Sunday, December 18, 1977
VENICEE ITALY (NC) — Many thousands of Eastern-rite Catholics behind the Iron Curtain who are secretly keeping alive the faith «feel abandoned’ by the Vatican, according to a Ukrainian-American leader.
Vasyl Marcus of Chicago said that the Vatican has provided no encouragement to efforts by Rumanian and Ukrainian Catholics to force official recognition of their rites.
The Ukrainian and Rumanian churches united with Rome were suppressed after World War II by the Communists and forcibly incorporated into the Russian Orthodox and Rumanian Orthodox Churches.
Marcus told a conference on religious dissent in Eastern Europe, sonsored by the Venice Biennale Cultural Festival, that the «Vatican silence» regarding popular moves to reestablish the rites «creates a difficult situation for uniates (Catholics belonging to Eastern rites united to Rome) at home and abroad.
«The uniate followers in the Ukraine and in Rumania feel that they are abandoned,» he said.
Before the suppressionof the rites, the Catholic Ukrainian rite had more than 3.5 million followers in the Ukraine. The Catholic Rumanian rite had 1.5 million members in Rumania. Through secret ordinations and secret religious services, some Catholics have kept the rites alive.
Marcus said that petition drives and other popular initiatives have been launched in the Ukraine and Rumania to force the government to accept the rites. He said that in 1974, about 12,000 Ukrainians signed a petition for government restoration of the rites.
But, according to Marcus, «none of the known cases aiming at restoration of the uniate churches was covered by Vatican media, although sufficient information was supplied to them.»
The Vatican has been trying for years through quiet diplomacy to gain some recognition from the USSR and Rumania for the rites, but without success.
In October at the Belgrade conference to reassess compliance with the Helsinki accords, Vatican representative Msgr. Achille Silverstrini cited suppression of the rites as a violation of the Helsinki pact.
The USSR, of which the Ukraine is a republic, is unlikely to reestablish the Ukrainian Catholic rite or the smaller Ukrainian Orthodox Church (also suppressed) because of the Soviets fear tht it would lead to an outpouring of Ukrainian nationalism.
As for Rumania, the powerful Rumanian Orthodox Church remains adamantly opposed to reestablishment of the Catholic rite, despite edlection this year of a more progressive Orthodox patriarch.
According to Marcus, «the Kremlin is using its contacts with the Holy See to discourage (popular) initiatives’ to restore the rites.
He said that the Eastern riters’ feeling of abandonment» is strengthened by Soviet publicity of the Vatican’s goodwill features to them (the Soviets) and to the Russian Orthodox Church.»
Vatican and Russian Orthodox officials exchange visits annually.
Marcus said that open Vatican support for popular initiatives «would enhance the cause or the uniates and their spiritual resistance.»
