His Excelleny Archbishop Jean Jadot
Apostolic Delegate
3339 Massachusetts Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20008
Re: No. 1530/76
Your Excellency:
We ask your Excellency to convey the following message to His Holiness Pope Paul VI:
The Ukrainian Catholic faithful in the United States received the news of the Papal intedict of June 17, 1976, concerning His Beatitude Patriarch Slipyj’s participation in the Forty First Eucharistic Congress with disbelief and rage. They consider this latest Vatican machination a most despicable act of wanton ecclesiastical totalitarianism. The Papal interdict is an insult to the Ukrainian people and a tragic testimony to the power of the Kremlin over the Apostolic See.
Your Excellency, the Society for the Patriarchate has always acted as a moderating factor in trying to maintain order among the people of God during the various manifestations and demonstrations and to prevent any display of extremism. In view of the recent developments, we feel that we will not be able to do so in the future. The incident of egg-throwing at the Apostolic Delegation Building in Washington during the protest gathering of June 26, 1976, is but a mild indication of the feelings of the people. After all, the Ukrainians are currently suffering more humiliatons (the interdict is compounded by the latest letter of Paul Cardinal Philippe to our bishops, prohibiting them from attending Archiepiscopal Synods and from commemorating His Beatitude as Patriarch), than could be expressed by this one act of frustration.
We ask your Excellency to intercede personally on our behalf and on behalf of the Ukrainian Catholics in presenting this case to the Holy Father. We ask Your Excellency to urge him to rescind this interdict, so that the Ukrainian Pastor may attend the Eucharistic Congress, visit his flock and bring peace to the Ukrainian Community in the United States.
We remain your Excellency’s servants in Christ, Our Lord.
Leonid Ftudnytzky, Ph.D. Secretary
Myroslaw Nawrockyj, M.D. President
cc: His Beatitude Patriarch Joseph Cardinal Slipyj
