Daily Telegraph
January 12, 1976
By Guy Rais
Police were called to the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in Duke Street, Mayfair, yesterday morning when dissident members of the congregations of 200 began singing carols to prevent Bishop Augustine Hornyak, leader of the British community, from preaching his sermon.
A dispute between some of the Ukrainians living in Britain and the Bishop followed the refusal of the Pоре officially appoint Cardinal Josef Slipyi, 82, exiled head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, as its patriarch.
Mattel’s came to a head at the Christmas service, conducted six days ago according to the Gregorian calendar, when Bishop Hornyak was forced to abandon his sermon because of carol singing.
The Bishop, who had warned the polite of possible disruption, had scarcely begun to preach yesterday when the «carolers» drowned his voice. He tried to begin six times without success.
«I told one of my priests to dial 999» he said. «Only half a dozen troublemakers «ere lending the chanting, but others followed and I thought things had gone too far.
Report to Rome
«The police were very tactful and polite. They look one man outside and spoke lo him. The remaining dissenters sang part of a song eulogizing» the new patriarch, as they called Cardinal Slipyj, and then tell. I started my sermon in 40 minutes late.»
He would be sending a report to Rome. «I had to take action because, the Pоре cannot be disobeyed. The law is the law. Our people are confused and we arc a split community.»
The Vatican has ruled that Ukrainians living abroad are under the direct jurisdiction of the Vatican and not under Cardinal Slipyj, who has repeatedly asked the Vatican to name him as Patriarch.
