every right to send a priest to Britain and to set up parishes there or anywhere else in the world, to serve the needs of Ukrainian Catholics if they should so request. In doing this he may bypass the local bishop if need be.
The local Ukrainian hierarch in Britain is only an Exarch, and as such is no more than an auxiliary bishop. As a Major Archbishop, Josyf Slipyj is Primate of his Particular Church and it is hight time that the Latin hierarchy and some of the Ukrainian Catholic bishops begin to recognise this fact.
It is time, too, that those highly vocal «Vatican officials and spokesmen» recognise what is already existing within the Catholic Church instead of paying pietistic lip-service to those outside its vissble unity.
We are beyond the solemnly signed declarations of Vatican Council II, and are supposed to be in an era where these declarations are being put into practice. Until this is done, all ecumenical dialogue with those not in communion with Rome, from whatever quarter it comes, is vain and fruitless.
The Ukrainian Church, as well as all the other various Eastern Rite Catholic Churches, did not renounce their identity when they reunited with the Roman See. All these Catholic Eastern Churches stem from those Orthodox Churches which are presently in ecumenical dialogue with Rome today.
Is it ever thinkable that all these Orthodox Churches will be asked to renounce all their traditions and jurisdictions? Certainly not. Then why not recognise it now, purely and simply, with those Eastern Churches already in communion with Rome?
Whether His Beatitude Josyf Slipyj goes by the title «Patriarch» which the Vatican has thus refused to recognise, or by the title «Major Archbishop», which the Vatican solemnly conferred upon him, makes little difference… in either case he holds a primacy and, with it, well-defined rights and privileges accorded him by Canon Law.
The present confusion results from the fact that those who try to stifle the legitimate rights of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and other Catholic Eastern Rite Churches, are always the nameless and faceless, protected by the encompassing prestigious title of «The Holy See».
Often they confuse and contradict the universal rights and the patriarchal character of this same See, expecially when those rights and privileges concern Particular Eastern Churches already in communion with Rome.
While Latin Rite Catholics are told that they must obey and put into practice all the tenets of Vatican II Council, Eastern Rite Catholics are hampered and maligned when they attempt to «update» their Churches in the spirit of this same Council.
Even to the most poorly-informed Catholics, of whatever Rite, this must seem indeed very strange. If it is political matters and concerns which must be taken into consideration and which aggravate the situation, then we ask, does the Church render homage to God or to Caesar?
With the seemingly great concern shown today, especialy by our Catholic bishops and leaders, for human rights, we rightly wonder, and just ask, where is the real concern for the spiritual salvation of souls within the Church itself?
Merely glancing over the article by Frances Gumley would give even the most casual reader the impression that His Beatitude Josyf Slipyj, a living Confessor of the Faith from the dungeons of the Soviet Union, a Cardinal ot the Catholic Church living in the Vatican itself, is the renegade and that the local hierarch, Exarch Augustine Hornyak, is the longsuffering and patient martyr.
If Exarch Hornyak was a true shepherd to his flock he would heed their cries and heal their wounds. He can do this only by supporting the will of the Ukrainian People of God in Britain and their will is to be attached to the Primate and Patriarch of their long-suffering and persecuted Particular Church.
Mitred-Archpriest John J. Mowatt
Director, Centro Bazantino.
Fatima, Portugal.
